16 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We had a bit of a lie in, but there’s no peace for the wicked because we had to go to clear in. I dropped the dinghy in the water and attached the outboard, making sure that outboard lock was in place and we had a stainless steel chain to lock the dinghy to any dock - Rodney Bay has a bad reputation for dinghy theft.
The clearance formalities were in the marina and were very straight forward. I went in one door to see customs; through another door to see Immigration and Port Control and then exited by a third door - very organised. The largest amount of time was spent filling in the form - there is an online clearance system called SailClear, but not having any internet yet, I had to resort to the old hand written forms in triplicate.
We had a wander around the marina and the Hardware store outside the gates. Not much has changed in six years. We were thinking of coming into the marina for a couple of nights to wash the boat down, but it’s very expensive (£30/night) and the water is metered. It’s much cheaper for us to be at anchor and run the water-maker for an hour each day
The nearest place to buy a SIM card is at the Rodney Bay Mall, which is a short dinghy ride across the lagoon past the marina. There are a few banks and a reasonable supermarket there too. Fully spammed up with Internet and cash, we dinghied back to the marina and had a fabulous Pizza and Salad with a few beers. After spending the rest of the afternoon sleeping off our lunch, we chilled out in the evening.
17 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We had a chill out day hanging about on the boat. After all the sailing that we’ve done in the past three months, it’s nice to be in a safe anchorage and do nothing.
Even though we’ve created a “For Sale” web site (www.yachtalba.com) and listed Alba on several yacht sale web sites, we don’t hold up much hope in selling the boat privately in the Caribbean - it’s too much hassle for people to fly out just to look at a yacht. We’re pretty sure that we’ll get a much better price in the USA, so the plan is to sail the boat up to the Cheasapeake next year. It’s only 2,000 miles, so it will give us a leisurely 6 month cruise through the West Indies and the Bahamas.
With that decision, we now know that we’re only going to be living on Alba for one more year and that we’re not going to be doing any cruising too far away from chandlers and shops. So, it’s a great opportunity to sort through our lockers and start dumping things that we’ve carried around for the last seven years.
In afternoon, I started in the front cabin and looked through all the various lockers and cupboards - it was very cathartic. I ended up with a bag of stuff to give away; and a bag of stuff that we will be taking back to the UK; and a big bag of stuff to throw away. The saddest item was a Sony short wave receiver that we’ve carried all the way around the world and never used. I’d left some batteries in it, which had leaked, so the radio was junk - ah well.
18 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We had yet another chill-out day and couldn’t be bothered to get off the boat.
Back in June 2016, we bought a new mainsail from North Sails in Singapore, which has always had creases in it when furled. In my opinion, it has been designed and manufactured with too much draft and is very baggy when reefed. Unfortunately, because we’ve been moving a lot, I haven’t been able to get a North Sail loft to have a look at it.
Valentine is the North Sail representative in St Lucia, so I asked him to come out and look at the sail. He agreed with me that the sail is very baggy when reefed, but his sail maker is on holiday at the moment, so Valentine asked me if I could sail over to Marin in Martinique, which is 25 miles away. They have a bigger North Sails loft there and would be able to sort it out for us. We have agreed to go across the day after tomorrow.
“Dream Catcher” arrived from Fernando de Noronha, so in the evening, we went over to welcome them and drank a few beers in celebration of our circumnavigations.
19 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We had another quiet day on the boat - it’s great not to have anything to do.
The situation with the main sail has become a little chaotic. There are three different North Sails offices involved at the moment - St Lucia, Martinique and Singapore where we bought the sail. Valentine in St Lucia has inspected the sail, but hasn’t given any report on what needs doing, so Gavin in Martinique wants to see the sail before he makes any comments.
I’ve been assuming that North Sails will make the modifications under warranty, but Gavin now says that the decision has to be made by Ian in Singapore and they are on the other side of the world and 12 hours ahead us, so there’s a huge lag in me asking a question and Ian replying.
In frustration, I cancelled our trip over to Martinique. There’s no point in spending two days sailing there and back unless the work is going to be done free-of-charge - If I have to pay for any modifications then I’d rather wait and get it done in Trinidad.
With typical West Indies logic, once I told Gavin that I wasn’t going over to Martinique, he told me that he’s probably going to be coming over to Rodney Bay at the weekend and perhaps he could inspect the sail when he’s over here. Why on earth didn’t he say that in the first place and save us two days sailing?
20 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
North Sails in Singapore have now come back and have told us that there is no way that any modification work will be done under warranty - the warranty has expired and the sail has done many thousands of miles. I’m annoyed about their lack of customer support, but I guess it’s my fault for not raising the issue while we were still back in south-east Asia. I sent off a “screw-you” email and I’ll never buy from North Sails again.
After five days of slobbing around, we just had to get off the boat, so we caught a local mini bus into the capital city, Castries. I’d forgotten how efficient the buses are. They’re owned by private individuals and they’re licensed to operate on a particular route - the route we used is a round trip from Castries to Gros Islet, which is just past the marina. The minibuses are lined up in Castries and as soon as one is full, it roars off and the next one starts to load passengers. It’s unusual to wait any longer than ten minutes for a bus - brilliant service and it only costs £0.60.
We wandered around Castries, which hasn’t changed much in the six years since we were last here. There are vendors on every street selling vegetables and other local items - it’s a very noisy and colourful place. The old, indoor Castries Market is now devoted to tourist souvenirs, so we didn’t spend too long in there.
After visiting few shops to buy some cheap storage bags and other small items, we had lunch at the Balcony Restaurant which over-looks the central square. Glenys had a Lamb Stew with “Provisions” - breadfruit, yam, plantain, rice, beans and the Caribbean favourite, Macaroni Cheese. I opted for a Chicken Roti, which was lovely - first one for years.
Back at the boat, we upped anchor and headed off to Pigeon Island. There’s usually a big “Jump-up” at Gros Islet on a Friday night, (which lasts all night) and we wanted to get as far away from the loud music as we could.
We initially tried to anchor in 5.5 metres on a light patch of sea bed, but it must have been coral rubble because the chain rumbled loudly as we dragged backwards at an impressive speed. We anchored 50 metres further south at 14°05.40N 060°57.79W in 8 metres of water, which was okay. I snorkelled down to have a look and our anchor is buried in sand, but there are lots of small, 2 foot diameter bommies scattered around. The wind here is very consistent in direction, so I don’t think that the bommies are a problem.
21 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We had a restless night with boat swirling about in a current and squalls coming through. It brightened up in the morning, so we hopped in the dinghy and went to have a look at Pigeon Island, which is an old British fort spread across two hills. There’s a good view of Rodney Bay and in the 1700s, it was a strategic lookout to keep an eye on the French in Martinique only 25 miles away.
After a couple of hours of exercise, the weather was still looking squally, so we upped anchor and moved back to the anchorage off Reduit Beach. We initially tried to anchor closer to the beach at 14°04.553N 060°57.432W in 4 metres of water, but we dragged. I snorkelled down and found the sea bed to be all rubble, rock and small patches of sand. Other yachts seem to anchor here, but we gave up and went further out to 14°04.60N 060°57.52W in 6 metres depth on nice, solid sand.
It rained on and off for the rest of the afternoon, Glenys managed to do a bucket of laundry and some stainless steel polishing in between showers.
22 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
I spent the morning writing To-Do Lists. There aren’t too many essential jobs to be done, but there is a long list of small cosmetic chores, which will make the boat more saleable. After 7 years of sailing, there are the inevitable little dents and scratches in the heavily trafficked areas - nothing too bad, but we need to do spend a few weeks doing some varnishing projects.
A lot of the interior chromed items like light fittings and cupboard door handles are showing their age, so I’ve made a long list of “bling” items to buy - there are 25 light fittings and over 30 cupboard latches. Not all need to be replaced, but it’s still going to cost about £500. However, it will drastically affect the first impressions. Fortunately, the upholstery is in excellent condition because we replaced it all three years ago.
It was a miserable rainy afternoon, so I lurked down below doing the miserable job of servicing our two toilets. I managed to complete the back toilet, but I need to buy some spares for the front one.