Rodney Bay,
St. Lucia
14.04.473N
60.56.990W

Dale’s tummy wasn’t feeling too well this morning, so Nicky and I decided that there was no need for the guys to come in with us to return the rental car and do our grocery shopping,. We took off in the ‘banana fender’ (as it was called today) with thoughts of doing a couple of quick errands and returning before they had time to complain.

We dropped by Foreclosure to say hello and explain that we had been running in different directions for the last couple of days, then tied the dinghy at the dock and took the car back to the rental agency where we waited for someone to return to the office. Clearly they were open as the hurricane shutters were rolled up and a folding sign was placed outside the door. After about 15 minutes we checked with the establishment next door to see if maybe they knew if the woman who worked there had a habit of heading off for a cup of coffee first thing in the morning. Nope, no information. After about 30 minutes and seeing several people walk down the street with grocery bags in their arms, we knew that a store was somewhere near, so I left Nicky in the car while I went in search of the store to pick up the bread we both needed.

Somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour after we arrived, the woman showed up with others in tow (apparently clients). At least I had been able to find some bread. We made our way back to the dinghy and our respective boats.

We hoisted anchors and slowly made our way out of the anchorage. Orpailleur was held up because of another boat resting over their anchor. Considering how they had to dance around the other (unattended) boat to retrieve theirs, they were lucky the anchors hadn’t tangled.
We made our way out to the St. Anne anchorage and unfurled our sails. By the time we reached the end of the anchorage we were doing over 5 kts and didn’t slow down until we made it to St. Lucia. We saw speeds up to 8 kts; not that we were racing or anything but Dale & I did hand steer all the way and at least stayed in the competition. At one point on the transit, there were 4 boats all vying for the same air.

We reached Rodney Bay exhausted but in good spirits. We were transiting the narrow channel that leads to the marina inside the lagoon when the approaching dinghy waved us down. It was Mike & Terri from MTNest with Brad, one of their guests they had aboard about this time last year that we had met. We made some hasty arrangements to get together later and continued on our way into the fuel dock.

I’ve gotten pretty good at holding the Palace in place while waiting in line for fuel and today was no exception. Except that it took forever. We watched as the power boat fueled and paid their bill but after that, we couldn’t figure out what was taking so long. The closest we could figure was that they were simply chit chatting with people on the dock, ignorant of the line forming behind them. Finally, the station attendant motioned for us to go ahead of the power boat on what was left of the dock.

From previous experience, we knew not to throw a bow line to anyone standing on the dock in case they tug too forcefully. Thank heavens, Dale repositioned the line from the bow to amid ship because sure as shooting, even though he told the guy to use it as a spring line to keep us from drifting down on the powerboat behind us, the attendant caught the line and secured it to the nearest cleat which didn’t keep us from smacking the powerboat’s anchor with our dinghy hanging from the davits. Of course it acted like an overgrown fender but with two kids sitting on the bow of the powerboat, I was furious; with myself and with the attendant. I should have allowed more room for the dinghy which ultimately would have forced the attendant to use the farthest cleat to secure us to. As it was, it was the powerboat’s owner that gave us a helping hand to secure the Palace to the dock more securely.

Our normal place to anchor in the tiny lagoon even further in was crowded, so we ended up anchoring to the outside of the marina. It’s busier with buzzing dinghies and sounds from the local establishments but it has free WiFi, so who can complain.

We finished our day by going over to MTNest and enjoying the sunset, the music and the company. Brad & Angie, whom we had met last year, are flying out tomorrow but it was good to see them again.

Gerry & Dale have decided that Mike needs more help on his watermaker problem and have volunteered to take a look at it tomorrow. These guys actually get a kick out of working on mechanical things. Maybe they just get a kick out of working on other people’s things. Boys and their toys.