Winding down…..
We spent another week or so in the Rodney Bay marina, first recovering, and then cleaning. Predictably, the boat was a sty, and our energy for dealing with it was at an all-time low. But the best motivation was imminent: Mia and her partner Greg were arriving on the 21st to spend Christmas with us, and that meant we needed to tackle the big stuff. Cleaning out the bilges, organizing leftover food, cleaning bathrooms, laundering sheets, and making the boat shiny again. So, I took all the bed linens to the local laundry. Check. I hired two women to come and clean the heads and the galley. Check. Peter worked outside – scrubbing the salt off the decks, polishing chrome, and putting up Christmas lights – and I worked inside – making beds, storing food leftover from the crossing, cleaning out cupboards, and wrapping little gifts. I found fuzzy red Christmas stockings in a supermarket on our way back from the airport with the kids, four pairs of oversized plastic glasses festooned with sequined Christmas trees, and Peter picked up a tabletop tree at the hardware store. It was plenty. By the time the 21st rolled around, Monique moved to a friend’s boat, the Fish was ship-shape again, and we were thrilled to have at least one of our girls with us for Christmas.
We left the next morning for Marigot Bay, a quick trip down the coast. The density of boats in the bay itself was unappealing and the water was murky, so we went back out to the channel and picked up a mooring ball there. Mia and Greg were in the water immediately and off exploring the underwater theater around us. It suddenly felt like the good old days of our first season in Greece. A hop to a new destination, get settled, explore, and then spend the evening eating good food, drinking good wine, and enjoying good conversation.
The next morning, we made another brief hop to Anse Chastanet, part of the large marine reserve that dots the southwestern side of St. Lucia. Mia had never been anywhere with good snorkeling, and her intense joy at the wonders that awaited us was huge fun for the rest of us, too. We picked up a mooring ball north of the beach, with its resort, tourist boats, and crowded waters, and the underwater spectacle right off the back of the boat was thrilling. We were alone, and we were surrounded by corals of all shapes and sizes, and an ever-changing colorful smorgasbord of tropical fish and invertebrates. And an octopus!
The day after we found a mooring ball in the southern end of Soufriere, which is a jumping off spot for visiting the volcano and the mud baths, spending time in the latter being Greg’s dearest wish for the trip. So, we found a taxi and spent the afternoon first learning about the world’s only “drive-in” volcano and then soaking in the mud baths below.
Le Grand Piton and Le Petit Piton are the iconic landmarks of St. Lucia, and we spent Christmas in the bay between them. There’s good snorkeling under Le Petit, and we spent hours exploring the area. We’d seen several lionfish already but watched a group of teen boys harassing a large one, and it was one of those things where you almost hope it bites them, but you know you’d feel bad if it did. I learned after the fact that while inspecting a shallow inlet among some boulders I unwittingly swam right over a large stonefish, which blended seamlessly into the rocks on the bottom, just a foot or so under me. Apparently, Peter and the kids thought I’d seen it, and held their collective breath as it became clear I hadn’t. More venomous than lionfish, and in my defense, very well camouflaged. See? If one of those boys had been bitten by the lionfish, the stonefish would have bitten me, too. That’s how it works. But nudibranchs were the highlight here, rippling green slugs that once we’d identified them, we started seeing all around us.
Otherwise, Christmas day was a blur of big gooey cinnamon rolls, opening small silly gifts, calls to family, including Greg’s parents and sister in Florida, and card games. Mia and Greg are obsessed with games, and over the week they were with us we played several games I’d never heard of before. It was also clear that Mia and Greg are very competitive in their games, and it reminded me of the cutthroat games of Smear, aka High-Low-Jack-Game my siblings and I played throughout his life with my dad. In other words, she comes by it honestly. Not sure what Greg’s excuse is, but he deserves to be an honorary McCarthy because of it.
We headed north again and spent our last few days in Rodney Bay, snorkeling and exploring Pigeon Island and the fort ruins there, and re-provisioning. Mia and Greg left entirely too soon, the boat was unnaturally quiet, and we were left alone once more. For the first time since the second week of November!
UP NEXT: Martinique… and a visit to Denver!
