We were told that we had to go to this restaurant in one of the old English fort buildings at Pigeon Island National Park.  Apparently, this is a hangout for noon-drinking from yachties from Rodney Bay marina. 

When we went there, it had just opened and we were the first people.  We chatted with the owner/chef.  He sounded like he just wanted to talk to someone as I think it had been a slow year.

Again, at the French restaurant in the old English fort at Pigeon Point on St. Lucia. When we got there at noon, we were the only customers (not a lot of tourists because of COVID). The restaurant is really just a couple of tables in fairly narrow places with short ceilings. They even had some sofas with low tables that they said we could sit at. The owner and chef was very friendly, and glad to have paying customers. We chose probably the best table in the place with the best view and ordered a couple of drinks. For lunch, I had something with crabs. It was very good, with lots of garlic, but, unfortunately, unknown to me, the crabs were all the local, and small, type. Again, lots of garlic make anything taste good, but it took me forever to get the meat out of the tiny crabs. I felt like a newby who doesn’t know how to eat a lobster – experienced people can eat one without getting messing, where newbys revel in getting all messy. I didn’t revel.

This pic is from the top of the English fort on Pigeon Island. The fort is at the end of the peninsula, overlooking the entry to Rodney Bay (so they could blast the nasty French if they tried to come and bring their repugnant swill to St. Lucia).

All of the cannons had the British insignia cast right into the body. Branding.

Rodney Bay Marina is in an inlet straight ahead in this shot. You can see a little blue water behind the shoreline on the left of the picture. That is the marina.

Just a quick shot of Rodney Bay from the top of the old English fort at the end of Pigeon Point. I’m pretty sure that is our boat in the middle. The Sandals is to the left on the shoreline, while there are several other nice hotels along the rest of the shore. The marina entrance is to the right and out-of-frame.

We were told about this harbor about 2 hours south of Rodney Bay on the west coast of St. Lucia, so stopped down for a couple of days. While we were there, it was fairly well protected from swells, but another time we stayed it wasn’t.

It is a small bay with a nice hill-side resort. The beach is fairly small, but the resort does the best it can to keep it clean.

When we got there, we were met by “boat boys” (the yellow kayaker in the pic above) who come out and try to sell you trinkets. Usually they also want to shake you down for beer. They were fine. I may have bought some necklaces because he made me feel guilty – when will I ever learn?

Anyway, the bay is mostly a day-stop for snorkelers from paid patrons of organized tours or resorts. The charters pull in a couple of times a day, tie up at the couple of moorings, people hop off and go snorkeling, have some lunch, and then head out. Then someone else comes in. Pretty well coordinated and scheduled.

The snorkeling is pretty good, but you have to go when the charters aren’t there as it gets pretty crowded.

At night, it gets very quiet. There were only 1 or 2 other boats anchored when we were there.

At sunrise, fishermen are all over Anse Cachon. They have 3-5 people in a narrow, long, wooden boat with an outboard. They use palm fronds to hit the water, then they have one guy with a snorkel hop in the water and scout for fish. If that spotter gives a positive indication, they throw in a big net and circle the area with the boat. Then they get everyone in the boat to drag in the net. There is one guy in the boat whose entire job is to bail while all this is going on. It looked to me like the guy driving the outboard was in charge and the bailer was at the bottom of the rung (trainee).

Every morning we would see at least 3 crews go through the area. They ignore the anchored yachts and it is interesting to watch. I assume this practice is as old as inhabitants have been on the island (except for the outboard and the plastic mask/snorkel).

Surprisingly, there were few days when the sunsets were fabulous, so we were required to take a pic.

We met this woman outside the gate to the Rodney Bay marina in St. Lucia. The first time we walked by, we just chatted her up to see what she had to sell and what her schedule was. Interestingly, we found out that her schedule was “I’m here until I run out of food”, and, when she found out that we were going to the grocery store, she gave us her frequent-shopper card.

I didn’t quite understand this, as it seemed like she was giving us a credit card or something. I think she was just very trusting, wanted us to get any discounts that we otherwise wouldn’t get, and wanted to run up her points. Anyways, I thought it was something that never would happen in the U.S.

We ended up buying some rotis from her later in our stay. (A roti is a local “wrap” that has some kind of curry-based mixture inside. Either chicken or beef as I recall. Also, the shell is not wheat or corn-based – something else.) The rotis were fantastic. I believe she had been very highly reviewed on TripAdvisor. I also thought that was funny – that street vendors were getting reviewed on TripAdvisor.

This is a standard tourist destination, although the day we were there, no one else was there. COVID.

We got a tour-guide and decided to walk in. Strong smell of sulfur, lots of vents, and hot springs. We took the tour, didn’t buy any trinkets from the street vendors, and left.

One day we rented a car and decided to see much of the island that we couldn’t see from the water. Around lunch time, we stopped at this beach bar in the south of St. Lucia. It is very close to the air-strip in the south. There were a couple of other people there, but otherwise very empty. My impression was that this beach is normally very busy – signs for kit boarding lessons and festivals.

We met the owner/chef and ordered some lunch. It was fine and we sat out and enjoyed the beach. Very nice beach with a big, open, and seemingly protected bay. Unfortunately, it’s also known as an area where there is crime against tourists and boaters.