Rodney Bay St Lucia (Part 1)

Leaving the Pitons behind us   

We left the Pitons anchorage at the southern end of St Lucia at 1300 on Tuesday 20 February. Our plan was to sail 20 miles north to the large anchorage of Rodney Bay on the northwestern side of the island. Initially, sheltered by the island, we had insufficient wind to sail and when we did get wind it was directly on the nose. In hindsight we probably should have sailed the last 8 miles but at the time we wanted to give the batteries a good charge and so we ended up motoring the whole way.

Entering Rodney Bay   

At least that gave us the advantage of arriving in daylight which is always a good thing when trying to select a nice sandy spot on which to drop the anchor. Our wine and food stocks were running very low and so our priority was to get to the food shops but we also wanted to try to get some bits and pieces for BV at the chandlery here. Consequently, we anchored close to the entrance to the Rodney Bay Lagoon so that it was just a short dinghy ride to get into the lagoon which is dominated by a large marina and surrounded by a good selection of shops.

Rodney Bay. Our first anchored position (Red, 1) and the later one (Yellow, 2)   

The food shopping was a success but sadly most of what we wanted at the chandlery was out of stock and would need to be ordered in specially. The addition of shipping and import agent costs just didn’t make it viable to get what we wanted brought from their main shop in St Martin. So, we have put the solar panel project on temporary hold until we get further north.

Something about the anchor didn’t feel quite right!    

On our second day at anchor (Thursday 22 February) the wind direction changed and we started to get grumbling noises coming from our anchor [Ed: preceded by a loud ‘CRUMP-THUD’]. Nicky swam to investigate and discovered that the anchor had actually ‘dug in’ by hooking onto a large rock but with the change of wind direction it had become dislodged, hence the ‘CRUMP-THUD’. Then, with the sand layer being very thin, the anchor was slowly dragged along the rock just below the sand surface, hence the grumbling noises). So, with an insecure anchor that needed resetting we decided to move closer to Pigeon Island (Yellow position 2 in the photo above) but even there, where the holding is said to be good, we needed a couple of goes before we were happy that the anchor was properly secure. That’s unusual because normally our anchor sets really well but on our first attempt something didn’t feel quite right even though BV wasn’t noticeably moving. When we hauled up the anchor the windlass strained a little and up came the anchor but with a huge rock jammed in it.

Anchored under Pigeon Island   

James, Anna-Malin and Bubbles visiting   

Second time around we found a much better sandy patch and settled in. Anna-Malin, James and Bubbles arrived in Yin N Yang shortly after we had sorted everything out and soon after that Mike and Cate also anchored Kealoha V close by. The weather forecast had several days of strong winds and, more importantly, big seas, and so we all planned to wait in the Pigeon Island anchorage until things calmed down a little before moving north to Martinique. 

Surf on the north side of the causeway to Pigeon Island   

Our rather elderly GYC burgee
didn’t survive the strong winds    

Pigeon island is connected to St Lucia by a causeway and it was reassuring to see the protection that we were getting even though it was quite windy. The island is now a St Lucia National Trust site because the fort on the island was the headquarters for the Royal Navy in the area during the late 1700s and early 1800s. One can imagine the large bay filled with naval ships keeping a sharp lookout and ready to react to an attack from the French based just 25 miles further north on Martinique.

We pottered about doing some admin and maintenance tasks and in the evenings enjoyed drinks, dinner and great company on each other’s yachts.

Rodney Bay, St Lucia