Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia

The ARC prize winner’s party occurred on Saturday night and Sunday morning there was a large exodus from Rodney Bay marina. We were then finally allowed to take berth in the marina so we could get water onboard and move on South. We had to ask a couple of times on the VHF through the morning before we were allowed in and when we got to the berth Barry & Marie-Jeanne were there waiting to take our lines, which was great, we were moored only one boat up from them. Barry could hardly wait to until we were tied up to tell us that Pikorua had won their class in the ARC!! It was fantastic news after all the hassles they had had on the way over with breakages and propeller losses etc. So congratulations to all the Pikorua crew!
We were straight to work as soon as we got in, refilling the water and Kevin was fitting the Fortress anchor that Barry had given us. Unfortunately, the shape of the Fortress, being a Danforth type anchor, it just wouldn’t sit comfortably in the bow roller so would not travel well there as it would need to. So we were going to have to have a rethink on the anchor, but after it dragging again in the good muddy holding of the Inner Lagoon, we were not going to trust it any longer.
We had been hard at work since 7am giving the boat a thorough clean and polish and by 2pm we were starving and ready for some food, so we decided to go for beer battered fish & rough cut chips at the Bosun’s Locker that we had seen advertised before. We ordered that and a couple of beers and waited expectantly. The waitress brought over a basket each, we looked in and found approximately 4 chips each (potato wedges) and two or three pieces of battered fish the size of fish fingers. This cost $48ECD (£12) each, I think we decided there and then that we’d had enough of Rodney Bay and the rob-the-yachtsmen prices and decided it was time to head south.
We saw Lawrence from Papillon in the afternoon who said that Lexie was recovering well and now in a hotel. Also Barry and Marie-Jeanne dropped by after saying goodbye to Barry’s daughter Jen & son Jonathan who’d flown back that afternoon. One drink turned into another and a few cocktails were had for a great last night in Rodney Bay helping Pikorua skipper and first mate to celebrate their victory again!


Marie-Jeanne & Barry from Pikorua, Class B ARC winners