St. Lucia Further and further north.
Hello Tuna, waterfall spa, the man with the machete, Thierry & the palm tree and street party
The next island on our way to Martinique is St Lucia. Here we want to stop at two anchorages and wait for the waves outside to calm down a little. We are looking forward to new adventures!
Souffrière
We leave St Vincent behind us and head north. The crossing is a little rainy, but the clouds also bring wind and we make good progress. And then comes the icing on the cake: we finally catch something again! 😍😎 A small yellowfin tuna took a bite. We are very happy. After we moor at the buoy in Souffrière, we immediately radio Judy and Tinu, who are two buoys behind us. Tonight we're having a feast! Two types of cevice as a starter (one with soya sauce and one without), followed by tuna steak fried briefly in sesame, served with Cabo Verde-style rice and vegetables. Very nice 😉
The next day, the usual formalities with the authorities follow. In the meantime, I go to the local hospital and ask if someone will remove my stitches. It works great, and I'm out again in 20 minutes. I really can't complain about the service here 😂 Thierry has also made it by now, but unfortunately the rainy weather is not conducive to walking. We go back to the boat, work and plan our next day.
Aaaaaaaadventuuuuure day!
There are two inactive volcanoes near Souffrière, the Gros Piton and the Petit Piton. Cool hikes lead up there, but unfortunately you need two hands in places and so I'm temporarily out. 😒 But of course we find an alternative programme: we set off on foot and visit a kind of natural thermal baths. There are hot springs somewhere, what with the volcano and all 😉 Once there, we have to smile, but of course we don't miss out on the experience. After the hot bath, the spa continues: after trudging through the jungle for a while, we arrive at the sulphur mud baths. There's nobody here except us and the Dude who looks after the area. Unfortunately, as he is deaf, we can't talk to him.
We rub ourselves with yellow and brown mud and immediately feel deeply relaxed 😜 A funny experience! We then want to walk back through the jungle to Souffrière, our deaf friend tries to explain the way but we don't understand each other. Suddenly a man comes by, whom we also ask for directions and who tells us to follow him, as he's going there too. Great, we think, and scramble after him.
It's not until the second moment that we realise that this might not have been the smartest move. The guy is noticeably drunk, babbling weird stuff that we don't understand. It wouldn't be so bad, but his machete disturbs us a little 🤦♂️ The man is peaceful and means us no harm, we don't understand his explanations about fauna and flora but nodding and smiling always helps. He says goodbye at his house and we have almost reached the village. Note to us: Maybe don't follow the machete dude into the jungle next time 🤡
On the way down, a machete-less dude chats to us, the alarm bells are silent and we chat. He shows us his house and gives us a palm tree. Yes, you read that right 😂 It's an amusing sight on the rest of the way home. 🌴
Rodney Bay
The next day we move on to Rodney Bay. We have to anchor here again. You may remember that our anchor windlass has been acting up since Bequai and we dismantled everything in Cumberland. So, anchor down! It works quite well, let's see how it goes up. We enjoy a few more days here, Judy and Tinu diagonally in front of us in the anchor field. A street party with barbecued chicken is also on the cards again.
And then it's onwards for us, off to Martinique! Le Marin is a good place to get some boat work done, and we've already arranged a rendez-vous with a fridge dealer. It's been cooling worse and worse for a few weeks now.
So it means:
Anchor up!
You think that worked out well? Are we actually going to Martinique...
or maybe not..?