Firstly thankyou so much for your good wishes and congratulations on our safe arrival in St Lucia. It was just wonderful to know that people were enjoying and sharing the blog. Hearty thanks to Ian Young for setting the sight up in the first place. He has been a real star forwarding the blogs to you all. As many of you know neither John nor I are particularly I.T. literate on that front.
Since we arrived we have not really ventured far from the Marina. Believe it or not we still haven’t managed to get to a beach and have a swim. Liz and Robert took a water taxi yesterday and found a little beach to swim of and said it was lovely. I slept! There have been a few parties to attend. The Marina manager’s bash was really excellent – not sure if that was due to the rum punch which was in endless supply or just that we were rested enough to enjoy it. Today is the fancy dress party on Pigeon Island.
Today we had planned to get the dinghy into commission and head out for a scout round the headland. However we have been conscious throughout the night of really heavy rain. There was a steel band competition in the Marina last night and we fell asleep to strains of it going strong in early hours of morning. Today the rains have continued and the cloud base is very far down the hills (Kevin would have been up and down them in minutes and they are not any higher than the Law).
Today we have booked a session of massage for each of us to iron out the stress knots in shoulders and back. Hopefully this will be the final phase of returning to normal
Yesterday Liz and I took a trip to a duty free mall yesterday. We had great hopes of finding something akin to those in the States. Turned out it was a secure area beside the harbour in Castries. It had a huge cruise ship berthed alongside (interestingly enough there were a lot of Scottish accents around) The mall was a real disappointment and only sold things like booze, ciggies, diamonds and emeralds and perfumes. Of course we need these like a hole in the head!
The town of Castries was a bit of a culture shock. The taxi took us in and around the streets further in than is generally recommended for tourists. The poverty is very apparent. The place is full of little sheds, shacks etc where people sit looking for passing trade. We managed to get a battery and watch strap sorted from a van parked in a lane. The taxi guy knew where to find him and so we paid ‘good rate – 18 US dollar’. We went to the local craft market which was full of stalls all selling pretty much the same things (sarongs, tropical shirts, local basket and wood craft) You barter (I’m no use at that and could have done with Joy there) but they seem to have so little that you feel mean offering less. However we did get a price down from 40 to 25 carribean dollar so thought we’d done not too badly.
Quite a lot of boats are now beginning to talk of moving on and as you walk to cafes etc there are people trailing suitcases behind them, shoulders drooped as they head to the airport. Of course this may just be the prospect of BA flight disruption or baggage handlers losing their luggage! That nightmare is looming for Liz and Roberts boys arriving on Xmas Eve. Not sure what will happen on that front but do hope that it goes to plan. Robert continues to work from here, although his blackberry hit the water getting out of the water taxi yesterday, so that has slowed him up a bit.
The farewell on Saturday is the end of ARC involvement and after that we shall be left to our own devices. We shall probably take a few day sails round the island to begin planning the route for our next phase of visitors. Not sure how you cope with going from snow and – temperatures to humid 30 degree something in the space of a day.
We also have to turn our thoughts to repairs and such like. It seems like we may have to rely yet again on friends and family bringing out some essentials but we have located local suppliers and need to visit there first of all. We managed to get a local sim card yesterday so now have a new number which we will attempt to supply in next round robin mail.
So no doubt by now everyone is into office nights’ out , dinners, and dances as Christmas looms. I am missing work for the first time as I loved the run up to Christmas with the kids. Can just imagine Kevin wanting to know how many more sleeps till Xmas. Was delighted to hear Shannon is still cooking! However we have Christmas cake and Christmas puddings on board so we shall celebrate a little.
Sad that this weekend we will miss Gareth’s 30th bash but hope that all those attending have a blast. Hopefully by the time he celebrates again (40th) we will be there!
