It rains quite hard off and on in the morning so we’re a little tardy getting going. The plan is to stop at Anse Chastanet for a swim/snorkel then move on to Marigot Bay for the night.
Some fishermen come by with a boatful of fish and ask if we want to buy any. “How much for that tuna?”. “30 EC”. Seems like a great deal, that is a big blackfin tuna. “30EC per pound, that fish is 6 pounds”. “180 EC for one fish?!!?!, Sorry guys that’s out of our price range”. That’s C$90 for a tuna. Still gotta clean and cook it. They eventually sell us a smaller one for EC$50 which is still pretty expensive for a fish, but they’re nice guys and we want to support them.
Takes a while for me to butcher the cleaning of it. Turns out tuna are a little trickier than normal fish, but I get the job done.
Around noon we shove off and leave our great little (EC$50/night) mooring at the foot of Gros Piton. It is an absolute pleasure to be motoring quietly across the two bays. We decide there is not enough time to bother with Anse Chastanet but we will swing by and take a look. As we get close we can see there are available moorings, the beaches look really nice, and there is a very good pier to park the dinghy. It’s one big resort here on two beaches.
So in the spirit of our motto for St. Lucia (New Experiences) we decide to stop for the night.
After tying up to a mooring we dinghy in to the pier. It is great and we’re the only ones on it. Walk over to the main resort (I think it’s just called Anse Chastanet) where it is pretty swanky but they seem happy to have us for a drink at the bar. Beer for Chris, soda for me, C$20 with tax and tip. Burger is US$30 here too. People watching is our pasttime, turns out this is the home of Scuba St. Lucia whose boats we have seen around a lot.
We walk north past the dozens of tiki huts, each with a pair of lounging vacationers, along the little road that connects the two beaches and on to the less busy (for now) beach called Anse Manimi (I think that’s right, close anyway). It’s very nice, we walk past the resort part and go as far as you can go. As we return, we can see the party cats start to arrive on the upper beach, disgourging dozens of tourists onto the beach each. There’s gotta be 80+ more people than when we got here 15 minutes ago. Cats come and go about every half hour or so.
Eventually we go back to Milu and Christy talks me into snorkeling. It is quite good actually, much better than under Gros Piton. Crossing the short channel between Milu and the shore is the scary part, there are locals and tour boats roaring around all over the place. It is very rough with boat waves until sunset.\
Guess what’s for dinner? Tuna! Christy makes a creole-style tuna and rice dish, very nice, we eat out in the cockpit and enjoy the evening.
I’m very tired, and nodding off, I crash early, only to wake up around midnight. The boom is creaking and groaning and it shouldn’t do that. Takes me a couple of adjustments to get it right.