Know Egrets

OK, so where is everybody?  Oh, it's Carnival today!  Really?
And we're stuck in Rodney Bay on anchor...

We arrived, with great expectations, in Rodney Bay only to find it was a public holiday and the marina closed.  It was Carnival time, a multi-day, serious party event, so we were told.  The only one working, and acknowledged our arrival, was the floating rubbish collector and seller of “interesting” objects, pineapples, bananas and maybe something to smoke if you felt uptight.  Boat boys have certainly come a long way since 2008!   

Marina life has its challenges...

The next day we moved into the vast Rodney Bay Marina and decided that we needed a week of down-time to recover from our voyage so far.  Besides, it was the The Ancient Mariner's Birthday. It was time to eat out and try some local food.  So, we chose a Thai restaurant…  Don’t be alarmed, the food had an exotic, creole, spicy spin.  The Cap’n was bereft though; no pie shops and lamb roasts still few and far between.  We did celebrate with ice-cream – our first since leaving home.  It lasted all of a minute before melting!  Life’s tough in the tropics…

Partying over, it was time to settle in for a few boat maintenance chores and with internet (of sorts) available onboard, time to catch up on our past patchy communications.  Mr Lozza, inspired by his bottom cleaning experience (actually, WJ3’s bottom) in Les Saintes, must have decided WJ3’s sides needed a good scrub too.  GS found him wedged between the dock & WJ3 with quite a few nasty boat-bites.  Both he and the Cap’n had to have a few shots of duty-free scotch (Black Label to go with the mood!) to recover.  Well, that’s their excuse…

Of course, there's always chores

As we had had little luck to date trawling our Kiwi lure (see, we told you we were hopeless, Kiwi!!) both lads ventured off on an organised coastal fishing trip.  World records were not set (definitely), and any tiddly survivors released to grow - a lot.  Later, over a prawn pizza (oh, the irony) we shared with Marie, fishing stories and other tall yarns were discussed at length.  Marie, from Perth (WA), and a permanent liveaboard and now kitten minder, lives on her well set up catamaran in the marina.  It was nice to talk “strine” and share a laugh.

This one is for you John D.  See what you are missing out on!
Found in St Lucia. A favourite Med tipple for some of the crew!!

By now, it was well into July and tropical depressions were starting to sweep steadily across the Atlantic bringing even more wind, rain and storms.  We decided to delay our crossing to Bequia, in St Vincent & Grenadines, to avoid one that promised lots of flooding rains & winds of 30+ knots.  

Sailing the easier Windwards at last.  Early departure from Rodney Bay.

Err!  Excuse me.  Just who is driving the boat today??

No time to put our nose into Marigot Bay,
so a glide by the Pitons will have to do.

In the calm that followed, we set off in choppy seas, coasted in the lee of St Vincent and then made a dash for Bequia (said beck way) and arrived, 80 miles (11 hours) later, in the late afternoon to a swelly anchorage off Lower Beach.  Even so, it was good to be back to this tiny and very friendly island.  

(In case you are wondering, the post title was the name of a sailboat in the marina.  We’re now into serious Caribbean style boat-naming territory!)