by Calvin Sun | Jan 8, 2022 | January 2022: Martinique, St. Lucia, & Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia
If I’m in the photo or the photo is really really professional, then the photography credit goes to Paul Woo.
Today we rested up at Pigeon Island, an islet located in Gros Islet in the northern region of Saint Lucia.
Once isolated from the country in the Caribbean Sea, the island was artificially joined to the western coast of mainland in 1972 by a man-made causeway built from dirt excavated to the form the Rodney Bay Marina.
After setting our floating raft in the reserve, we laid out for another night underneath the stars swapping stories in the tranquil waters. The next morning we said our first goodbye to Jeanette, who had briefly joined us for 2 days this week on the water.
We now endure these 5 hours of rough, choppy waters back to Martinique.
- At time of posting in Pigeon Island, it was 28 °C -
Humidity: 75% | Wind Speed: 18km/hr | Cloud Cover: sunny
by Calvin Sun | Jan 7, 2022 | January 2022: Martinique, St. Lucia, & Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia
After a day by the Pitons, we set sails later in the evening for Marigot Bay, often described as ‘the most beautiful bay in the Caribbean’.
A historic landmark, Marigot Bay has been the site of a number of battles between the French and the British navies. Also known as the hurricane hole, this bay was where yachts would take shelter during a hurricane.
This is also where Jeanette, multi-monsooner of 2021 from Cyprus, The Balearic Islands, Sardinia/Corsica, etc. etc. would find a way to still fly in after a winter storm in NYC, hire a car, hop on a water taxi and find us last minute on our yacht given all our unforeseen vacancies!
We knew in the back of minds that she’d find a way when she had similarly crashed our pre-orientation 2 months ago and semi-joked she’d find a way to join our group somehow.
You shouldn’t joke about these things!
For a $72 mooring fee here, we then enjoyed all the facilities there was to offer at the Marigot Bay Beach Club:
Later the night after dinner, we returned to the resort for late night drinks with our husband-and-wife team skipper Brian and chef Marta …despite eventually being eaten alive by mosquitos.
The next morning we woke up and took it easy with some of the best massage therapy I’ve experienced abroad since the Solomon Islands. A free morning of relaxation and doing your own thing, we also ordered iced coffee by the infinity pool, sweated out our toxins at both their wet and dry saunas, and dipped into their cold plunges around the corner.
Then after a splendid Caribbean lunch by the docks, we set sail out back towards the Pitons with a double rainbow seeing us off.
Managed to reach the Pitons again just in time for sunset.
- At time of posting in Marigot Bay, it was 28 °C -
Humidity: 76% | Wind Speed: 18km/hr | Cloud Cover: sunny
by Calvin Sun | Jan 6, 2022 | January 2022: Martinique, St. Lucia, & Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, What Dreams May Come
If I’m in the photo or the photo is really really professional, then the photography credit goes to Paul Woo.
Survivors of the reckoning.
This morning we cruised down the west coast of St Lucia towards Soufriere, home to the famous Pitons, beautiful botanical gardens, sulphur baths, and waterfalls.
It’s time to celebrate getting this far!
The crown jewel of Saint Lucia is when you watch its coastline grow dramatically to the world famous Pitons.
Photoshoot time as we moor in the waters for the night.
She may not know how to swim yet, but she does know how to SUP now!
Kimmy tried to be our instructor, but we were too busy distracted by the Pitons in the background.
Afterwards we bought lobster by local fisherman that came up to our yacht to sell live produce. We haggled them down from $40/lb to $15/lb.
Before:
After:
To what a sunset do we owe in enjoying this lobster dinner:
Then it was a night on the sea, underneath the stars, and away from civilization and COVID:
The next morning after breakfast we docked at Sugar Beach and stepped ashore for a hike. Whether with view from the top of the Pitons or at the modest falls ($3 per person), there are plenty of options to choose from to make up for the lack of exercise for the week.
Afterwards we walked onwards towards the town of Soufiere where our yacht and skipper would pick us up.
The town itself is small enough that you can walk all of it end to end in 10 minutes.
After a quick lunch at Bellview and then provisional shopping at the local Massy’s . . .
. . . we headed onwards towards Marigot Bay.
Just don’t forget to come back here for more photos by sunset the next day:
Nature just got served.
Or simply great to pose with:
- At time of posting in Pitons, it was 27 °C -
Humidity: 11% | Wind Speed: 34km/hr | Cloud Cover: sunny
by Calvin Sun | Jan 5, 2022 | January 2022: Martinique, St. Lucia, & Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia
If I’m in the photo or the photo is really really professional, then the photography credit goes to Paul Woo.
Despite the shenanigans of our comedy of errors of traveling in the middle of Omicron, we still woke up to beautiful mornings. Even Umbi, who continues to test negative but cannot sail with us due to his prior exposure risk, came by to quickly say hi.
And lo and behold, our intended replacement skipper, Borna, who had sailed for 24 hours from Guadeloupe to come save us would ALSO TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID.
We therefore cried to ourselves, licked our wounds and headed out for a sunset dinner at Double V. This has become a war of attrition.
At least the food was fantastic.
And so was the view:
The next morning we received the good news that our replacement skipper and chef, Brian (from Ireland!) and his wife Marta (from Brazil and Australia!) tested negative for COVID-19 and were ready to take us. We thus set sail for St Lucia in the wild open ocean.
Once underway we enjoyed the exhilarating sailing down wind to St Lucia, taking us about 3 hours before arriving into Rodney Bay in the nick of time at 3:30pm (the customs offices close at 4pm)
Once we arrived, we grabbed a coffee in Rodney bay while a local named Marcel and I took care of passport formalities at customs and Port Health next door.
After an hour of showing them our vaccine cards, copy of negative PCR results, our online QR codes showing we were cleared by their travel portals, and our passports, we received our coveted white wristbands that allowed us quarantine-free entry to the rest of the country!
Once we were cleared to enter Saint Lucia by sea, we docked to finally enjoy dinner and drinks.
While we saw a variety of bars, restaurants, and stores lining the marina, we elected to drive our dinghy and perform a James Bond-esque mission to retrieve provisions from a larger shopping mall across the bay at Massy Store.
Now it’s music night as we get out all our guitars and jam to the music playing in our heads and on the stereo…
- At time of posting in Rodney bay, it was 28 °C -
Humidity: 74% | Wind Speed: 18km/hr | Cloud Cover: sunny
