Oct. 31,2021.
Oct 29 was our first cool evening in Marigot Bay St Lucia. We spent the evening at Doolittle’s Restaurant for seafood dinner and pool (billiards). Surprise! It was cool on the boat ride back. Not cool enough to need a sweater, but a noticeable change. The cool breeze persisted and it was still cool next morning rather than – well — not cool (ie less hot than mid-day). It reminded me why we might someday need light sweaters again. The evening and morning weather has been decidedly refreshing this week providing a sign that the stronger winter trade winds will soon be here. Soon, also, the marinas and anchorages will be full of boats arriving from America and from the Canary Islands. As the snowbirds arrive, we will be on our way a bit further north. We plan to meet the Grand large yachting World Odyssey 500 (GLYWO500), a round-the-world rally, in January for the departure to Panama. With the French Islands opening up, we are contemplating being in Les Saintes for New Years at the same anchorage where we started our last round-the-world 15 years ago.
The fleet of GLYWO boats has left the Mediterranean Sea and are now in the Canary Islands. You can see the entire fleet of boats on our web site “where are we” page. Note that BioTrek is waiting in the Caribbean for the fleet to arrive. There are a few more boats joining in the Caribbean that have not yet activated GPS tracking, and altogether there are more than 40 boats.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic is still stalking the world, the French Islands are doing better. After almost 2 years of being closed, the French South Pacific is now open to vaccinated travelers. We are optimistic that round-the-world sailing will again be possible. If Covid heats up again, we have continency planes – see this video.
We are getting ready to be long-distance sailors again. We have adjusted rigging, ordered new sails, and Pierre is busy refining energy systems on BioTrek. This week Pierre installed a new alternators that are better suited for use with lithium batteries because they are Canbus controlled.
It will be sad to leave this beautiful island of St. Lucia where we have spent the summer to fall hurricane season. We have made good friends and feel like Marigot Bay is our home. We will especially miss Troy, marina manager par excellence. I’ll be making a video on the “Best of St Lucia” after we leave.
The picture below is from Doolittle’s, the restaurant named for the film Dr. Doolittle staring Rex Harrison that was filmed in 1967 in Marigot Bay for the tropical scenes. According to Wikipedia, the film had many difficulties with the animals, including trouble with a parrot that learned to yell “cut”.
I really enjoy comments from all our virtual friends around the world via our YouTube platform (Thank You!). We also love to hear from family and friends back home. Don’t be shy – you can comment on Youtube also – it helps inspire me. As always, stay safe and stay healthy! – Lisa