68) St. Lucia

Anse Miton, St. Lucia, West Indies 13° 50.589 N 61° 03.794 W 

(between Soufriere Bay and Petit Piton Point at anchor)

I went to bed last night and thought what the hell is that smell?  It was sour and foul and bad and holy shit do I stink?  Is it my bed?  Is it my clothes?  My bed?  I smelled and looked and smelled all around my area and determined it was coming from, uhm, forward of my shelf.  I let it go.  Several cruising hazards are bugs, stink, mold, mildew and uh stink.  I’m sitting here typing this morning and Alan walks by up to the cockpit to talk to Nancy and holy shit the stink just went by.  Nancy apparently told him something is foul in his area and he’s telling Nancy he thinks it’s his shoes.  Yep, it’s the shoes.  She tells him bleach and I say to park them outside in the sun.  They were bad and smelling up the place. 

These are our overnight guests

...and Easycruise.com steamed by this morning with their overnight guests.

 We got out of here around 830-9 this morning and on our way to St. Vincent.  I immediately put out the fishing pole, but no luck all day.  The crossing was about 30 miles and easy in the big picture.  The entire time we made the Atlantic crossing we wanted to see ships or boats.  On this crossing at one time I counted 17 boats and one wooden skiff.  This is apparently the highway between islands.  We even closed in and passed a small catamaran.  Technically, if there is more than one boat in a body of water it is a race.  We raced.  Well, John and I raced.  That catamaran should have blown us away on the basis that catamarans have less wetted surface and less drag.  We were cruising along at 8+ knots in 15-20 knots of wind.  It was a very good day. 

Departing Anse Miton

St. Vincent & the catamaran in the distance.

Wallilabou Bay, St. Vincent (Johnny Depp Bay)

13° 14.820 N 61° 16.316 W

Have not made it below our most southern latitude yet, but close. 

The anchorage that we were heading to has the distinction of having been the place where some of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed.  Of course we were excited.  On approaching the bay the locals greeted us and waved us in.  The bay was literally empty of boats when we got here and merchants swarmed us in boats.  They offered fruit, bread, the local herb, fresh bread, beer and jewelry trinkets.  After tying off the hordes came in.  All within the first couple hours several more boats pulled in.  This is a very popular site. 

We dropped the dinghy in and made it to shore.  Sure enough this is the place where the movie was filmed.  There are lots of remnants like sets, material, props and storage sheds.  The locals know to capitalize on the fact the movie was filmed here and they call it Johnny Depp Bay.  Anything for a buck.  We plan to go to the beachfront restaurant for dinner tonight and afterwards if I can stay awake I will watch the movie on DVD.