Back in St Anne

We made our short sail back to St Anne from Anse Mitan on Friday. We had fairly confused seas with about 15-18 knots of wind. We made several tacks and sailed 32 miles for a 20 mile distance. But we practiced our tacking and sail handling and really what else were we doing anyway? Only two anchor attempts at this landing. But I will back up and tell you about our days in Anse Mitan. It is a lovely wide anchorage and all quite shallow. The town is very pretty and lots of shops,restaurants and bakery's. The beach area is lovely and so many families and small children having fun. We went for a couple walks but no real hikes. Nothing to burn off the calories of the good food.

We took the ferry from Anse Mitan over to Fort De France (the capital city) and did quite a walking tour of the quaint old city. It is a very busy city with a large air conditioned mall downtown and couple of big grocery stores just like home. But there are several narrow streets,with shops and one pedestrian mall that transects the whole downtown. Definitely they have retained the european charm. There is a market with some local produce and lots of tourist wares. Some of the architecture is amazing from the library and the central church which are both made with a framing structure of riveted steel. Then there's the food! The cheeses and selection of fresh produce is great but you have to keep in mind that you are back packing it all back to the boat and only have a small refrigerator when you get there. Actually we have a rather large refrigerator compared to some. We tend to shop often and not for too much at a time.

We did find this abandoned fort that was being over grown complete with a cannon in the bushes. We had a beach day ... packed up a picnic lunch and pulled the dinghy up on the shore. All was well until it started to rain. When it rains here it is hard and fast but usually short lived. Brian and Winston had gone for walk and Barbara and I had to take shelter under the tarp we brought to sit on. But after a brief shower the sun comes out again.

The next day we were not so fortunate. It rained all day on and off like I have not seen here yet. We were on the boat all day and as fast as we could collect the rain in every bucket and container I was doing laundry. I even got the sheets washed and hung everything out overnight (for a second rinse). Collecting rain is a challenge we have not dealt with yet. It generally rains overnight and we aren't going to chase it. But this day was a lot of fun and I made quite a game of it. We have officially become cruisers this week .... I cut Brian's hair,my own and my friend Barbara's. She asked me to cut hers after I cut my own so I guess I did an OK job. Dawn gave me instructions in Jan when she cut mine last.

We will get back to St Lucia on Tuesday or Wednesday as weather permits and stop the fun and get to work. We haul out on the 12th and fly home on the 18th.