Scary Valentine’s Day ... Feb 14/15th 2018

Scary Valentine’s Day

Feb 14/15^th 2018

On Wednesday morning we got ready to leave the anchorage “between the Pitons”. Our plan was to sail the 8 miles to a little fishing village called Laborie.  We hadn’t previously been to this village.  The guide-book suggested that there were a lot of shoals/reef around the harbor making for a tricky entrance. To get started we motored out of the bay and put up the full main and then a large portion of the genoa.  While in the wind shadow of the Pitons this seemed okay, but soon we experienced a gust of 27 kts.  The sail continued in this fashion with light winds punctuated by very strong gusts.  We put the reef back into the mainsail and carried on.  Our route turned more to the southeast as we went along.  This meant that we were sailing close-hauled into short steep wind waves with winds settling around 22-25kts with some stronger gusts. White caps were abundant.  I started to have a total melt-down.  I couldn’t imagine trying to get into this tricky harbor under these conditions.  Nor could I face having to come out into these conditions all over again on Thursday to get to the Vieux Fort for Simon’s flight.  It was not my finest hour! 

We carried on to Vieux Fort and anchored in a similar position to last time.  We had some lunch and then went to shore to walk to the “finest windward beach on St. Lucia”.  The bay in front of this beach was spectacular—white caps were everywhere.  We had an early dinner in a bar (with wifi) and walked back to town by way of the supermarket.  A first pass provisioning shop saw us well laden on our walk back to the fishing port.

On Thursday morning, Mike and Simon took an excursion to walk up to the lighthouse at Cape Moule a Chique.  Having seen how high above the town the ‘Cape’ was, I elected to stay aboard and do some cleaning and tending the laundry.  Before he went to shore, Mike washed our sheets in a bucket of soapy water.  This was our first attempt at major laundry on board.  While T-shirts and shorts are fairly easy to wash and wring out, the sheets seem to be another story.  Getting the weather to co-operate is even harder.  Several squalls came through during the morning.  During one squall, the wind was so strong that the clothespins were popping off the line.  One sheet was pulled free and only caught by the mainsail (thankfully).  All the sheets came in until the conditions improved! 

Mike and Simon returned with more provisions (in the shape of beer bottles).  Simon finished his packing and then we took him to shore to meet his taxi.  We wished him farewell on the grimy fishing pier. [With luck, he is already back in the UK as I write this.] Our route took us back to the grocery store for more provisions.  We got most of the items on our list except for bananas that were either too ripe or super green.  I’d like to say we spent a restful night at anchor but showers and howling winds interfered with our rest. 

At our mooring "Between the Pitons" - this is Petit Piton from the south - the wide angle lens makes it seem smaller than it is, 2500ft dropping straight to the ocean

The motor vessel "Nero" with a rainbow resulting from yet another passing squall, just before we left the anchorage

The view from Moule a Chique lighthouse above Vieux Fort. This is teh eastern, windward shore withe the Maria Islands in the foreground.

You would not want to be pinned against this lee shore - the waves looked terrifying

Looking down on the cliffs on the southern tip of St Lucia

The lighthouse cottage at Moule a Chique

Christopher latched onto us at the fishing port in the morning. When we returned to buy fish he magically re-appeared and gutted and filleted a tuna for us. It is far from clear that it was his tuna, we think he was just after the fee for cleaning the fish and perhaps a share of the fish sale as a "finders fee"

Cleaning tuna at the fish dock

It was sad to say goodbye to our friend Simon, but we had a great time during his visit. I like this picture of him - not bad for an "old guy" (well he is 6 months older than me!)