22 April
We left Rodney Bay around lunchtime after saying goodbye to the last ARC boats Exody and Starblazer and sailed to Anse La Raye a little bay (Anse) just a little to the south.( We’re finally doing what we set out to do nearly 12 months ago – to cruise the Caribbean! ) There was supposed to be Fish Friday where all the local fishermen and vendors set up tables in the main waterfront street and cook their fresh catch. We went ashore and because it is still Lent it wasn’t on till next week. We’ll come back as Pete wants to try fling fish stuffed with potato. We had a couple of meat skewers instead and had an early night. Just as well as it turned out!
Next day we cooked a quiche to take on a 2 mile walk to the River Rock Falls for a picnic. A faded sign in the Village promised a bar, café, viewing deck and gardens. The directional sign post on the road was swinging around on it’s pole and it was hard to tell where is was pointing so we asked a local walking by who pointed us up the hilly street. It seemed OK to go up a hill to see a waterfall but 2 miles later we asked someone else and they said there was definitely no waterfall in this direction! So 2 miles back we took the other road – I don’t know why it took me so long to think of looking at maps in my phone! Anyway we walked 2 miles more and found a rather uninspiring concrete assisted waterfall with a derelict shelter the remains of a bar and not much else. We had our picnic and a very refreshing swim then trudged back rather tired and a bit dispirited. Lesson – be a bit suspicious of faded signs….My relatively new Reebok walking shoes delaminated both soles just to make things harder. Luckily at the exact moment one fell off altogether Pete saw a bit of wire on the ground and wired me up for the next mile back to the boat. Having not walked much being on the boat for so long the 8 miles (12k) rather took it out of us!
24th April
Upped anchor and moved around the corner to Anse Cochon where we were last weekend. Went for a long staircase walk to a happy hour with a view. Just what the legs needed. From here we sailed the next day to Soufriere, a fishing village a bit further south. Quite cute but with an intermittent awful smell that we took for sewerage but later found out is sulphur from the crater. You can have mud baths and do hot spring bathing. Somehow we didn’t make the connection with the smell. I should have, at least, having been around Rotorua often enough!
26 to 28 April
Now at Sugar Beach, a lovely spot between the two Pitons that are all that is left of a massive eruption. Very impressive landscape but one which sent wind bullets down on to the bay with wind speeds up to 32k! We only stayed one rather wild night on one of the Marine Park moorings. Sugar Beach Resort is very nice, full of honeymooners and expensive cocktails.
We decided to go back to Capella Marina in Marigot Bay for a few days as there is some big wind forecast. As we are generator-less at the moment it is a good opportunity to do laundry and top up with water – we need the generator to power the washing machine and water maker. Pete has someone who will dive to see if they can find his phone. Neither Apple or Nomad Travel will cover it unless we have the actual phone! as it is covered for theft, damage or lost luggage – not dropped irretrievably into the water. I would have thought that constituted damage? More on that later…..
