This is our final post from St. Lucia. 

As Frank and I were flying home, my dad called with news that my mother had fallen and broken her shoulder.  I diverted to South Carolina and have been here helping out (and she is finding her own sea legs again). 

But since this was our absolutely favorite day, I am determined to finish this one so Frank and I can look back on these beautiful memories.

When I left off, Frank and I were sailing with Bateaux Mygo on a private sailboat down the coast of St. Lucia, heading to the Pitons, the twin peaks formed by volcanic activity that are on all the St. Lucian postcards.

They are a spectacular site.

Here’s the rest of the blog that I wrote while still in St. Lucia – not knowing what life would bring next . . . .

Once we got closer, we took down the sails and ducked into the town of Soufriere, which is the historic capital of St. Lucia.

It was lunchtime. Before we knew it, the boat slowed and First Mate Andrez hopped in the dinghy and took off – apparently to pick up our lunch.

When he returned, we had a wonderful surprise. His aunt lives in Soufriere and had cooked us an authentic St. Lucian feast – grilled chicken, rice, noodles, yams, zucchini – wow. It was really good.

We also discovered the cockpit table was really an ice chest filled with water, beer, wine, and rum punch.

We picked up a mooring ball by Sugar Beach, one of the most exclusive resorts on the island, and in between the two Pitons. Whichever way we looked, we had an amazing view to accompany our lunch.

We napped, swam, and just gazed at the scene.

Soon it was time to head back.

We motored happily back up the coast, leaving the Pitons in our wake, and re-tracing our steps to Marigot Bay.

This is our last post.

I am writing it from our balcony with tears in my eyes . . .

And believe it or not, a view of my favorite Sea Cloud, who was here again this morning when we woke up!

St. Lucia – and especially Marigot Bay – is such a special and magical place. We will be back.

**Slight disruption as we have traveled home – but we still wanted to capture our very favorite day of the entire trip. 

This is Part I.

Love for Sail

That is what is on the t-shirts of our crew for our very own private sail today – to the famous Pitons.

The Pitons are the two volcanic-formed mountains that are in all the pictures of St. Lucia.  Our main goal for visiting St. Lucia was to see the Pitons by boat.

But there are endless possibilities of boats – fast boats, sailboats, big boats.

We see boats crammed with people taking a turn through Marigot Bay with music blaring. They are on their way to the Pitons, too.

That wasn’t for us, so we opted for a private sailboat for the day with just us (and the crew). It was perfect.

Our boat was a 43-foot Beneteau (a bigger version of Carolina Girl) with two super friendly crew members, Kevin and Andrez.

We chartered out of Chateau Mygo (our favorite restaurant – the boat business is called Bateaux Mygo).

They asked what we wanted to do for the day.  We said we just wanted to sail.   

It was glorious. I will leave you with some pictures.

And a sneak peak at those fabulous Pitons – next up is Part II.

That will be our last post for this trip.

Yesterday, we highlighted restaurants close to our apartment. 

But we really love the restaurants across the Bay  . . . because we have to take a boat to get there!

The Mangrove (AKA JJ’s)

I think this restaurant is called The Mangrove now, but was JJ’s before, so that’s what everyone calls it.  

It is all the way at the end of Marigot Bay.  

You have to take the Beach Ferry to get there, which is part of the fun.  You motor by the mega yachts on the way, along with other interesting boats that look like they are out of a movie set!  

You step off the beach ferry onto a boardwalk and into another world.  

The beautiful bay on one side –

The mangroves on the other.  

The view is spectacular, the people are friendly, and the food is really good.  There are a lot of locals, too, which is a good sign.  I had grilled lobster, which was simply amazing.

When we were there for lunch, we saw 3 excursions come in by small boat from the big fancy resorts on the island.  No doubt these couples had paid a princely sum for a boat ride to beautiful Marigot Bay and an “authentic” lunch on the water.  We felt like true insiders as we boarded the little beach ferry back to the Marina Village

Doolittle’s

Doolittle’s has its own private ferry.

Mid-trip, the red ferry broke down, so they improvised.  This one was fun, too.

The restaurant is named for the “Dr. Doolittle” movie with Rex Harrison, which was filmed in Marigot Bay.  

They have a great view of the beach.

And are known far and wide for the best sunset.  

They also have a lounging area with sofas and pool tables if you want to hang out after lunch.

We went there for our anniversary and had the fish cooked on hot volcanic rock. 

They bring it raw to your table and you cook it yourself.  We had salmon, shrimp, and scallops – yum!

We could gaze at these views forever!

Have we said how much we love Marigot Bay?  It is definitely our vibe.  

And we have had several of you who have asked for more details – it may be your vibe, too!

If you are interested . . . 

Our apartment is in the Marina Village – there are several units on Airbnb and VRBO – they all say Marina Village.  

There is also a Zoetry Hyatt resort (the snazzy hotel that doesn’t let us in).  But it looks beautiful and it right next door.  It seems to have more of an American crowd.

And across the Bay there is the Marigot Bay Resort, which is more low-key.  If we only had a few days, we’d probably opt to stay there (more of a British hang-out). 

There are a number of other villas up the hills, with what I’m sure are amazing views.  

So lots of options here.

And whether you stay in Marigot Bay or not, it definitely is worth a visit for the fun and unique restaurants.  

In this Part I we are reviewing two of our favorites close to our apartment.

Hurricane Hole

This one is the closest to us and technically part of the Zoetry resort, although they let anyone eat here because it is in the Marina Village.  

They are directly on the dock, so you can dine and watch the big boats.  

We’ve been for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The heart of palm salad and the citrus salmon are the best.

Chateau Mygo – Our Favorite

On every trip, there seems to be one restaurant that you go back to over and over – usually the one around the corner that was so friendly and easy and feels like you belong.  

That is Chateau Mygo for us.

It is across the street, and the moment we walked in, we knew it was special.  

It is on the water with a big dinghy dock, so full of sailboat crews each night whose boats are anchored in the Bay.  

They have live music a few nights a week – from a guy playing steel drum to a full calypso/reggae band.

There is a lively bar scene with frozen rum drinks of all sort (all those sailors!), and kids running around the tables while their parents keep an eye. It is just fun.

And delicious. The fish tacos are addicting. Frank loves the fried calamari. I love the fresh grilled mahi-mahi. They also have a pizza oven – we heard the whole story about how they decided to make pizza and bought this oven and then had to teach themselves how to make pizza from a recipe book.

And they let Frank come and fish whenever he wants – they even give him bait from the kitchen!

We will miss them for sure!

***

In Part 2, we’ll highlight two restaurants across the Bay – only reachable by boat.

Believe it or not, we do get out of Marigot Bay every now and then.

Last week, we hired a taxi to take us to the Pink Plantation for lunch (which we combined with our mid-trip grocery shop).

We went up, up, up in the hills on a very narrow road and got to a wall. The taxi said that was as far as she could go. The wall opened and . . . .

Breathtaking gardens with an even better view.  

And a 150-year old PINK French colonial home sitting in the middle.  It was just charming.

From this vantage point, we could watch the little boats below lazily sail by – and even see Martinique.

Lunch was served on the breezy porch and was delicious – we had fresh fish served with a variety of local vegetable dishes.  

My favorite was cristophine gratin (sometimes called cho-cho gratin), a West Indies specialty that features a squash/pumpkin-like vegetable, cheese, nutmeg, and I’m sure lots of butter.  I have never tasted anything quite so good!

We ended with flaming bananas foster – with locally grown bananas and locally made rum.

And the owner is an artist with a studio there, so we could shop, too (which we did!).

Just a lovely day.

If you want to go, here’s the website: http://pinkplantationstlucia.com/

They have a sister restaurant in Castries (where the cruise ships dock) called Coal Pot. We didn’t go there, but it is on our list to try next time.

In our past trips, I have posted about our normal, everyday life, and some people have said those are their favorite stories. 

We are not just tourists in St. Lucia at a big fancy resort – we are living here and doing many of the things we do at home.

I work. 

I have my laptop filled with all the regulations and documents I use.  We arrived on a Sunday and by Monday morning, I had set up my new office (which I admit does have a good view!). 

I usually have several Zooms a day from my make-shift space next to the WIFI router.  Except for the artwork behind me, most clients have not noticed a difference. 

Everyone works from somewhere different these days.

We cook. 

We provisioned with groceries when we arrived and have had to do one mid-month re-stock. 

We generally eat breakfast and lunch at home and then eat out for supper. 

But a few nights, we have just felt like staying in, cooking, and watching Netflix.  Just like home.

We do laundry.

We are lucky to have a washer.  And even a dryer, which is sometimes rare outside the US. 

But the dryer is small and takes a long time. And . . . we have such a nice breeze on the porch, so we air dry most items. 

Our clothes smell like sea air.

We also pay bills, have family Zooms, and set up doctor’s appointments for when we return. 

But at the end of the day, Frank and I gather on the balcony for cocktails and sunset. 

That’s a tradition we just might keep when we get back home . . . .

Today is a double feature – two posts in one day!

But it is so we can provide a public service announcement.

When we first came here, our taxi took us to the grocery store for provisions – after all, we were staying 3 weeks in an apartment and “living like a local”, which includes cooking at home sometimes.

We had not quite gotten used to the Eastern Caribbean dollar (EC), which is 2.7 times the value of the US dollar.  So everything seemed hugely expensive.  Olive oil was 65 EC!  (Which is $24, which is still a lot, but it was a big bottle.) 

So we were in sticker shock as we roamed the aisles.  When we got to wine, everything was at least 40 EC.  Wowzers!  (Really $14 USD, but we had not figured that out.)  So we searched high and low for something affordable. 

And how delighted were we when we found this lovely looking Spanish tempranillo for just 23 EC.  I snagged a few of them! 

Only to get home and open our new bottle to celebrate our arrival – and it tasted terrible! 

Upon further inspection, it is not WINE, but WIN.

And 0% alcohol – “De-Alcholised Red Wine” they call it. 

And we had a few bottles of it.

Sigh.   

Thankfully, we noticed that even the best rum was less than the average wine (and even less than the olive oil), so we picked up a bottle of that, too.

Now THAT’s a Yacht!

Marigot Bay sees it all.  From the regal and historic Sea Cloud to giant mega yachts.  Plus lots of regular sailboats in between. 

We love to keep up with who is coming . . . .

And who is going . . . . .

The big yachts are fun to google.  You can learn the specs and maybe even about the owners.  One of the boats in our harbor is a charter boat – for $240,000 per week!!

You can tell when the owners aren’t onboard because the crew hangs out on deck themselves – and are very lively.  It’s like our own version of the “Below Deck” TV show.

But the most amazing thing I have seen – which I had never heard of before – is that the fanciest yachts come with their own support boat! 

See the yacht and the long skinny yacht next to it that looks kind of like a research vessel? 

They are buddy boats.  The long skinny vessel is the “support yacht.”  It houses extra crew, smaller boats, and – of course – the helicopter pad.  (We know this because the dock guard who lets Frank fish told us.)

Sometimes we have traveled with a dinghy towed behind us – and we thought that was something (especially if it had an outboard motor).  But now we’ve seen it all! 

P.S.  After I wrote this entry, an even cooler yacht came into Marigot Bay – a 116-foot sailing yacht.  Here she is leaving this morning –

And from her website – www.whisperyacht.com

Sea Cloud!

I woke up and glanced out of the windows to the balcony and gasped.  Then I got a huge smile and turned back and woke up Frank.  You HAVE to see this!  I may have had tears in my eyes, too – she is that wondrous.

This is our 3^rd sighting of Sea Cloud.  We first saw her in Dubrovnik, Croatia when we were sailing there.  I was awestruck. 

Then we saw her anchored out off Taormina, Sicily – I could see her from our window.  She was just as magical.

Sea Cloud was built in 1931 by E.F. Hutton, for his wife, Marjorie Merriweather Post (of the Post cereal fame – also the woman who built Mar-a-Lago).  Sea Cloud was her personal yacht with a crew of 72. 

And what a history Sea Cloud has had!  She was even painted grey and used in World War II as a weather ship.  After the war, Marjorie brought her back to her regal state and continued to sail in her.  Eventually, at age 85, Marjorie sold Sea Cloud.  The yacht went through a few hands before falling into disrepair, all but forgotten under a different name in a boatyard in Panama. 

But a group of investors from Hamburg who loved classic ships remembered her, bought her, and made her seaworthy enough to get to Europe to return her to her former glory.  She sailed across the Atlantic and finally had to be towed into Hamburg Harbour, where she was greeted by thousands. 

Now she is a very elegant small cruise ship.  It is my dream to sail in her someday.

But for now – we settled for sitting on the balcony just gazing at her.  I took lots of pictures as she swung around her anchor. 

Then we saw a tender come in right to the little ferry dock by our apartment.  So I ran to the window to see what people who sail on Sea Cloud look like!  Just like us!  : )

Maybe someday . . . .

If you want to read more about Sea Cloud’s history – here’s a link: https://www.seacloud.com/en/sea-cloud-history/

This week we celebrated Frank’s birthday – 86!

We kicked off the celebration high up on the ridgeline overlooking Marigot Bay at a very nice restaurant called “The Villa.”  They drove down and picked us up in a golf cart and spirited to the top, where we had a table waiting with balloons. 

And a 5-course tasting menu.

We continued the celebration by Zooming with the family back home. 

And then Frank spent the week engaging in his favorite activity – fishing.  He has been putting out feelers on his daily walks about good bait and the best place for a nibble.  He visited the restaurant across the street, which gave him fresh fish for bait (which he came home and cut up and put in our freezer – this is why I bring zip loc bags on our trips!). 

And then he set out.  He fished at the beach bar.  He fished at the waterfront restaurant.  He even got permission from the snazzy hotel to fish from their dock by the big fancy yachts (he got to be friends with the guard who is also a fisherman and looked out for him).  Alas, no prize catches.  But the fun part is sharing fish stories anyway.

After all that fishing – the best end to the celebration?

A beautiful sunset with a cold Piton beer on our balcony.

Happy Birthday Frank!  We love you!