December finds us in St. Lucia for three weeks.
What happened after Arthur? Lots of projects on the island (painting, new heat pump, gardening), and a trip to Ottawa, Picton and Edmonton to visit family and friends. We moved from the Island in November and flew to St. Lucia at the end of the month.
Here in St. Lucia we are at Windjammer Landing, a resort on the northwest side of the island where we have a three week timeshare. We have not visited for the last two years, so our accumulated points allowed us to upgrade our one bedroom villa to a two-bedroom villa. After we arrived and got the booking confusion sorted out we were taken to Villa 406. The shuttle driver told us this is one of the BEST villas in the resort. Indeed, that is an understatement. Not two but FOUR bedrooms, all with ensuite bath, large kitchen, dining room, living room and an entry foyer large enough to hold a medium sized cocktail party! Outside, a very large patio (think LARGE cocktail party) overlooking the resort with views of Castries (the main city to the south) and Rupert's Bay / Pigeon Island and on clear days Martinique to the north . The pool is about 40 feet long - enough to do laps without having to get into the pesky salt water and sand on the beach! Regrettably on Thursday we must move to a different unit because of scheduling problems at the resort. Nevertheless it will be larger than our usual accommodations.
As we were planning the winter we were in touch with friends on Reberth, a 41 foot Gozzard sailboat. They announced that they were doing the ARC+ (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) from the Cape Verde Islands to St. Lucia, arriving in the first week of December. We have been tracking them since they left the Cape Verdes on Nov 19 until their arrival yesterday. Just over 2000 nautical miles and about two weeks at sea. We took a taxi to Rodney Bay Marina and were there for the arrival, rum punch and champagne toasts. Other friends from the 2004 Caribbean 1500 were also there so we had a little catch-up visit with them too.
Lunch and grocery shopping followed. Lunch was at Spice of India, which was just opening when we visited last in 2011. Excellent Indian food with a taster's lunch at a reasonable price. They have been the #1 restaurant in St. Lucia on Trip Advisor for the last four years!
We understand there is a tour of a Pan factory (you know, the steel drums used all over the Caribbean), so we are waiting for details and hope to report later.
We are here untiil Dec 20, when we fly on to La Antigua Guatemala.