Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

Yesterday (Friday) was a productive day for the crew of Astarte. We went to the inflatable repair facility (multiple times) to try to find someone there – but no luck. We finally connected with a Skype call and an appointment to meet at the dock. The repair was going to be costly and they would have to put another big slit into the dinghy to repair it from the inside. We decided to wait to see if Michael’s patch would hold and save the $300 (US). We hope it’s the right call.

We dropped off the propane tank for filling (drop off in the morning – pick up in the afternoon.) We went to the chandlery and hardware store and picked up a part for the expansion tank and looked for aft deck lights. Michael continues his search for a small (inexpensive) backup outboard. We did a lot of walking in search of a “local” restaurant – not the ones in the marina. We ended up in the local “mall” at a Caribbean food court. No atmosphere but great food at a great price. We were the only non-locals eating there. Most of the cruisers/tourists were eating at the US style food court with its KFC, Subway etc. Michael had his first (of what will be many) roti of the trip. A roti is a wrap sandwich of sorts filled with a curried meat or vegetable. His was chicken with bone-in (the real way).

We then continued our walk to the grocery store – first stopping at a van that was selling fresh pineapple. We negotiated $7EC (about $3 US) for a nice ripe pineapple. When we came out of the grocery to pick it up – the Rasta guy ended up giving us two big ones for the $7EC! Such a great deal. The grocery was a good one – and we found some things we hadn’t seen in awhile. We ended the day on shore with ice cream.

Then we were invited for evening cocktails by “Imagine of Falmouth”, a British boat with Sam (she) and John aboard and had a terrific time. That nice extra pineapple we got became our snack - of course we "drunked it up" with some nice Haitian rum (thanks Richard and Rene). We met the folks from "Imagine" officially in Dominica, though we’ve seen them at various places along the way. They have crossed the Atlantic after sailing in the Canary Islands for a few years. Really nice folks that we hope to get to know better over the next months as we are both heading south. You can always tell British boats - they often name them with the "port" as part of the name - we could be Astarte of St. Petersburg!

The music last night from shore was quite loud and late – we’re certainly getting used to it. The islands love to party. Bob Marley's estate must collect big residuals - as his music is played everywhere in the islands. It was a comfortable sleeping night – smooth anchorage, good breeze all night so no bugs and it kept the boat comfortable.

Today (Saturday), Michael’s started on some boat projects (new anchor snubber requiring some splicing etc.; rehanging some boat art that has fallen and perhaps tackling the forward head!) We’ve had lots of folks stop by the boat to visit and chat. That’s the cruising life – people we’ve seen along the way and come into port always reconnect. Folks from Voyager that we did the land tour in Guadeloupe with came by; as did the folks from Rapscallion (Trudy and Dennis) and Serene (Mel and Joannie).

We may head to the National Park this afternoon. There’s a great fort (two hills!!) to climb and an interpretive center. We did the hike before and the views are magnificent.