We returned to St. Lucia and our familiar anchorage off of Pigeon Island, this time dropping the hook in a scary 7 feet of water. Still, it looked like our space had been reserved for us. We spent the next few weeks hanging out with cruising friends, provisioning, snorkeling a bit, and--thanks to the frequent and sometimes torrential rains--fine tuning our rainwater collection technique. We managed to nearly fill our large tanks with pure, sweet-smelling water, all free!
This period also happened to coincide with the St. Lucia Jazz Festival, and one of the prime music venues just happened to be Pigeon Island. So, as the opening days of the festival approached, our anchorage became more and more popular. The first night, we had our friends from La Buena Vida over to share the entertainment. Then, it began to rain, and rain and rain. It became apparent that the first night was cancelled. The second night, however, we listened to (that great jazz group) KC and the Sunshine Band, followed by Amy Winehouse and a very excellent Haitian group, Kassav. Amy was able to struggle through most of her tunes, but it sounded like she cut one short. Who knows what problems there were, but to be fair, it did rain like the dickens during her set. The next day, we weighed anchor shortly after lunch, but before that, were treated to a rehearsal by James Ingram and his band, that was very good.
With mixed feelings (it was two days before the festival's end), we left our home in St. Lucia and headed for Anse la Raye, a small fishing village about 10 miles away. The point of this was to shorten our next passage all the way to Bequia so it could be managed in one day. We set off on a broad reach and had a very peaceful time until rounding up into the bay. As the wind decided to pick up (of course), we discovered that the genoa would not furl all the way in. Nothing for it but to pop it back out and drop it on deck. This was our entrance to the harbor, settling down beside an amused Heiner aboard La Buena Vida. Fortunately, the problem was only a scrambled spooling of the furler cable and it was rectified within a half hour.
Next morning we were underway at 4 AM, full in the newfound knowledge that our masthead running lights and our engine voltmeter were inoperable. Oh well. We had allowed 12 to 15 hours to sail the rest of the length of St. Lucia, make the passage to St. Vincent, traverse that island and cruise on to Bequia. Well, the old girl (Songbird, not Pam) made it in 11 hours. At just after 3 in the afternoon, we rounded in to Admiralty Bay and dropped the hook. Now to explore Bequia.
Photos: Rotis and beer in Bequia; map of some of the islands we've visited; overlooking Bequia; Rasta marketplace; mangos we picked (and ate) while in Bequia; Bill in Castries, the capital of St.Lucia; Songbird kicking it at a whopping 7.5 knots per.
