The next day (Saturday 24th) we had breakfast and got the boat ready to sail for a lunchtime departure to Marigot Bay about 10nm miles south along the coast. This was one of those lazy sails under headsail (120% genoa). It was good to be out on the water again! On arrival, I attempted to drop the hook in the small anchorage to the left of the main buoyed channel as we’d already been accosted by a pimp-looking boat boy who’d told us it’d be $80EC (~£20) to use a mooring buoy for the night. Unfortunately, the anchor bounced its way back out to sea indicating a solid slab of rock, as I attempted to set it. With the wind gusting and a new rasta / less ‘bling-bling’ boat boy on the scene we decided to take the easy option and pay for a mooring buoy which was now being offered at 55EC (~£14).
While haggling over the price of the mooring buoy, it seems I one over the local (Peter), who later came over to the boat for a beer and a chat. He fessed up to his banter about supporting his kids etc being lies and gave us a gift of a woven fruit bowl and offered advice on being ‘careful’ around specific areas. It seems that crime is still a real problem in the Caribbean, especially with specific hotspots.
The next day we decided to check out of St Lucia and head for the Grenadines. We spent an hour the night previously completing the ESeaClear registration process online which is supposed to make clearing in and out of the Caribbean painless. Needless to say, on checking out we still had to complete all the paperwork by hand as the system is ‘not ready’. We also got charged $40ec ~ £10 ‘overtime’ as it was Sunday! Memo to self: Do not leave or enter a country on the weekend or public holidays!
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