Marigot Bay, St Lucia

Well we did not get to Marigot Bay on Sunday by the time we had finished pottering around, we decided to leave it until Monday morning. We had only a short 8 mile hop to Marigot Bay under a gentle breeze down the west coast of St. Lucia. There were many other yachts out enjoying the good weather and almost guaranteed sailing conditions at this time of year in the Caribbean. We passed by the capital of Castries and saw a couple of cruise ships in dock and a couple of other large cargo ships anchored in the bay. A large oil terminal makes less spectacular scenery at the south of the capital but other than that the hills and greenery of the St. Lucian landscape with dotted colourful houses is unbroken. There are a few larger resorts but these were well planned and landscaped and did not stand out. The entrance to Marigot Bay is fairly narrow and arriving for the first time it is difficult to know if you are at the right place but for the prominent red roofed house on the hill at the southern side of the entrance. However two water taxis came out to see if we wanted a mooring buoy (they don’t own or operate these just charge you a fee for passing your line around it) which also indicated we had reached our destination. We declined and make our way in to see about the anchorage in the protected inlet, which legend has it an English admiral managed to hide his fleet there to hide from the pursuing French by tying coconut fronds to the rigging.


Marigot Bay

The narrow inlet is protected on both sides by steep hillsides covered in mangroves which reach right down to the waters edge interrupted only by the fabulous villas of those rich enough to have holiday property in this secluded spot. A luxury hotel has also been added in the last couple of years which is wooden built and blends into the hillside well hiding patios and an infinity pool. The bay was said to have been home to the famous Dr Doolittle and a bar bearing his name is on the entrance to the cove before the sand bar sheltering the inner lagoon which is covered in coconut palms. This area which was an anchorage has now been taken over by mooring balls operated by Marigot Bay marina which run the pontoons there and where Moorings have a charter base. We decided to take a mooring buoy and called on the VHF and one of their guys helped to show us to a mooring ball.



Marigot Bay

We soon had the tender in the water and made the two minute drive to the tender dock / ferry pier where you can pick up a ferry to the other side of the bay where there is a small resort of apartments. We went into the marina office to pay the £15 per night mooring fees and find out where the facilities where. First stop was a shower which is on the first floor of the small arcade of shops. The facilities were clean and fairly new and we were soon fit to do a little more exploring. The arcade of shops include a boutique, souvenirs and houseware but were rather pricey. We walked down the pontoons to the end of the bay past all the superyachts, one of whom were running a fire fighting course for their uniformed crew complete full BA equipment. We walked up to the hotel at the end and had a beer in the shaded bar beside the infinity pool where a few of the residents were relaxing, but like most places we have been in the Caribbean so far was pretty quiet. The Moorings charter fleet were also mostly in the marina rather than out on charter too. Although the surrounding were lovely, the price of the beer reflected this so we decided to head to the bar on the entrance to cove after our beer. We found a nice place which extended on stilts into the water and had a couple of docks where visiting yachts could tie up when coming for dinner. A large charter party of I think youngish French where having a great party dancing away on their boat and on to the dock. A couple of local divers also showed up to survey a leaking pipe which are literally laid on the bottom in the narrow 4m deep channel between one side of the bay on the other. The owners large black Labrador was also trying to help and we had another beer and watched all the coming and going in the bay. We head back to the boat before dark for dinner in the cockpit in the very sheltered bay, the sound of the crickets the only thing breaking the quiet.