We dropped our mooring at the base of the Petit Piton under sail at around 0900 on 24th March and departed Soufriere for Rodney Bay at the extreme north ofthe Island.
Rodney Bay is named after the 18th Century Admiral Rodney who led a slightly chequered career with the Royal Navy. He is credited with creating the naval base on Pigeon Island on the north side of the bay which now bears his name but as mentioned in a previous post, he was heavilly criticised for allowing the French to capture the island of Tobago in 1763 without a shot being fired in its defence.
Before visiting Pigeon Island to survey Admiral Rodney's good works, Mick and I had a most important mission of our own to undertake in the Capital of the Island, Castrise, some five miles or so down the coast. Our mission was to collect a replacement Ocean Crusing Club House flag which m
Mick had ordered and paid for and had arranged to be sent to the Post Office. So we got up early on Monday and took the dinghy into the Lagoon in order to catch the bus into Castrise.
Our first obstacle was a local on the make at the dinghy dock. Initially all smiles, he took our painter and bag of rubbish, but then before we could proffer our thanks by way of a $5 EC note, demanded payment of $10 US for his troubles - the equivalent of $27 EC! He produced a $10 US note as evidence that this was what others had given him. We said "no" whereupon he grudgingly suggested $10 EC woud do. We said no again and I took the bag of rubbish intending to dispose of it myself. At this point he even more grudgingly accepted the $5US thank you we had first offered. Off we went only for me to quickly imagine a return in which I found a vandalised dinghy. Consoling myself with the thought that that would not be a good advertisement of his services to subsequent customers we continued on our way.
So off we went and caught the bus into Castrise. A lively and substantial town comprising a mixture of old style Carribean properties built from wood and much more recent stone and concrete edifies such as one would find in any western town. We found the Post Office easilly enough only to discover a notice on the door announcing that it was closed all day for the pupose of deep cleaning.
We decided to waste no more time and instead went in search of the bus back to Rodney Bay with the intention of visiting Pigeon Island - which originally, we had planned to do the following day, when, now, we would have to return to Castrise.
After lunch in the Marina we set off on foot along the shore for Pigeon Island...
.... a walk of about two miles. It involved walking across the beach fronts of two holiday resorts.
The resorts were not allowed to own the beaches and so we were free to walk across them. The first resort had breached the beach and built a canal to access a lagoon behind it and they therefore had to provide a free ferry service across the canal to anyone who wanted to cross. The boatman was a friendly soul and so we tipped him with $5 EC which he seemed happy with.
The second resort had the most hilarious approach to visitors yet. We arrived on their section of the beach to be 'greeted' by a most splendid looking footpath of stones set into the sand that traversed 'their' section of the beach. Along it we walked only to be hailed from behind by a security guard. We stopped and waited. I suspected I knew what was about to follow. Rather sheepishly he informed us that we were not allowed to walk on the footpath but would have to walk on the beach itself. I feigned surprise - "do you think visitors are going to wear out the path faster than the guests", I asked tongue in cheek. The poor chap was clearly most embarrased at having to enforce such a crazy rule and said he was sorry but that was the rule. I toyed with the idea of walking on but clearly it woud be him who would get it in the neck if the boss - whoever he or she was - saw what was going on and so I smiled - said I understood it wasn't his fault and we moved off the path onto the beach to continue our quest to discover Admiral Rodney's legacy.
It cost $10 US each to enter the Pigeon Island Park which, once we had been around the entire park and had seen what there was to see - not a great deal - seemed over priced. Hopefully at least some of the ordinary local folk benefit from it.
The first structure of note was Fort Rodney perched at the top of the southern peak of Pigeon island.
Stone ramparts, two old naval cannons minus their carriages and the old magazine store was all there was to see along with an explanatory notice board.
The view from Fort Rodney was impressive - nothing was likely to escape the attention of the cannons up here...
Next was "Musket Redoubt" - a sort of hidy hole on top of the hill from which defenders could hide away and be ready to poor down the slopes on either side to rout any French attackers silly enough to attempt an uphill assualt.
Next we crossed to the other end of Pigeon Island and up the even higher, Flagstaff Hill, from where the troops would signal the fleet below in Rodney Bay, should they observe any sign of a French intrusion from Martinique some 25 miles to the north and which we could make out through the haze.
Nearby was the "Two Gun Battery" overlooking the bay to the North of Pigeon Island. Presumbly the concern was that a wiley Frenchman or two may escape detection by the Flagstaff lookouts and gain access to the bay. If so they would be sitting ducks and no doubt sent to the bottom without further ceremony!
Only one of the two guns remained but at least it still had its carriage...
The elevation scale was still readable.
Making our way down the hill towards the entrance/exit we then came across the old barracks which were in sorry state.
It looked as if perhaps some attempts at preservtion had been started many years ago but had stopped after very little progress had been made. The place was surrounded by warning signs that the structure was unstable - the signs looked to be nearly as old as the crumbling buildings themselves.
On our way back to the marina we stopped off very briefly at a beach cafe only to beat a hasty retreat once we discoverd they were charging double what we had earlier paid for a beer in the park restaurant. Later we stopped off at a roadside bar that charged normal prices and was run by most charming woman who gave us the low down on the local political scene. Apparently there re two main political parties in St Lucia. The Labour Party and the United Workers Party. We couldn't work out which was more left wing and which more right wing, but perhaps like other countries one could mention, there wasn't much difference!
Today - Tuesday 26th March, Mick returned to Castries to collect our flag, only to be foiled once again. The Post Office denied all knowledge of its existence. We were pretty pissed off because it was the only reason we had stayed. Yesterday we would have had a good sail to our next destination, Martinique, whereas tomorrow it looks like there will be no wind and we will have to motor. We're leaving, because there are unusually, westerly winds on the way, which will make this anchorage rather uncomfortable uncomfortable!
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