St Lucia - April '09

So, we have been here for 8 days and they have been pretty busy ones. It is completely great having the Perry's here and being able to have the kids to stay over a couple of times. To back up a bit....we left you with us anchoring by Pigeon Island out of whatever north swells will be happening. The first thing we did was go the marina where I dropped Cheryl off at Artemo while I went to customs. There is a new system they are trying to implement down here to link all the islands together so that customs in and out are easier. We set up Mystic Journey in the system and sent a notification to St Lucia when we were coming. If we had a printer we could then print out the clearance form and take is with us. Since we don't, I took the "PAN #" and they were able to access the clearance I had previously done in the system. Right now there are only 5 islands linked but more come online regularly and hopefully they will all soon be tied together.

Anyway, the young fellow in customs was 'tickled pink' (well, not really pink) that I had used the form and besides he was a very friendly and outgoing type of person. In the course of our conversation he asked me what I had done prior to sailing and when I told him I was a psychologist he reacted the way a lot of people do - "whoops, I shouldn't have asked, forget I asked, I am okay......aren't I??? Course he was joking but a lot of people react as if they are afraid I am going to find out some deep dark secret they had intended to keep secret to their graves. Funny!!

After I cleared us in we visited with Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia for a while and then went back to get the boat in order. Julie had invited some fellow Canadians they had met (Dave and Cheryl - Aries) to join us all for supper so later we went back into the marina and enjoyed a very pleasant evening with everyone.

I am not going to do a day by day account of our comings and goings. Enough to say that we had the grandkids over for 2 days, went grocery and boat stuff shopping, went store exploring and had the Perry's and then Dave and Cheryl over to Mystic Journey for supper. We also explored the fort that overlooks our boat with Amelia and Alex and Millie and I made the long and steep trek to the highest point, Signal Hill, and had a great view of the island and the sea surrounding it.

Right now Alex and Amelia are doing their homework on the salon table (they stayed last night) and later we will likely go snorkeling with them. Graham and Julie and very industriously working on putting new floors in Artemo so us having the kids here lets them get more work done. The kids also stayed with Dave and Cheryl for a night. We are all anxiously waiting for Jason to get here. He comes in on Sunday and will be staying for a week. The only plans we have made so far is to make sure he gets to see the Pitons. Otherwise it is a matter of Jason letting us know what he wants to do - likely some walks, some beach and some vegging.

Just and aside to close. There is a pirate boat here called "The Unicorn". It was used in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and the TV series Roots and is now used to take tourists on sails and visits. One of the places it visits is of course the fort that overlooks Mystic Journey. The second day we were here we heard this loud boom. The first thing that both Cheryl and I thought of was the boat we were anchored close to in Bonaire that burned to the waterline, but not before the propane of diesel exploded with a sound very like the one we heard here. When we heard it here we of course immediately checked it out. What happened was that the fort on the hill fired a cannon at the pirate boat. A couple of seconds later the boat, full of 'pinkies' (tourists!!!), fired back. On one of the later visits (this happens quite often we have since found out), Cheryl looked up at the fort after the ship had fired and noticed a guy standing on one of the parapets waving a big while surrender flag. Kind of neat but both Cheryl and I are still uncomfortable with that sound at sea since seeing that boat fire.

So, next time we write it will be about Jason's visit and what we have been doing. Perhaps we will also describe in a bit more detail what this anchorage is like and what the bay itself contains.