5 may 2025
Departure: 8:00 uur
Arrival: 12:00 hour on 6 may 2025
Nautical miles: 120
This morning at 6:30 am got up, had breakfast and calmly prepared the boat for departure. It looks like we will have little wind. Just watch out for the seaweed posters when leaving. We sail on the engine with the mainsail up until we are a little past the islands and on the right course. Then we roll out the Genoa, which goes a lot smoother now that the furling has been repaired. After about an hour we turn off the engine. We wave goodbye to Guadeloupe, on to the next island, one we have never been to before, St. Lucia.
The speed is now between 3 and 4 knots, which is of course not much but pleasant. It is a sunny day and when we look at the island of Dominica we see that there are big dark clouds hanging above. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the rain will be spared us.
At this speed (average 4 knots) we should arrive at St. Lucia around 15:00. Let’s wait and see. In the afternoon the wind drops completely and we start the engine again. Around 17:30 we can turn it off again because the wind picks up a bit and we now have an average speed of 5 knots. During Fred’s watch (22:00-02:00) Fred starts the engine again, so that we can generate some power.
It’s nice that there is a moon tonight, at least until my watch from 02:00-06:00. A dark watch with a lot of stars. We are not going as fast anymore, only 3.5 knots. Fortunately the wind picks up a bit later. It is striking that we hardly see any boats, or jumping fish and also no birds. It is a pity that we do not see any dolphins. In the early morning the wind comes out in a wind that is not so favorable for us, which means that we have to deviate from our planned route. As soon as we get closer to St. Lucia we will adjust the course a bit. It promises to be another beautiful sunny day and now the expected arrival time is around noon. The wind is changing a bit, which makes us a bit more favorable. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of seaweed here that we have to try to avoid. This does not always work, which means we have to put the engine in neutral and then in reverse to have the propeller cleared of seaweed.
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As an aside, we hear from friends and read on various sites on the internet that seaweed is a big problem in the entire Caribbean. Beaches are full of it and that is not so nice when an island is mainly focused on tourists who expect to lie on a beautiful white beach in the sun.
We approach the bay and at exactly 12:00 we drop anchor. We dive into the water together to see if the anchor is in the right place. The anchor is lying on its side and is not dug in. The bottom here also consists mainly of rocks. We do not trust it and decide to anchor again. The second attempt seems to go a lot better, but to be sure we turn on the anchor alarm app. We are still busy when a police boat comes to us that wants to come on board. A friendly lady welcomes us to St. Lucia and asks a few questions. After our lunch we hoist the dinghy into the water, hang the outboard motor back on and then Fred goes to immigration and customs alone, which are located in the Marina. I stay on board to keep an eye on whether we are indeed anchored properly. In the meantime I tidy everything up, put our mosquito nets back on and tie up lines to prevent rattling.
After an hour Fred returns. No extra costs for customs and immigration, but he did have to pay the Harbour Master EC $30.00 (€ 10.00). We are busy when suddenly a very special boat comes alongside. This turns out to be the well-known `Gregory`, the man sells fruit and vegetables. His boat is full of plastic containers with all sorts of things. He is a very friendly man and we have a chat with him. He has been doing this work for about 30 years, has 3 daughters and a granddaughter. One of his daughters bakes banana bread which we really have to try. It all looks good, so we decide to buy some fruit. Finally (yes, he knows how to sell it well) we buy: 1 large bunch of bananas, 8 tomatoes, 3 cucumbers, banana bread, coconut cookies, 2 bottles of passion fruit juice without sugar and a bottle of rum punch. All this costs EC $ 120.00 (€ 40.00), which is certainly not overly expensive. We still had food for tonight on board so we don’t have to leave to buy anything. Now relax and tomorrow another day on a new island.
