St.Lucia, day 5 – Marigot Bay

Friday 30-March: Good Friday today. This is the key Easter celebration day here. So it’s a holiday and everything public is shut, no drinking, no dancing, no gaieaty. Let’s see how that works out in this land of rum and joints!
This morning Glen is in agony with his lower back pain. He can barely roll himself out of bed, even after 400mg of ibuprofen during the night. The only semi comfortable place is lying on the hard cockpit seats with his knees up … where he crawls to and stays for an hour until more anti-imflamatories take effect. We were planning a drive to the sulphur hot springs but looks like this isn’t going to happen today. This situation makes us realize just how precautious we need to be with our health, with only the 2 of us to operate Cloudy Bay. “Man-down” and we are out of business.
Adding to the discomfort, this morning the swell is coming in strongly. Our mooring buoy is very close to the shore and it seems the wavelength is just perfect to get Cloudy Bay into one of those horrible oscillating rolling patterns. We haven’t rolled like this since the Mediterranean. So while we are tempted to stay 2 more days to experience the Saturday night street party in Soufriere, we also feel we should get going. 4 days in one bay is long enough for us – even a pretty one like this.
By mid-morning Glen is semi mobile again, but still very delicate. We take the dinghy ashore one last time to return the car keys and take a quick stroll around the quiet town, which seems to help Glen’s back. Then it’s back to Cloudy Bay and we depart Soufriere Bay in dull conditions motoring north, close into the coast.
We are surprised just how many small beaches there are, each nesting between steep abrupt cliffs of the eroded headlands. Most beaches seem cut off with no access by road. Other have a few sunshades scattered under the shady palms. No chance to anchor here, it’s way too deep, and landing the dinghy on the beaches would be disastrous as the waves are breaking right up to the top of the sand.
After just over an hour of motoring, we have made 160 ltr of water, partially charged the batteries and heated the hot-water.
We arrive to the hidden entrance of Marigot Bay, a long deep and narrow bay, with a sand bank sticking out about half way down, making the inner part completely sheltered. It’s a very picturesque setting, so also very popular. Lots of yachts anchored in the outer part, all swaying in the swell. But we call in on VHFch12 and secure a buoy in the inner basin. A young lad comes to meet us and guide us there. The moorings are extremely tight. As we swing, out stern is only 2-3 meters from the adjacent buoys. This will be OK, if all the boats swing together….. which they should do. But to be sure we put 2 large fenders off each stern quarter.
The inner basin is absolutely tranquil, surrounded by mangrove on our side and the Capella hotel and marina complex on the other. Plus lots of small restaurants-bars dotted around the edge, each with their wooden terraces jutting our over the water, where you can tie dinghies to. Very pleasant. And so nice to be in a zero boat movement situation for once.
We go over to Marina office to pay. US$30 per night, up from the $20 that we’ve paid before now. But then we have access to the hotel facilities and pool and there is even WiFi ! Yahoo!! We take a stroll through the hotel complex and pools which are pretty busy; this Easter period must be a peak for holiday makers.
On the way back to Cloudy Bay we go out passed the sand-spit that is full of people on the beach and take a look at Doolittle Restaurant the other side. We stop at a small boat called “LittleSex” where a colourful character is making table baskets out of palm leaves. He is very friendly, but changes his friendliness when he realizes we are not buying. Back on Cloudy Bay, Glen takes a long nap after lunch, resting his back which is still troublesome. Then in the evening we circle the bay going passed each bar to gauge the atmosphere. There is only one that seems lively, Chateau Magy bar. It advertises happy hour 2 for 1 all night long. We settle to the bar and order drinks thinking we will get 2 drinks for the price of 1, or 1/2 price. But not… so we get 4 glasses! Nice trick eh! There are a few people around the bar, a mixture of locals and whites. But somehow the atmosphere is not as openly friendly as Soufriere, where within 1/2 an hour we had spoken to most people at the bar. And they are playing local music non-stop with lyrics, if you listen to them, that would fit perfectly in a porn film! One drunk British lady (the usual!) instists they play something she can actually sing to, but there is no change.
By 11pm we tucked into bed. Looks like we will get a very peaceful night.