Randy's Sail - Martinique to St. Lucia

Today was the big day - I sailed to St.Lucia. Griff and Cheryl got us out of the harbour and then I took over. I did very well if I must say so myself, I hardly got the finger point to adjust course at all!!
Actually driving or should I say sailing helped me a lot from getting sick, I could concentrate and had something to do. To me speed makes the difference I didn’t care if I was off course a little as long as I could keep the speed up. We left Martinique at about 0730 hours and arrived at about 1330 hours (1:30 for the land lovers). The wind was low so most of the time we were between 4-5 knots; it was quite exhilarating when you get that lean on the boat and speeding through the dark blue Caribbean water.

When we arrived in St. Lucia the water was a beautiful blue/green colour. The water was stirred up for awhile but now you can see the 20 ft clear to the bottom. We are going snorkeling tomorrow it will be great.
We went into the bay we anchored at, called Rodney Bay. The people here are friendly and speak the Queens English!
Tonight I barbequed hamburgers on deck in the Caribbean. It was great looking around seeing the ships and the lush green hills, looking over at the people in the all inclusive Sandals Hotel partying and paying for a sail and beach time.

If I can reflect for a minute, this is what life is about, family, great friends and moments. It’s the collection of moments both good and bad that you remember in life and I hope that yours are more good than bad.

Aleitha and I are having a vacation like this and I wish at times my sons were here to enjoy these moments. I would love for you to experience the culture, the landscapes, the people and the overall experience of these moments.

For every one, enjoy the pictures and blog and I hope it gives you a sense of the adventure Griff and Cheryl are having and inspires you to great moments!

Griff here: not much to add to what Randy said. We had a beautiful day for sailing and to do it with good friends quadruples the experience. Today while sailing we spotted what looked like a whale or dolphin/porpoise (not sure which of these blows) blowing in the water. We weren’t able to see the “creature” but were able to observe a spume of water every now and then on a definite path through the sea. We tried calling “here fishie, here fishie, here fishie” but it didn’t work.

Randy did really well sailing today and he actually did most of it. Towards the end the wind changed a bit because of the island so it was a bit more difficult to stay in a useful wind but he managed. Rodney Bay is a huge bay – apparently where the ARC (the Atlantic Regatta Crossing) finishes. It would be awesome to see the bay then with approximately 250 vessels of all types anchored.

Doyle talks quite a bit in the section of his book for St Lucia about how there are some possible threats or at least irritations from unwelcome boat boys but so far the only thing that has happened was “The Fruitman” showed up on a raft-like boat bedecked with flags of various countries trying to sell Cheryl, Aleitha and Randy some fruit while I was in clearing customs. He went away quite peaceably so hopefully Doyle was wrong about this aspect of the island. We anchored out quite far from what is supposedly the “bad” area however. No sense in taking chances. Tomorrow we snorkel, do a bit of internet and shopping and then relax in whatever other ways we can think of