Towards Vieux Fort ( and home )

We had paid the Marine Rangers the day before for our stay on their buoys so we were surprised to be visited early again by the Ranger boat. However they had only come to inspect and repair the moorings. We had noticed during our snorkelling expeditions that there was a mooring that ended six feet from the surface as the ball was missing. They had come to replace it.

We left the morning buoys and went around the headland into the bay of Soufriere which had the distinction of being next to the rather wonderful Pitons, grande et petit, although these are relative terms, as they are both extremely imposing. As we crossed the bay the rain clouds that had been a regular occurrence all morning gathered to swaddle the peaks in a grey cloud of rain.

We also became targeted by the notorious Soufriere boat boys. These are possibly the most persistent in St Lucia and had been regular visitors to us on the mooring bouys, even though these are several miles from Soufriere.  However when they were told we were headed to Vieux Fort they seemed to lose interest! We approached Petit Piton and the rain cleared long enough to get a good close up look at the mountain. One of the odd things about Petit Piton is that it is actually larger than its brother Grande Piton.

You may recognise it from the movie " Pirates of the Caribean". We approached Jallousie bay which sits between the two peaks and as we located a free mooring buoy ( still in the Marine reserve so no anchoring allowed ) we discovered that the valley between the two hills creates a bit of a wind tunnel effect as the wind speed climbed to 28 knots. This made picking up the buoy a bit more difficult than it needed to be. Luckily the rain had ceased and the sun came out long enough for me to take a photo.

We stayed just long enough to have lunch and enjoyed watching a " super yacht" along with obligatory multi millionaire on a satellite phone pick up another buoy, larger than ours of course, for super yachts only.  The yacht then opened its " garage at the back and revealed a fast ski boat and jet ski parked inside, how the other half live eh? We had discovered incidentally that to stay at the Jade Mountain Hotel that owned Anse Marin beach that we had enjoyed swimming and snorkelling from a couple of days ago cost £10,000 per person per week. The cost for Hocus Pocus to stay in the Marine reserve ( which includes the use of mooring buoys ) was $58EC per day, about £12. I think we had the better deal!

After lunch we moved on and soon encountered strong headwinds as we rounded Grande Piton. The strong wind continued all the way to Vieux Fort. We also had about 1.5 knots of current against us. It took a little over 3 hours to cover the 11 mile trip from the Pitons.

As we got nearer to the breakwater of Vieux Fort we spotted what seemed like a good anchorage away from the harbour and headed towards it. We dropped the hook in 7 metres in a small bay and Dave ran Lynne and I ashore to the small fishing harbour so we could find out the quickest way to the airport.

Vieux Fort turned out to be a fascinating place, well off the usual tourist track. The people were poor but very friendly. The town itself as our pilot/guide described it " didn't have a tourist bone in its body ", the architecture was shanty chic, and the number of sleepy dogs and grog shops made us feel once again we were in an Alexander Mcall-Smith novel. I felt slightly disappointed that we wouldn't have enough time to explore as it looked wonderful. I was particularly taken by a shop that advertised itself as " superior broom sellers ", fabulous.........The best way to the airport turned out to be by bus, $1.50 EC, which is about 40p. The driver joked with a pregnant passenger that she would have to pay two fares. The bus we caught took us to the airport even though it didn't actually go there.

The airport was fairly modern but basic, unfortunately the check in desk for Thomas Cooke was closed so we would need an early start tomorrow.....

When we got back to the fish dock we radioed Dave to come and pick us up and he arrived in the harbour towing  a guy in another dinghy he had discovered being blown out to sea as its outboard had failed. Hocus Pocus to the rescue once again!