A return to Saint Lucia — April 23 through May 12, 2022 (subtitle: Even in paradise, things don’t always go as planned. 😕)

When we published our last blog entry we had just returned to Saint Lucia. Jill had a board meeting to attend in Boston and all the major US airlines have regular flights to and from Saint Lucia’s international airport, making the trip to Boston more direct than if we stayed in the Grenadines. Of course, we could have continued South down to Grenada and also given Jill great flight options. The added bonus of Saint Lucia, and frankly the real attraction, was that there is this lovely resort and marina on the island — Marigot Bay Resort and Marina — that we thought would be the perfect place for our older son and his family to visit us for a week. As we mentioned in our first Saint Lucia blog entry we had stayed there in March for about 4 days as we passed through Saint Lucia on our way to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). Friends of ours from Connecticut met us there and we had a marvelous time. As marina guests we have full use of the beautiful facilities which includes three excellent restaurants, several bars and three delightful pools with the largest kiddie pool on the planet. There is also a spa for those who enjoy a massage. (That is NOT us but that is a draw from most people including our daughter-in-law.) So while going back to Saint Lucia was a back track for us we figured the chance to see our oldest son, his wife and our oldest granddaughter was worth it.

If it all sounds too good to be true, it was. Jill left for her board meeting a few days after we arrived in Saint Lucia. Her plan was to be as careful as possible and not bring home any unwanted gifts, particularly COVID. It is one of the reasons we got our second booster shot in Bequia. Well, despite being double vaxed and double boosted, wearing 2 masks (one of which was a surgical mask) at all times on the plane, in the airport or while in any form of transportation, Jill came home with COVID. (She tested negative the day after she came home but tested positive a few days later.) Fortunately, it was a mild case, sort of like a moderate cold and within 5 days she was symptom free. Of course, there’s a lot of shared air space on a boat so Zack came down with COVID a few days after Jill starting exhibiting symptoms. In the meantime, our daughter-in-law’s mother — who was going to watch their baby — was diagnosed with COVID and our granddaughter, who (along with the rest of her family) had COVID and recovered from it in late March, still tested positive for COVID using the PCR test. The original plan was for our granddaughter to get fully vaccinated before the trip (her 5th birthday is in the end of March) but the COVID diagnosis delayed that. So with the confluence of the positive COVID test, Zack having lingering symptoms and our granddaughter being unvaccinated, our son and his wife couldn’t bring themselves to get on the airplane. They were just too concerned that they would get to Saint Lucia but they’d have to quarantine in a hotel and then would be unable to get back to USA. We received a very sad call from our son on the day they were supposed to arrive telling us they did not get on the plane. 😢

With the sudden and unexpected change in plans we needed to decide what to do. Our options were to stay at Rodney Bay Marina, head back south through the SVG en route to Grenada or keep our reservation at Marigot Bay Resort. Heading to SVG wasn’t really a choice for a few reasons. First, thinking that we would be at Marigot Bay for a week we decided to commission some repairs on our dinghy. We had a nagging slow water leak that needed to be fixed. The dinghy was still in the shop and we weren’t expecting it back until a few more business days. Second, SVG still requires a negative COVID antigen test to enter the country and though Jill was symptom free and Zack was almost there, we wanted to be sure that our antigen test would be negative before taking it. So we opted for keeping the reservation at the resort even if we didn’t stay an entire week. We figured a change in scenery would be good. Besides, the resort would be a lovely place for Zack to complete his quarantine (though his symptoms had really subsided). We should note that we did take quarantining very seriously. We stayed on our boat and, if we had to venture off we wore masks and kept our distance from others. There was no dining out at restaurants, even though they were open air, and no shopping while we had symptoms.

Sometimes you just have to make lemonade out of lemons and, in the scheme of things, we know that we are incredibly fortunate to be living this life, so we chose the path of gratitude and embraced our return visit to Merigot Bay Resort. (Okay, Jill did wallow deeply in self-pity for a few days but she eventually snapped out of it. And, yes, you have her permission to roll your eyes, or slap her or both.) One of the reasons we were excited to return to Marigot Bay Resort was to return to Roots 2. We wrote about Roots, and the v owners Sue and Fluff, in our blog entry entitled “Next stop: Saint Lucia — March 15 through March 27, 2022 (subtitle: Vacation time!)”. In addition to enjoying the lovely view and delicious local/fresh food, we were looking forward to picking up our conversation with Sue where we left off. How did she end up on Saint Lucia? How did she and Fluff get together? These were the question that inquiring minds wanted to know!

We returned to Roots on our second night in Marigot Bay. We arrived early to watch the sunset and were greeted by Sue like old friends. After serving us her signature rum punch, she stood next to us as we sat in the stools on the porch that face out to the bay and the glorious setting sun. (Incidentally, our feature photo for this post captured that magnificent view.). Jill wasted no time peppering Sue with questions and she shared with us the long, fascinating and mostly sad tale of how she ended up on Saint Lucia. Let’s just say that it started out well with some investment dollars earned through a business she shared with her husband but ended in a very bitter divorce that left her financially vulnerable. There is more to the story but out of respect for Sue we will not be detailing it here. What we will say is that she is remarkably resilient. Though her life is not without its challenges, she has built a wonderful life with a beautiful family on Saint Lucia where she has become a much loved member of the local community. We are in awe of her positive attitude. It’s infectious. She has truly touched our hearts and we know we will stay in touch long after we leave Saint Lucia. (We will also add that if we had any lingering self-pity over the disappointment that our son and his family cancelled their trip, our conversation with Sue put things in perspective and knocked us back to our senses!)

We spent 4 nights and 3 days at Marigot Bay Resort, enjoying some R&R. That meant lots of reading while lounging around the pool, planning our trip back down the Grenadines and to Grenada, swimming laps and walking up and down the surrounding hills for some exercise (we can’t play lizard all day, every day!) and great dinners at Roots 2 and the restaurants on premises. But after 3 full days we were definitely ready to move on. So on May 10 we returned to Rodney Bay. Our dinghy was ready for delivery and we were ready to get our COVID tests. Plus we’d have the opportunity for one final meal at Spice of India as well as another local restaurant we discovered near the marina just before Jill left for Boston, Chef Robby’s. Chef Robby’s is another gem of a restaurant owned by a local that serves authentic Caribbean food which includes some great vegan options. Though Chef Robby can’t compete with the Roots 2 location, he’s created a wonderfully eclectic atmosphere on a covered porched raised high up off the ground on stilts. All of the help at the restaurant are locals who must be hired for their enthusiasm and energy — either that or there’s something in the water. They create a great happy vibe. Chef Robby clearly takes great pride in his restaurant and makes it a point to periodically get out from behind the kitchen to check in on and visit with his guests. Definitely another place on our “return visit list” when we are back in Saint Lucia getting ready to depart for our circumnavigation.

We got a nice surprise when we got back to Che Figata after dinner our first night at Spice of India — our Kiwi friends, Matt and Jo on S/V Seamogs, stopped by for a visit. We met them through our mutual friends Eric and Danelle. As a reminder, we met Eric and Danelle when cruising Maine last summer and Eric joined us as crew when we sailed from Hampton, VA to Antigua in early November. (That was the epic non-sail, no wind, sail!). At any rate, they happen to be in Rodney Bay and saw our boat so they hopped in their dinghy to come over and say hello. We had a lovely impromptu after dinner cocktail hour and caught up on our respective adventures since we last ran into each other 2 months ago. It was great fun because when we last saw each other we were headed places they had been and they were heading places we had been so we exchanged recommendations. During our visit we learned that both boats took advantage of the suggestions (they were the couple that told us about Mustique) and got to hear about each other’s unique experiences in the various locations. As always, this included some wonderful tales about the interesting people we met and experiences we had along the way. It was an evening full of laughs. We hope to see each other one more time in Grenada before they fly home to New Zealand (after being away on S/V Seamogs since October). We are also already making plans to see them when we are in their part of the world in 2023 as part of our circumnavigation!

After 2 nights and one full day in Rodney Bay, and with negative COVID tests in hand, we took advantage of the opportunity to leave Saint Lucia a few days earlier than we had originally planned and on May 12 we set sail for Bequia. We sailed on an incredible beam reach, often flying at over 9 knots! We arrived at 3:45 PM that same day giving us just enough time to clear health, customs and immigration and then catch an early dinner before we collapsed. We set sail from Rodney Bay early to arrive in Bequia before the health and custom offices closed. By 5 PM we had completed the process and decided to have a quick bite at Mac’s Pizza — one of Zack’s favorite spots on Bequia plus we knew they served food all day whereas most restaurant close mid afternoon and don’t re-open for dinner until 6:00 or 6:30 PM.

All was going according to plan until we got back to our dinghy and noticed that the cable and lock we use to secure our dinghy to the dock had slide down the piling holding up the dock and was totally submerged under 5 feet of water. Our choices were to go back to Che Figata to get our boat hook or for one of us to jump in the water for a little swim. Before putting either of those options into motion Jill went back to the restaurant to see if they might have something that we could use to reach the cable and lock — perhaps long tongs??? — and that’s where she ran into Eric. Eric is a mentally disabled local man who hangs around the dock near Mac’s and offers to watch your dinghy. His services are really not required but about every other time we secure our dinghy to that particular dock we “retain” Eric to watch our dinghy and pay him a few dollars. Now, though, we really need his help and Eric was anxious to, quite literally, jump in. Before we knew it he took off all of his clothes — yes, we mean all of his clothes! — and he dove in the water. After a few tries he was able to grab the lock and cable and get it to the surface. When Jill told him he did a great job he beamed and repeated that he did a good job. He was so proud of himself. We gave him $25 EC for his efforts and, at his request, a slice of the left over pizza we were transporting home. Needless to say, we will be retaining Eric to watch our dinghy the next time we use that dock.

Now that we are settled in the SVG we are excited to pick up our new dinghy chaps (we wrote about those in our blog entry entitled “Sailing the Glorious Grenadines — March 27 through April 22, 2022 (subtitle: A drink in our hands and our toes in the sand!)”) and engage in a few planned adventures while passing back through the Grenadines on our way to Grenada. This includes a guided hike up to the Soufriere volcano on Saint Vincent which is an active stratovolcano (last eruption was December 2020) and is the highest peak on that island. (We will be catching a 6:30 AM ferry from Bequia to Saint Vincent (ugh!) to do that hike.). As faithful readers of our blog know, no island visit is complete for the crew of Che Figata without a hike to the highest peak! We are also planning another 2 tank dive — specific location TBD. Our goal is to arrive in Grenada by the last week of May to enjoy some time there before our final leg of the season to Trinidad. Hard to believe the season is almost over and, at the end of June, we will be heading back to the states for 3 months! We will publish our next blog post after our trip through SVG and our safe arrival in Grenada. Ciao!