The Pitons St Lucia (Part 1)

Approaching the Pitons on St Lucia   

On Sunday 18^th February we left Marigot Bay and had a very civilised sail south along St Lucia, well and truly beating a large catamaran that was going the same way; most satisfying! We had a certificate from St Lucia Customs which allowed us to moor in an area that wasn’t a port of entry (in this case Anse des Pitons) but since the Anse des Pitons is a part of the Soufriere Marine Management Association (SMMA) and anchoring is prohibited in the SMMA, we needed to find an SMMA mooring buoy to stay on for a couple of nights and then pay a park ranger for the use of the buoy.

Sugar Bay by Petit Piton   

Having lowered the sails we made our way into Sugar Bay where we were lucky; another yacht was just leaving and so we grabbed the mooring buoy they had just vacated. Several local boat-boys had approached us on our way in, aiming to charge a fee for attaching us to one of the buoys but that is such a simple task that we declined their assistance. Safely attached to the mooring with all lines as we wanted, we went diving on the buoy just to double check that it all looked in good order below sea level. Our buoy was right beside the Sugar Bay Resort and Spa and was tucked far enough into the northern part of the bay to avoid the slight swell that was working its way into the bay further south.

It was actually quite windy for a lot of our time at the Pitons and we had a surprising number of squally rain showers pass through, some of which produced great rainbows.

Sugar Beach Resort & Spa   

There was some good snorkelling over the coral reef along the edge of the bay and ashore the Sugar Beach Resort had a beautiful sandy beach and facilities.

Gros Piton (2619’)   

Moored where we were we had superb views of Gros Piton to our south….

Petit Piton (2460’)   

… and Petit Piton just north of us.

The Pitons, St Lucia