Diary for Peter and Terry's Adventures


Another Villa Another View

2014-12-06 to 2014-12-13

It turned out that Sunday was moving day, not Thursday.  Oh well.  We were required to pack everything, including food, and vacate the villa by 11:00 with the promise that we could move into the next one after 2:30.  The staff would move luggage and food.  What to do with 3 and a half hours?

Rather than waiting around the resort, we took a taxi to Pigeon Island National Landmark at the north end of the St. Lucia, overlooking Rodney Bay.  An historic site that figured prominently in the wars between the English and French over the ownership of the Caribbean Islands.  Fort Rodney is here, as well as a US Navy Signal station that was manned during WWII.  Now it is a 44 acre park with ruins, cannons and lots of history.  We walked around, and T climbed to the Signal Station for a few photos, then we found a very reasonable lunch at the restaurant in the park.

An expensive water taxi took us to Rodney Bay Marina, where we visited Reberth for a while.  They were still in the process of removing the accumulated salt from several thousand miles of ocean voyaging.  Vinegar is apparently the solution, and the only vinegar they could find in the Canaries and Cape Verdes was white wine vinegar - which left a pungent but pleasant aroma!

By this time we were ready to return to Windjammer and move into the new villa.  Slightly smaller but with very adequate space and a 30 foot pool.  Still a good view of Martinique, but no view of the beach at the resort - we are still about 300 feet above sea level.

On Tuesday, a friend organized a visit to the Pan Yard of the Pantime Steel Orchestra.  We were shown how the used (mostly) oil drums are converted into musical instruments.  They said that pans are the only "new" musical instrument invented in the last century!  It involves a lot of pounding to hollow out the bottom, and a lot of tuning as each pan has several notes - sometimes only three, but up to an octave and a half. Once finished, some are sent to Trinidad for chroming. Next, we were lined up at our own pans and trained to play "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In".  It was a hoot and you can certainly appreciate the skill of the players who can all hit the same note at the same time.  The Pantime Steel Orchestra can have up to 80 players and in competition there would be a minimum of 30. That's a lot of organizing and practice! The orchestra is on YouTube if you want to hear how it should be done.

Yesterday, Friday, we went to the Pink Plantation House for lunch, but took no pictures (been there done that…).  In the harbour was the cruise ship 'Insignia', which had an engine room fire on Thursday, killing three crew and ending the cruise for over 600 passengers.