12 Jan 2015

[Cruise News] Rodney Bay marina, St Lucia

We had a tough sail up to St Lucia yesterday ... big seas, high winds from the wrong direction and rain ... perfect sailing conditions (not) and unsurprisingly not that many yachts out and about.  But given the forecast for Monday and Tuesday were worse, and with Jon & Hannah flying home from St Lucia on Thursday, we didn't want to risk leaving it until Wednesday to make the journey in case anything untoward cropped up.  So off we went yesterday - over 12 hours of hard slog, having to motor-sail much of the way just to try to maintain the heading we needed.  Jon bore it very stoically, Hannah chose the very sensible option of sleeping through much of it, and Paul & I just got on with the business at hand.  It's incredible how our attitude to bad conditions has changed over the years: Whilst we obviously would prefer to sail in good condition, the "rough stuff" doesn't faze us.

And after almost sleeping the clock around last night, safely tucked up in Rodney Bay marina, all is well with the world once more, even though it's still blowing a gale out at sea.  Sadly for Jon Hannah, the ongoing forecast from the day they leave is a good one so it just goes to show that it's not just the UK that has iffy weather!

Anyway, we plan to make the most of their last three days and will visit Pigeon Island, have a day at a luxury spa hotel, and hire a car to do some sight-seeing ... a plantation, rum distillery and drive-through volcano.  Should be good!