Kategorie: St. Lucia

As the announcement about the higher costs changes my perspective about the trip, I and Martha become pushier to force our captain to sail more. So we left Rodney Bay after two nights.

We headed back to Soufrier, what was not our most loved spot so far. Isabel, the daughter of our captain informs me that her mother is not a person who loves to be on a sailboat. Which means that the planned stay in Martinique will not be a period of sails around the island.

As, from my point of view, our behavior against the boat boys was not very polite, I decided to act on them this time different. As the apporached, I apologized for our behavior last time and explained the reason of the double payment is not a nice thing. I explained further that I can understand them and that I agree that it is important that the local people get their cut from the generated income that comes by the tourist industrie. 

I think they were happy about my thoughts and this time they were very polite. They placed our mooring directly upon a very nice snorkeling area. Just one jump away and then directly in the middle. I did some nice pictures and also our visit on land was this time a little brighter.  We stayed for three nights. Even if I would have stayed a bit longer, Martha pushed our captain to go on. The main goal was to make it until the Tobago Keys which was a mention of our captain to be very beautiful. 

As we had to be in Martinique at the 25th of November time becomes running. Depending on the wind our captain had was uncertain if we will have enough time to reach them. This was the reason that we constantly pushed our captain to go on. So we left Soufrier and headed back to Bequia.

I’m not sure if I already had mentioned that our Autopilot was gone. One morning it simply does not work anymore, so now during sailing someone had to steer the boat. The sea was perfect when we started but becomes more and more rough as closer we got to Bequia. The distance between Soufrier and Bequia is a good one day sailing. So the sun was already down as we arrive in the bay. The wind had become up to 20 knots and it was very good that we already known the bay that well. 

Our captain decided for a different anchorage this time, one that was more close to the main land, but without a protective mountain in our front. As we wanted to set the anchor, the anchor winsh won’t work anymore.  It was a shocking moment as for one minute we thought that we now had to spend the night in the strong wind outside of the bay, with one person steering the whole night, but we could convince our captain to go for a mooring. The mooring maneuver was tricky, as the wind drifted the boat quickly. We needed four approaches until we finally got the mooring. 

As the mooring was expensive and still the wind was very strong, the next day we placed the boat more close to the beach where we was last time. Martha and I swam ashore to meet Leon in his bar. As we arrived there a bunch of people was his guest. We started talking, took a drink and quickly it becomes a party like atmosphere. 

I returned to the boat but Martha stayed during the night. As she had made friends the night it happened that the next we I found myself in the company of this group. There was Katie – a girl from Germany, Claudia – a girl from Italy, Alex – a guy from Canada and we headed for a secret beach on the Atlantic side of the island. The trip started with a Taxi drive to the other side of the island, which was dominated by very steep roads up the mountains and ended up at a mansion from a German guy who lived there. He explained to us where to go so we started walking. Shortly after we started a little black dog comes in our direction. It looked like he was living on a property that we pass on our way. His fur was very shiny and he had a collar. The dog joined us and gave us the impression of guiding us through our way. The house around was all super impressive and the view was simply amazing. We had to leave the street and follow a little path downhill. The pass ends up in front of the beach, where there were three cows on a piece of green. The cows watched us but didn’t move even if they were free.

The beach was located in a huge bay, surounded by high mountains covered in crooked trees. The trees were grown from the wind into one direction and overall the effects from the rough weather was visible. The waves was high and not really made for swimming, but we got into the water a little. Each one of us started to walk around and explore the area. We found an old building behind some coconut trees, we made it to open one of the coconuts and enjoyed eating the flesh of it. Eeach of us had collected some plastic from the beach and also we found an old bucket that we use to put our collection in. Next to the old building we found another path back to the top and decided to take this one. The dog, still in our company followed us. We was joking that he really is an amazing guide and was astonished as we found a land turtle deep in the woods, passing our way. 

As we finally reached the top, it turned out that our doggy-guide was not what we expected. It was more than maybe the dog was in hope that we adopt him. We walked a bit around but soon we discover that we don’t know how to return to the street where we were coming from. We decided to order a taxi and now had to make a decision what to do with the dog. I guess it was me as a dog lover who forced the others to bring the dog back to the place where he had joined us. This decision cost us 10EC but I promised to cover it. As we reached the area where we picked him up, it doesn’t look for me like he is home there. Anyway, I had to let him go. This day was what I would call a Robinson-Day. Just wonderful!

Bequia felt like home already. We joined one of the famous street parties, met friends at the vegetable market, chilled out at Leon’s beach bar, and the day’s flows quickly. The wind calms down and finally, we could head to our next destination. The Tobago Keys!