Rodney Bay Inner Lagoon, St Lucia

We were awake very early at 4.30am by the sound of chain dragging on the gravely bottom due to rain squalls coming in and the concurrent wind increase. Although there was no real danger as we were not dragging far with all that chain and had plenty of room, it does disrupt sleep rather. When things had calmed down we got our heads down for an hour about 6am before we decided to investigate moving into the marina. We were due to be going out that evening to Gros Islet street party (the “Jump Up”) with Barry & Marie-Jeanne and preferred a safer mooring and we needed some water before moving south anyway. However, when we spoke to the marina they said all berths were reserved until Sunday, although there are several empty as many of the ARCers have moved on. We decided to try anchoring in the inner lagoon just beyond the marina which although it is pretty crowded turned out to be a perfect choice. There is no swell, we are surrounded by supermarkets we need for re-provisioning and bars and large houses and it’s really sheltered from the wind.

Kevin popped by to Pikorua to see if Barry needed a hand refitting his bowsprit and found them in the middle of celebrating the arrival of their friends aboard Blue Pearl a German Bavaria 37 crewed by Bobby and Carola who’d arrived at 4.30am that morning. We’d actually seen them cross the line when we got up. They’d all been drinking since then and were all fairly merry to say the least. It seems that Barry had also had the same plan as Kevin since our trip tp the Bosun’s Locker when they both saw the English breakfast on the menu as they were heading there next. Kevin came back in the tender to fetch me and we went to join them all.

After breakfast, we left Barry and Marie-Jeanne to collect their bowsprit and have a siesta and we went back to the boat, where Kevin also decided a siesta sounded good. I left him on the trampoline in the late afternoon sun as I went off on I think my fourth ever solo trip on the tender to the supermarket.

We met Barry and Marie-Jeanne, Jonathan, Jen and friend Henry on Pikorua at 7.30pm for G&Ts before the Jump Up in Gros Islet. Kevin collected Mike from Jeannius and then Bobby and Carola arrived from Blue Pearl, though reasonably left early having had visitors all day and not yet having rested from their 4.30am arrival. After G&Ts, we had a beer in the park area where the usual Friday night party was on complete with the best band on so far and a bigger crowd than usual. We took a taxi to Gros Islet and were soon mixing with the large crowd of locals and tourist there. There was no stage this evening but some large speakers had been erected and there was great atmosphere as everyone mingled on the street. We sampled a good selection of the local food available on the stalls including skewered kidneys, barbequed chicken, Sweet Henries (doughnut-type ball), patties of beef, conch and other fillings we were not sure of exactly. We had rum punches, spiced rums and of course local Piton beers from the various stalls and bars along the street as was only fair to distribute our custom before heading back to the marina to catch another local band on the stage.