Pink Plantation

My meal was grilled vegetables on a salad with feta and jumbo shrimp.

The view of Castries harbour.

Some of the pottery and it was used on the table but taken off when the food arrived. 

Last week we took a taxi bus to the Pink Planation. It is an old Planation house from the 1800s remade into a restaurant and pottery shop. The owner/ potter  was there to talk about the place and the meal was amazing. Just a few pictures to show you ........we don't always work we play a lot!

A picture blog

A couple weeks ago we had the pleasure of meeting a family from Maine on a beautiful gaff-rigged 60 foot wooden schooner Koukla. We had sundowners and snacks and a tour inside and out along with about 20 other cruisers. The husband and wife and their two children and their sprouces were aboard and it took three of them to perform amost any task .....raising the main sail,anchoring etc. The wood as you can see was amazing and so well cared for. The son Scott told us they went through almost a case of varnish a year keeping it looking like it did. 

More pictures

Here you can see Pidgeon Island in the background where we anchor. 

The marina shops and restaurants.

Brian went up the mast last week while at the marina. He took the camera up with him to photograph lights and connections while he was there. I will spare you those but the shots of the marina area are quite good and even a selfie from atop the mast. That would be 56 feet in the air. 

Past due for an update

When we are on the dock there is very little going on around us and a lot of jobs got done but it makes for a pretty boring blog. But we have moved out in the bay on Monday and will bring you up to date. We did get a lot of jobs done and things are looking good. We have been having a difficult time with our fridge and it was running all the time and not really keeping up but using a lot of battery power. We had another service call on it and all is working so Brian took on the challenge of adding more insulation to it. We bought a 4x8 sheet of 3/4 inch foil sided foam board and Brian cut and taped the pieces on the sides as best as he could get at. We have been able to dial back the fridge and it is colder than ever. Success! The main sail was repaired and reinstalled. The canvas was cleaned. Brian finally got the frozen turnbuckle on the rod rigging( just the supports for the mast) to move. An other cruiser we met in the Saintes previously had a C&C 38 and he helped Brian for a couple days trying to get the rigging tuned. But without all the turnbuckles moving it can't be properly tuned. So now with everything moving it is as tuned as best he knows. The instrument situation should be resolved tomorrow when we go into the marina again (only for a few hours) to have them installed. So we are just about ship shape again! We have company coming on the 28th and will take Serge to Martinique for some open ocean sailing and a taste of the cruising life. He is our only company this year and we are looking forward to it. 

While in the bay we have had a couple of beautiful neighbours come and go. The views you have to put up with! 

This morning we have an outing planned with the gang we play with. It is to the Pink Planation a restaurant in a lovely garden setting overlooking the ocean. More pictures to follow on that. 

This week was my birthday and it was certainly not the joyous event it usually is,we got word that Brian's mother passed away the morning of the 18th. She was three weeks short of her 95th birthday and went very quickly and peacefully. What more could you ask for. She was a wonderful women and a good friend to me,we will certainly miss her. We will have a Celebration of her Life when we return in May as was previously discussed amougst Brian and his brothers. 

Pictures from St Ann Carnival

Carnival happens at different times on different islands and we managed to catch a bit of it in St Ann last week. This was on Tuesday March 4. Everything was done in red and black and  that day with a devil theme. I must try to do some research and see what all the colors and themes indicate. But here are some pictures of the very small parade. 

Back in St Lucia

We had a lovely sail, averaging 5.5 knots...no motoring from St Ann to Rodney Bay on Wed. We went right into the dock where we have a "to do" list with 18 points and some with sub points. ( sail repair, oil change, have refrigeration checked, wash down everything outside, launder just about everything inside...etc. Etc.) It is lovely to be on the dock and not think about energy or water and have hot showers and a pool. But the down side is we have to pay at the end of the week unlike the bay where we pay nothing. 

This is the view from the restaurant where we had lunch today. We are the one with the big Canadian flag that we seem to known for ???? 

We're off to a FOD (Friends of Denis) meeting aboard a 60 ft gaff rigged schooner this afternoon. Denis is our weather prognosticator who runs a SSB net every morning and when three or more of those who participate get into the same anchorage it is required to have a meeting including agenda and minutes to be reported the next day. The agenda rarely gets past opening introductions and remarks such as "what would you like to drink?" It's a wonderful way to meet new people particularly when you've heard their voices so often. The FOD also has less formal meetings when there are two and sometimes more boats available. These are SEED meetings (Society of Early Evening Drinkers) they often result in some abstract suggestions for the agenda of the next formal meeting. Both have the same objective, commradie and a lot of laughs. 

A walk to the beach

On Saturday we walked to the beach and met some friends for a "beer bob". That is where you get a beer go into the ocean in the most perfect sandy beach and bob and dance to the music that is playing at the beach bar that sold you the beer. Water aerobics of a sort I guess. Sorry we have no pictures of that. 

The walk from the town to the beach was quite entertaining and some lovely views of the bay. Often the cemeteries are built on what we would call prime real estate .....ocean front properties. 

The crypts are quite large and house many generations of family members and plastic flowers and ornaments are plentiful. 

Yes it is a purple Jesus. 

The view from the road and our boat is about the furthest back in the first picture. 

The story is that the EU provided funds for the catacombs under the cemetery to be sealed and a huge retaining wall built because erosion was pulling bones and such out and depositing them on the beach!

Hurray for the European Union!

Quiet time in St Ann

We have been here for five days and really haven't done a lot so not much to report other than the good books we are reading,visiting with friends,shopping at a few chandleries, grocery shopping etc. We have got a lot of small jobs completed on the boat. All is going well except our refrigerator which has been making a small noise but yesterday it sounded worse. We have now turned it off buying ice and will have it looked at in Rodney Bay next week. Always something! The bay we are in is a huge not crowded bay and the winds have been quite strong so energy is well supplied since the fridge is off the energy needs are very small. The town close to this bay is a cute little town with many shops,cafés and bigger restaurants. The larger city Le Marin is about a 20 minute dinghy ride .....that is where all the chandeliers and big grocery shopping are. We spent the day in town on Wed and had a wet ride back loaded up with supplies. The carnival is going on here now and some music was heard last night from the beach and a parade is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. We will try to partake of that. But it is really hard to get much info as to what's happening when.

This was our view from the back of the boat the other night. No green flash but a gorgeous sunset.