Soufriere Botanical Gardens and Diamond Waterfall …. Monday 29th Jan 2018

Soufriere Botanical Gardens and Diamond Waterfall  ….   Monday 29^th Jan 2018

Gloria really loves the rain! Fourteen years living in the UK helped her appreciate the joys of wandering around in wet and now she takes to it like a cat in a swimming pool. So we knew the weather from sailing perspective was going to be fierce with 25 knot winds and 8 foot seas. But that wasn’t very relevant to us as we are safely moored in the bay at Soufriere on the west coast of St Lucia. What we hadn’t appreciated was the fact that this weather system would bring torrential downpours every fifteen minutes all day. Despite these conditions we had a fantastic time visiting the botanical gardens just outside the town. If anything the constant showers added a sense of atmosphere to these rainforest gardens. The setting and the plants were truly outstanding. It’s incredible to see the lush vegetation and realize that these are the houseplants you try and fail to grow at home. Everything seemed to be in bloom and the colors of the flowers were beautiful. We took along our binoculars in the hope of seeing some birds and weren’t disappointed. In particular, we saw three types of hummingbirds – green throated Carib, Purple throated Carib and a small green crested one (name unknown at this point) – and after a lot of effort I was able to get some good shots. I have to say that Gloria is very patient when I get into photo mode and I think she enjoyed hanging out under her umbrella … honestly! The only downside of the day is that my camera gear is takinga  beating. The zoom ring on my 70-200mm lens, which is my go-to lens, has started to seize up and after a day in the rain I had condensation evident on the inside. All of this suggests that one of the seals is going and I’m skeptical it will last the trip without servicing. I called Nikon and the best they can suggest is sending it back to the USA and getting it repaired at a service center, which is good advice, but challenging to arrange.

We didn’t get back to town until 2.30pm and were starving. The chicken and fries at Pier 28 was excellent – washed down with a Piton beer. After that it was a little grocery shopping, but some ice, fill up water jerry-cans and back to Cotinga for a quiet evening.

Soufriere – 13^o 51.2 N, 51^o 3.8 W

Green Throated Carib (Hummingbird)

Green Throated Carib (Hummingbird)

Green Throated Carib (Hummingbird)

Purple Throated Carib (Hummingbird)

Purple Throated Carib (Hummingbird)

Mineral Baths below Diamond Falls

Red Flower !

Red and Yellow Flower !

Lizard against the backdrop of one of the red and yellow flowers

Purple flowers !

Baby Bananas

From Marigot to Soufriere ... 28th Jan 2018

From Marigot to Soufriere

28^th Jan 2018

Pulling up the anchor in Marigot was an experience unlike most.  As we wound in the chain we crept closer and closer “Blue Dane” the sailing vessel whose home port was written on the stern as “Middlefart” (not even I could make this up).  Eventually, our impending bow caught the attention of the skipper who jumped to the stern ready to fend us off.  Luckily the wind direction shifted slightly and our anchor was no longer underneath their boat. (More accurately phrased, their boat was no longer over our anchor).  Suddenly the anchor parted from the seabed and we were off.  We managed to wave to our friend Gunther as we motored out of the harbor.

Once out to sea we unrolled the genoa and proceeded on a broad reach with just the one sail.  After the engine had run long enough to cool the fridge, we turned it off and were really sailing.  There was a significant swell and the wind speed was quite variably.  Early on I saw 22kt but later the wind seem to diminish and we were making only 3-4 kts.  Eventually we put the engine back on and headed east into the bay at Soufriere.  Once our course made the destination clear, we were approached by a young man in a skiff.  He offered help us tie up to the mooring.  The guidebook had forewarned us, but we agreed without setting a price first!  Generally speaking, I take a dim view of people who want to ‘help’, however, the wind that had been lacking during our sail suddenly was howling through the rigging.  I tossed him the first line and he threaded the mooring loop and tossed it back.  I felt lucky to get the line secured around the cleat.

Then came the argument over the payment.  Our guidebook suggests a fee of $5-10 (EC), our helper wanted $20 (EC).  We offered him $15 (EC) and he still was angry.  Mike pulled out the guidebook to show him.  There was a lot of yammering back and forth.  Finally he departed with our $15.  Then we were left to struggle with getting the second line through the mooring on our own.  Such is the nature of ‘helpers’. 

Having got settled on the mooring, we addressed ourselves to lunch.  I got the leftover taco fixings from the night before and Mike had curried eggs and a bit of salad.  On the way down he had been describing how one made this dish.  It went something like: “you hard boil the eggs and then peel them and take out the yolks and turn them into chicken curry.”  Thus we are left with the question—which came first the chicken or the egg curry?

Soufriere on a Sunday afternoon was quite intimidating.  There were lots of men hanging around the streets –most seeming to be partially intoxicated.  All manner of people were offering taxi rides, tours of the island, fresh fish, etc.  We got some directions at the “foundation” and set off walking up hill to the botanical gardens.  We reached our destination on the stroke of 3 pm—closing time.  We walked back down to the dock and back to Cotinga.  Dinner was consumed, showers were taken all while the boat rolled back and forth.  I slept in the salon but Mike managed to sleep in the v-berth.

The mountains to the north of Soufriere

Cotinga on a mooring in the Soufriere Marine Management Park - off the town with Petit Piton (2500ft) in the background

Another squall rolls in from the east of Soufriere

Meeting People … 28th January 2018

Meeting People   …   28^th January 2018

One of the best things about cruising is you do get to meet new people. We first bumped into Gunther whilst docking our dinghy in Castries. His boat was down in Marigot Bay and he had taken a bus up to Castries and was looking for any insight on good anchorages and places to visit north of St Lucia. We didn’t spend long chatting at that time but we managed to catch up with him again when we came in to Marigot Bay, and last night we had beers and dinner together. Gunther is an adventurous and interesting guy. He comes from a small village in Germany near Frankfurt, but has spent the past 20 years on a horse-back journey from Argentina to Alaska. He had previously been travelling by motorcycle but found that everything went by too fast and then discovered that travelling with horses was something he really loves. Over the years he and his partner have financed their lifestyle by writing about their adventures and going on lecture tours in Europe. Having completed this epic journey he was keen to explore other modes of transport and thought that sailing / cruising maybe the life for him. No messing around from Gunther – he wears a T-shirt with “Could, Should, Would, Did” written on the front with the first three words crossed out! When he first got into riding in Guatemala he realized after a year that the horse was paying the price for his lack of experience and knowledge … so he bought 8 horses and set up a horse-back touring company for three years to really learn the ropes. In order to determine whether sailing was for him he bought a 32-foot sailboat, spent 3 weeks practicing in northern Germany, and then proceeded to cross the Atlantic! He had two friends with him, a father and son, and the former had previously crossed the Atlantic with his father 30 years ago. Gunther found out within 24 hours of departing that he gets very seasick and for 3 of the 4 weeks passage he was really ill. He managed to stand his watches, but the rest of the time was unable to anything except lie down. I think the inability to do anything and the loss of that time really bothers him. Overall he now suspects that sailing life is not for him, but he will continue cruising the Caribbean for several months with the intention of exploring Cuba before he finishes, so that he can give this lifestyle a fair evaluation. He does look back on the passage as having some value – shortly after passing Gibraltar they rescued two boat refugees in a dilapidated dinghy, who would almost certainly have died had they not picked them up. We really enjoyed meeting Gunther. We really empathized with some one who clearly has a lot of adventurous spirit but is compromised by “mal-de-mer” in their sailing lifestyle.


We are now down in Soufriere, St Lucia. Next blogs and lots of photos up soon!



Water Lily in close up

Marigot Bay …. 26 January 2018

Marigot Bay    ….    Friday 26 January 2018

After a peaceful night in the harbor at Castries, the morning brought two new cruise liners to the dock. We first saw “Celebrity Eclipse” complete a 360o turn in the outer harbor – it looked like there might have been 10 feet clear on either end! Then “Grandeur of the Seas” came in to the dock right next to us. We were literally the only sailboat in the inner harbor – our only company were these humongous cruise liners and tug boat. In contrast, Marigot harbor, which we reached after a one hour sail on a broad reach, is jam packed with cruising boats. It’s a narrow finger of water, with steep hills on either side and a lagoon at the end. It’s a perfect hurricane hole. The inner lagoon is full of moorings with no room to anchor, so we chose to drop our hook outside of the channel in the outer harbor. The water shoals quite quickly from 50+ feet in the channel to 7 or 8 feet close to shore. With so many boats it’s a challenge to find a spot with good depth and adequate swinging room. Our initial attempt seemed fine until we spotted a large rock off to the side, probably too deep to bang into, but perfectly set up to wrap the anchor chain around. We opted to move and found a better spot in 10-15 feet of water, depending on the direction we are lying.

In the afternoon we rowed the dinghy to shore and took a hike up the hillside from the “Mango Beach Hotel” to the ridge and national Park above. It was  a short but steep walk straight up hill, with ropes to assist you at the steepest sections. Once on the ridge you get some nice views across the hills and down into the inner harbor. A little further along there is a view along the coast line, but it’s all quite heavily vegetated so hard to see too much. We hoped to see lots of birds, but it was only towards the end of the hike as we entered the Oasis resort gardens that we started to see much. There were lots of humming birds and Caribbean bullfinches, as well as a Saltator and a warbler we yet to identify (not in our East Coast bird book). We stopped at the resort bar “Doolittles” for a drink and then wandered back to our dinghy and on to Cotinga for a quiet evening. Dinner was a fine vegetarian meal with black beans, quinoa, corn and eggplant with cumin and ancho pepper – it was delicious!

Castries          14^o 0.8 N, 60^o 59.6 W

Marigot           13^o 58.0 N, 61^o1.5 W

Celebrity Eclipse - Castries Harbor

Female Caribbean Bullfinch

Male Caribbean Bullfinch

Water lily at Mango Beach Hotel