A Very English Rodney Bay, Saint Lucia

Rodney Bay is very English and therefore had an English Fort and many English and American boats.

Rodney Bay & Marina

Customs check-in was back to some bureaucracy, and only the Captain was allowed ashore to complete formalities. A very officious official wearing a customs uniform but claiming to be immigration didn’t believe Barb was the captain. She asked Barb how long she had been a Captain to which she replied 6 years on Eleuthera and 40 years as an airline pilot. This completely silenced her and caused the rest of the office to try very hard not to laugh out loud. The Port Captain was grinning from ear to ear in the background and the rest of the documents were stamped very quickly.

We came to Saint Lucia to celebrate the Offshore Cruising Club’s 70th Anniversary. Night one was a cocktail party sponsored by the Rodney Bay Marina and the second night was a dinner at Spinnakers a restaurant on the beach. It was a fun and interesting night as our table companions were members of the American group Salty Dawg Club, and they were raising money for a scholarship for young Antiguans to learn boat-building skills in America. They had been sailing up and down from America to the Caribbean for eight years but had not been to any French islands because they didn’t speak English!

Initially, we just anchored off the beach for the first night but the anchorage was very rolly, and the wind and seas were forecast to increase. So we decided to move into the marina for the night of the dinner. The normal floating docks were full so we ended up on the Superyacht dock. One day extended to three and we had a lovely time there. Hew did all the jobs that required flat water and we enjoyed the restaurants and ice cream bar. The marina was very well laid out and the staff were lovely.

The English couple who had organised the event are living on the island and restoring an old wooden boat they had inherited. They were living on their equally old wooden boat in the marina. Thinking they would be a good source of local information we asked about things to do and explore in St Lucia. These guys, along with others we asked, were not much use and other than commenting on bad roads and traffic jams seemed to think there was little to see.

The other reason for visiting Saint Lucia was that we were waiting for a new depth/speed transducer to arrive from the US as this had joined our ongoing instrument failures. At Saint Lucia, we could import it tax and duty-free via a local Caribbean courier, eZone. Since we had used eZone in Trinidad it seemed a good idea but it took nearly 7 days for the Duty and Tax free part to happen.

Pigeon Island and Fort Rodney

After three days and all the jobs done we couldn’t justify staying there so we shifted out to the northern end of the harbour under Pigeon Island. This was a better anchorage. After two days of unusually wet and windy weather, we visited Pigeon Island National Park. This was a lovely walk around the ruins of an English fort on the island.

Cruise Ships

The Park rents out one of the small beaches for private functions and while we were there a cruise ship had taken the beach for the day.

The cruise ship staff came in with everything; loungers, beach umbrellas, tents, tables, chairs, BBQs, and water toys. Everything had been transported off the ship with the only revenue going to the island being the fee to rent the area. The cruise ship industry leaves as little revenue as possible behind on the islands. The next morning it was back to being a local beach again.

Jambe de Bois

As we walked down the hill we came across the restaurant Jambe de Bois which was very cute. They also sold local paintings and had a book swap for cruisers. We loved the construction and the eclectic mix of furniture. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jambe-De-Bois/171841426204962

Hew was enjoying the local beer.

The restaurant has its own dock but at some stage, the park has removed the planks so you must go ashore through the park gates. The only inhabitants now are the birds.

Then quite quickly it was time to collect our transducer and return to Martinique.

Next Blog: Dominica