Fore Warned Is Fore Armed

Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

As we proceed south, security becomes more of an issue.  We rely on resources such as www.noonsite.com and Seven Seas Cruising Association (SSCA), for security information about countries.  One of the more succinct security advisories was published by the SSCA giving a “Caribbean Security Index” of 1-10 (10, safest) for the both anchoring out and marinas at various cruising destinations.  For example Haiti received a 5.8 while St. Barth’s received a 9.8.  Unfortunately, St. Lucia received a 9.6 for marinas and a 7.0 for anchoring out with this note. “…In harbor at marinas safe; anchoring out increasingly less safe.  The country has been ill managed in recent years….”

So we opted for the IGY Rodney Bay Marina.  Basically you are in a gated community with floating docks and a pool.  They had several restaurants and boat chandleries on site.  I asked Pollie why she didn’t take more pictures of Rodney Bay and she said that nothing caught her interest.  So, I guess you can say Rodney Bay was nice, but not all that exciting.

Even with the security, Gregory the fruit vendor made it to our boat.  We were able to buy fresh pineapple, papaya, avocados, and tomatoes from Gregory.  His prices were a little high, but it was worth it for the show.

Our next stop was Marigot Bay.  With a charter fleet stationed there, we figured it was probably fairly safe.

The marina offered moorings inside a well protected (from wind and waves), but active lagoon.

Transportation to the restaurants and the beach was provided by a couple of water taxies that operated from early morning and into the night.

We took advantage of the water taxies for breakfast at the Marina Village and dinners at Doolittle’sand The Rainforest Hideaway.

Banana Man

                                                                               Photo courtesy of Izzy St. Clair on Izzy R

This was the scariest dude we ran into while on St. Lucia, so we enjoyed the island.

The next big island is St. Vincent with a rating of 5.6 (ouch, worse than Haiti). The associated note said, “…Land and seascape beautiful and popular with cruisers, but crimes against cruisers are on the rise.  Grenadines are preferable.”  As we blew by St. Vincent for the Grenadines, I counted only 5 cruising boats at anchor on the whole island.