Hail Caesar!

Today we got to go on a sailing excursion on Diane and Ken's (the owners of our villa) catamaran. We drove to Laborie and parked near the dock, then Ken picked us up in his little dinghy and took us to the boat! There wasn't a lot of wind, so we spent most of the time using the motor. We sailed/motored north to Piton Bay, the bay located between the two Pitons, and also the location of Dasheen, the restaurant where Gavin and I had our anniveersary lunch. The ocean was really calm, and the ride was really relaxing. Gavin and I sat in one of the nets and felt the ocean breezes below us and above us, with the occasional little splash of water hitting us from below.

Relaxing in the net.

Gavin and I on the catamaran.

An "artsy" photo up into the mast.

Chilling in the net!

As we approached Piton Bay, it suddenly started to pour rain! The boat has shelter from the rain, so that was fine. Rainstorms here are very sudden and don't last long - the drenching rain only lasted about five minutes. While we prepared to snorkel, a guy paddled a kayak full of fruit up to us! Diane bought some pineapples and tangerines. I peeled a tangerine - it had to have been the most flavorful tangerine I had ever had! Diane sliced up the pineapple and passed it around. I had already eaten one slice when I noticed that my second slice had lots of mealybugs in the divots from the hard skin into the soft fruit, some of which were left on when Diane sliced it! I guess I may have eaten some extra protein...

Fruit seller on his kayak. :)

The Pitons in the rain.

After our fruit snack, we jumped into the water for snorkeling. There were a lot of huge rocks in the water. They were mostly covered in algae, but there were bits of coral here and there. There was quite a few fish to see, though.

Bits of sea life in Piton Bay.

Huge rocks and little fishies.

Snorkeling in Piton Bay.

Cute little bottom feeders - they had little white whiskers they could extend as they fed on the bottom, making them look a little like tiny catfish.

Gavin and I in front of the catamaran - "Lost our Marbles." We hadn't noticed the name until we got in the water. :)

After snorkeling Diane made us lunch on the boat, including a pineapple upside down cake made from the pineapple she had just bought. Then we jumped off the boat for one more quick, refreshing swim in the bay before heading back to Laborie.

The wind and currents were completely against us, so we kept the sails down all the way back and just used the motor. Suddenly a huge gale came up - driving winds and rains! All of us except poor Ken, who was driving the boat in the open air through all this, headed under cover. The water got really choppy, but there weren't huge waves. According to Ken, because the wind and the currents were heading in the same direction, this produced choppy water rather than huge waves. Gavin started to get a little motion sick, but my motion sickness patch helped me keep it at bay, otherwise I definitely would have been losing my lunch. :) The storm blew past us in about fifteen minutes, and we were rewarded with a rainbow above Laborie Bay.

Me taking a turn driving the boat. (BEFORE the storm)

"He is the monarch of the sea..." :)

Rainbow above Laborie Bay.

We parked in Laborie Bay, where Diane and Ken would spend the night on their boat. We watched the cloudy, colorful sunset over the water. I also learned a new drink. Diane offered me a "Caesar," and jokingly called me a stupid American when I didn't know what it was! A Caesar is a Canadian drink that is similar to a Bloody Mary, but with clemato juice instead of tomato juice. Clemato juice is also Canadian - it is tomato juice with clam juice in it, which sounded disgusting to me, but I actually really liked the Caesar! Gavin was satisfied to have a Piton instead.

Since we didn't feel like going out for dinner and we still had some beverages at our house, we followed Ken to another tiny little restaurant which he insisted served the best chicken on the entire island. We picked up some fried chicken legs and some bakes (a West Indian fried dough) and headed back to the villa to pack and turn in. Tomorrow we say goodbye to St. Lucia.

 

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