so, after the exhaustive passage to St. Lucia, we are at ease anchored in rodney bay. customs was a breeze, and the officials were surprisingly friendly. got some wicked stamps and wandered the recently developed marina equipped with several nice restaurants, some gift shops, an organic fruit and veggie stand and loads of dock slips. some of which were occupied by a couple 70-80 ft megayachts and gorgeous sailboats. after a substantial dinghy ride back to Capella, the sail covers were strapped on and the sun shade situated over the cockpit.
somehow, someway, 4 fishies, maybe 8-10 inches long found their way into the bottom of the dinghy. how the got there i have no idea, but they were flippin and floppin around looking very confused about their new environment. i was stoked. í've never properly filayed (filetted?) a fish before and mats admitted he was no expert on the matter, so i scopped up the buggers, filayed (fillayed?) (filetted?) them as best i could with his partially rusted filet knife and fried em up that night. so it was, the first caribbean fresh fish dinner.
(from mats' little digi cam)
mats was made his first 'merican pb&j sammich. i had to assure him that the 'tropical fruit spread' and the thickly sliced wheat bread didn't exactly meet 'merican standards. weary at first about the peanut butter, once he tried the combo he was all about it i think. there's some weird stigma about pb in europe. it's hard to find and the average european finds it gross, though many have never tried it. one of them has been succesfully converted. now, he can be found reaching for it nearly every morning.
on the northern part of rodney bay lays fort rodney. built in the late 1700's by the british, the remains can stiill be seen and walked through. old canons and decaying brick structures are the main attraction and atop the hill provides an amazing view of the entire bay.
(mats' little digi cam)
getting an actual good night sleep is becoming more frequent. i'm adapting adapting to this heat and constant subtle rolling of the boat. gone are the sweaty, drenched nights where i only find solace by laying on the cool steel of the cockpit.
we made our way into Castries, the capitol of st. lucia, by 'bus' when a cab quoted us like 25 bucks for the 5 mile cruise. we opted for the less than a dollar 'bus' ride. the 'bus' is an astro-van type thing with no authoritative or visual markings. nothing to help newbs and tourists like us in distinguishing these vehicles between pubic transit or some rando island broha looking to pick up confused tourists. we took our chances. slid open the side door, just like when mom would pick us up from soccer practice, squished all the way in the back and we were rollin 15 deep with mats and i as the only white guys.
st. lucia is a volcanic island which makes flat land and flat roads pretty rare. twisting, twisting, turning and honking, hills and turning. the sides of the roads are saturated with dense green vegetation. finally, we pull into this tiny sea town of Castires.
with no plan nor map, we were left to wander and soak in the ridiculously narrow streets and overly vibrant technicolor painted buildings. there was a tiny store for everything. what would take one stop at target back home would take you a trip to a handfull of stores in Castires. after a good hour and a half of wandering, the sea village had been conquered. a local brew, piton, was enjoyed on the water next to a massive cruise ship in the harbor. after another stimulating 'bus' ride we were back to safety in rodney bay.
pork chops were made for dinner and i actually peeled potatoes on a sailboat. that quintessential task that all crewman back in the day did. peeling potatoes. what better way to finish off the meal than with the last homebrew? the Bourbon Barrel Stout. i neglected to put into account that all the luggage tossing, altitude changes, heeling, wave crashing and rolling tide would have a substantial effect on this carbonated bottle of beer. after a delightful meal and anticipation, it exploded everywhere in the cockpit. mabybe half the bottle was salvaged. but what was salvaged was damn good.
i was wandering the marina, scoping out the luxury yachts and gorgeous boats, and got to talking with this local broha named trevor. we hit it off and he told me about the island, whats good, whats bad, whats up with this crazy french-english-caribbean infused language. super nice guy. "anything you need mon," he'd say. he offered to take me to the southern part of the island where an active volcano supplies an area with a sulphur spring and waterfall. i took him up on the offer after he said we'd split gas and cruise. word.
we met the next morning and he introduced us to his mom, the owner of this tiny restaurant by the water and his little girl."natch-ral vibes" everything was. the sea, the cruise, the food we ate, the local green he smoked, the bob marley he rolled all of it had good "natch-ral vibes." st lucia and their vibes.
with roosters roaming the streets freely we started heading south through this twisting, twisting, turning landscape of st. lucia.
we met the next morning and he introduced us to his mom, the owner of this tiny restaurant by the water and his little girl."natch-ral vibes" everything was. the sea, the cruise, the food we ate, the local green he smoked, the bob marley he rolled all of it had good "natch-ral vibes." st lucia and their vibes.
with roosters roaming the streets freely we started heading south through this twisting, twisting, turning landscape of st. lucia.
after numerous stops along the way to take pics, try the local food and feeling the 'natch-ral' vibes we came upon Soufriere.
the sulphur springs lay IN an active volcano. the nutrient and mineral, enriched mud was slathered all over our bodies as we were instructed to do. apparantly, every sunday people from all over the island flock to this place to bathe and slather on the mud...and feel the natch-ral vibes.
after the slathering we cruised to the beach where the the deux pitons, the two ciffs in the pic above, just tower over you. it was pretty stunning. it was around this time though that i started realizing that this was trevor's job and we were paying for his services. although trevor and lisa were insanely nice and there would've been no way we'd make it to the springs otherwise, it bugged me that after it was all said and done we paid considerably more than just gas. haha. lesson learned. but we no doubt felt the vibes mon
3.17.11 at around 7am we set sail northward for martinique. one of the few french occupied islands in the caribbean. with a little over 100 nautical miles of sailing in the books, here we are in martinique. baguettes, broken french and all.
good vibes. good things.
(st lucian trevor and his friend lisa)
after the slathering we cruised to the beach where the the deux pitons, the two ciffs in the pic above, just tower over you. it was pretty stunning. it was around this time though that i started realizing that this was trevor's job and we were paying for his services. although trevor and lisa were insanely nice and there would've been no way we'd make it to the springs otherwise, it bugged me that after it was all said and done we paid considerably more than just gas. haha. lesson learned. but we no doubt felt the vibes mon
3.17.11 at around 7am we set sail northward for martinique. one of the few french occupied islands in the caribbean. with a little over 100 nautical miles of sailing in the books, here we are in martinique. baguettes, broken french and all.
good vibes. good things.
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