Northbound

Northbound, we made quick stops at the French islands. There would be no wine, no cheese, no expresso and pastries and no chocolate. How sad. The French islands have been on strike for over a month now so they are depleted of many things including yummy French food, fuel, transportation, etc.

In the meantime, however, there are many other wonderful places to visit and shop.

Here is the southern end of St. Lucia, known as the Pitons. The Pitons are beautiful and have a rich history. The island was fought over and changed hands 14 times between the French and English. The early Indians revered and worshipped the Pitons and runaway slaves found safe sanctuary in these 3000 foot tall volcanic peaks.

You can pickup a mooring ball or if you are a big yacht like the Phoenix, you can get special permission to anchor. You can book your charter on this gorgeous boat for a mere $500,000.00 per week. Go ahead and invite 10 of your best friends along. You will be spoiled by the 12 crew members that will look after your every whim and desire.

On shore you can be dazzled by the Jalousie Plantation resort. They have a great restaurant, beautiful beaches, villas with private plunge pools and a great rainforest hiking trail

But most of all we love sitting on the boat and watching the sights. The beautiful sunsets

cruise ships passing by for a lookAnd the snorkeling is not bad either

At the northern end of St. Lucia is Rodney Bay. This is one of the many playgrounds of the boating world. It has a great marina, lots of restaurants, great markets and a great old English Fort on Pigeon Island. Pigeon Island was used as an outpost to watch the French on neighboring Martinique Island. It is now a great hiking adventure with great views and a nice breeze.

There are plenty of relics to see

Old soldier barracks are still standing and undergoing restoration.....sort of.

It is easy to see what an advantage the English had over their enemies with this view. The old guns are still pointed at the harbor entrance....imagine pushing this gun around!

Captain Clean wishes you peace and a nice day

Next stop was Antigua, another playground of yachtsman. Here you see (in the background)the Maltese Falcon leaving the anchorage. The three masts are all electronically controlled from inside the boat. Sail raising, lowering and all manuvering is via electronic controls. You can have one built for about $100 Million!

Should you still be thinking about a charter, the Ilona from Sydney Australia is available. It even has a helicopter below the decks for any urgent business you may need to attend to.

Antigua is all about racing. The power yachts are here to watch and enjoy but the sailboats are here to perform. They are primped and cared for by their crews. Their decks, hulls and rigging are spit shined and polished.

Lucky for us a race, the RORC 600 was scheduled during our stay. Race day saw tradewinds of 20-25 knots. And then the squall arrived. Sails were reefed, sails went down and then back up. The trimaran, Guadaloupe, is almost airborne here. It eventually is the first boat to finish the race. Traveling at top speeds of 24 knots with an average of 15 knots overall, it finished the 600 miles in 40 hours. I am sure it was a wet ride.

Leopard is the large boat. She was the second boat to finish, first monohull, with a time of approximately 44 hours. The crew spent alot of time sitting on the weather rail during this race.

Afterwards we hiked over the hills and back to our small safe sancturary, Fine Line.

Next stop is Barbuda, a new destination for us.

Anne and Steve

S/V Fine Line