We set out just after midnight under a glorious moon and fair winds. We’re making 7 kts across Bequia channel but know it won’t last as we get in the lee of St. Vincent. Sure enough we’re motoring with sails up very soon. We’ll stay like this until the tip of St. Vincent.
We see some dolphins in the early morning around dawn and some fish jumping and splashing just to the east of us but it’s too dark to see what they are.
As we approach the end of the island we can see the lights of 3 or 4 sailboats hugging the coast and heading in the same direction as us. We thought WE were hugging the coast but they’re at least 4 miles closer. As they reach the tip of St. Vincent, they have a much better line to the wind to St. Lucia and are able to take advantage of the increased winds much earlier. Lesson learned.
It’s a glorious sail across the channel to St. Lucia – beautiful day and soon enough we’re making 7 kts easily. We’re still very cautious and only put out 3/4 of our sails max.
We contacted Jameel back in Bequia who is going to arrange a mooring for us and maybe take us on a trip up Gros Piton. We call him as we’re approaching and sure enough he comes out to meet us and puts us on a mooring ball. Seems like an unnecessary expense as we could have VHFed the local rangers and reserved one. (Though we tried to telephone them and got no answer.) Jameel says the rangers will come by later to charge us.
We’re moored about 10 am or so. About 10 hours to get here.
We’re immediately accosted by Boat Boys looking for handouts but we don’t need/want anything from them. Rather sad, actually, they’re just kids and obviously very poor.
Jameel takes me into the banged up dinghy dock which is guarded by the local police. The shanty town around Soufriere is also a bit sad. The locals around the dock gate immediately start asking me if I want a taxi, tour to the Pitons, etc., even though I’m with Jameel.
Jameel takes me to Customs where I go through another typical crazy bureaucratic paper shuffle. First see this guy. Then go see the Health Inspector and fill out her two pages of forms (had to tap on the window to wake her up). Then go see this other guy who charges me EC$40 and gives me the paper I need to take to Immigration.
Back on the street, Immigration is closed – it’s lunch hour. Sigh.
Jameel asks what I want to do, I tell him just take me back to the boat, I can do the rest by dinghy. He seems happy with that but perhaps a little surprised that someone would do something on their own in Soufriere.
He drops me at the boat (I forgot to pay him but Christy remembers and does it later). We have a bite to eat, then go into Immigration together. Christy walks around a bit while I wait my turn at Immigration. Once I get inside, the process takes 2 minutes, our passports are stamped and we’re good to go.
Back on our mooring, we’re not impressed with this place. As the kids would say, “It’s a bit stabby”. Christy asks if I want to go on to Marigot Bay, it’s only an hour or two up the coast and supposed to be much nicer than this shithole. I am tired and having trouble making decisions so she says we should go. Good decision, we decide to go.
Before we can untie, a couple of urchins come by on a paddleboard and ask if we have any biscuits or soda to give them. I say no, but I’ll give you EC$10 EC to help us untie from this mooring ball. Untying from a mooring ball is about the easiest job there is on a sailboat and we certainly don’t need their help, but they clearly need the EC$10. I give them a fistful of loonies and some change, perhaps $9.70. Christy hears one of them say to his companion “that guy ripped me off”. This after he unties ropes from our cleats that I told him twice not to.
Good riddance Soufriere.
It’s really a lovely motor down to lovely Marigot Bay and we find a nice anchorage spot on the north side of the channel without too much conflict from other boats. This is obviously a tourist zone. There are probably 10 charter cats on moorings here and for the next two days we will see a constant parade of party boats coming and going every hour.
We go into the bar for Happy Hour and enjoy the local beer, “Piton”. We hear the locals say later it’s the best beer in the Windwards but really, there ain’t much difference between Caribe, Stag, Hairoun and Piton as far as we can tell. Probably all brewed at the same place. Before the beer we explored a bit and sure enough, there is the captain from the boat we ran into at Mayreau, Cays, Bequia and now St. Lucia. We laugh.
We’re in bed pretty early after a long day.