Going biking
Is it Murphy’s Law or just Karma that on the day after I make a big post bragging about our anchoring prowess, we find ourselves in a bit of drama getting our anchor down?
In keeping with our “decide at the last minute where we’re going to go” method of planning, we booked ourselves to go on a Jungle Biking Adventure today. Thanks to Thomas who posted on our blog about this place because it sounds really cool. Booking the trip just yesterday morning though meant we had to get moving. We had planned to visit Pigeon Island to do a bit of hiking/exploring so we jumped in the dinghy and made a morning of it. I don’t know how Rebecca does it but she has a knack for finding really steep hills to climb. 🙁 The scenery was beautiful though, even if I had to work a bit to get to some of it. We definitely recommend this hike!
After arriving back to our boat shortly before noon, we upped anchor and set sail for Anse Chastanet, 15 miles south of Rodney Bay. The weather was excellent for sailing and we cruised parallel to the coast on a nice beam reach. Awesome.
When we booked the biking excursion, we were informed that because that entire area is a park, anchoring is very limited. We were told that there were a “few” moorings available or we could anchor right off their beach, one of the only places where anchoring is permitted. Initially we were going to take the easy route and just pick up a mooring but as we made our approach, we found that a “few” moorings actually meant two, and both of them were taken. No problem, we’ll save some money and anchor. I called Scuba St. Lucia, who runs the biking trips, to confirm that this would be OK. They assured me that it was BUT they also warned that if we dropped our anchor in coral, we would be fined $5000.00 US! The guide book confirms this, although it says up to $5000.00. Anyway, as you might imagine, that made us a bit nervous. Also, our awesome Garmin chartplotter showed basically no detail for the area, so we were going to be heading in using only our depth gauge and eyeballs.
If things weren’t complicated enough, the bay turned out to be pretty small and there was one boat already at anchor in the middle of it and he didn’t appear to be lying to the wind as a boat normally would. That is a good indication that he had a stern anchor set to hold him in place and as we came up alongside, we verified that this was the case. Great, that meant that we need to do the same. In retrospect, we should have pulled back out into deeper water, gotten ourselves organized and then came back in again when we were ready. Foolishly, we instead quickly picked our spot, dropped our main anchor and then while Rebecca tried to hold us in place with the engines, I quickly assembled our stern anchor (we keep it broken down in a bag in our lazarette) and made ready to deploy it. This is about when Simon came to lend a hand. Simon Pascal runs Giddy Up Tours and after a warm greeting, he took our stern anchor in his boat and started to take it out for us. He also helped to pull us away from the previously-mentioned boat at anchor, as we had started to drift into him. The entire experience involved a lot more steps, including a bunch of swimming to get that second anchor set, but as I’ve already written far too much on the anchor subject, I’ll stop here. I should mention though that right after all that stuff went down, the other boat left. Typical. At least we then had the place to ourselves. 🙂
The beach we are anchored off of is part of the Anse Chastanet Resort and it is beautiful. There is a nice little “beach bar” there, or what we thought was a beach bar. Our definition of beach bar is one that you can swim to, which is what we attempted to do after getting settled yesterday. Upon arriving though, we found a sign there saying that wet bathing suits were not welcome. Oh well, more money saved. 🙂
Anchorage: Anse Chastanet, St. Lucia
Internet on boat with Alfa: Yes. Free.
Internet on boat without Alfa: Yes. Free.
Internet on shore: NA
Very nice pics today Mike. Did Rebecca put you behind bars for falling behind on the hike up the steep hill?lol
Don’t give her ideas.
You’re photos are always beautiful but some of these took my breath away. The one through the stone window down to the point, the one of Rebecca high up on the hill overlooking the point, and then that last one – WOW! (tell me that wasn’t the “really steep hill Rebecca found” for you to climb! hahaha!)
Fortunately no, that was not the hill we climbed. That was Petit Piton.
That’s good. And – MY BAD – I used you’re instead of your. I hate it when people do that and then I go and do it. The only reason I can think of is that my head is back in the BVI all – ALL – day and all night (dreams). I am hoping that it will catch up with the rest of my body and get back to Vancouver soon so that I can actually make some sense when I write and talk.
🙂
Nice pictures of the Piton mountains. Don’t forget to try the Piton beer while you’re there. And when you get to Grenada try True Blue Bay for a nice break. Friday night is the party night.
Fair winds…
Tom
Hi Tom. We have already “made friends” with Piton beer. 🙂 We’ll look for that place in Grenada too!
One other suggestion. While on St Lucia try to get the helicopter tour. You can pick it up at either Veiouxfort (sp?) or Castries airports.
Make sure you have new batteries in the camera for the tour. 🙂
hmmm… I haven’t checked the prices but helicopter tours are generally outside of our entertainment budget.
You put up 24 pics. That’s a lot, but all lovely, Thank-you.
As an aside how long did that take? And how easy? I ask because I am considering using WordPress for a new website (non boaty) and I wondered what your view is of it.
Thanks.
(email me if you don’t want to publish a comment, thanks)
I just put up another 24 today, posted on a poached wifi signal while about 2 miles offshore. It took me 5 minutes to upload them but only because on this computer I need to do them one at a time. On our little PC I can select them all and upload and I suspect it would have been way faster.
We have gone diving and stayed at Anse Chastanet a few times. Nice place. Hopefully Bernd and Jungle took care of you and helped you out. The bat cave over around Soufriere on the Anse Chastanet side where the mooring balls are is an interesting sight at dusk.
We didn’t meet Bernard but we did meet Jungle. He took us in his boat back and forth from the beach where the bike riding takes place.
Being an equal opportunity blog reader, the ladies that read this blog would like to know when we can have pictures of you pole dancing, Mike.
You didn’t like the pic of me doing the half flag on yesterday’s post?
🙂
PS: I don’t dance.
Ah! I love it, a picture of Mike pole dancing! Also this is a perfect example of why your blog is the best. ” Upon arriving though, we found a sign there saying that wet bathing suits were not welcome. Oh well, more money saved.” You didn’t get mad about it – or lambaste the establishment. Just went on about enjoying your lives!
The pics of Rebecca are better. 🙂