- Local News for Southern Sailors - Cruising the Bahamas Next Story| Tropical Pipeline Cruising St. Lucia Lots To Do & See By Carol M. Bareuther  Photos by Dean BarnesSt. Lucia's magnificent Pitons are a mesmerizing pair of lush green peaks that rise out of the sea nearly a half-mile high. These natural wonders and the waters that surround them are an attraction for some 3600 yachts annually, like the bareboaters who sailed into the serene bay between these two geologic giants during a late summer excursion. "Hey... Hey," shouted a young man in a wooden boat as he waved his hands toward the yacht and pointed to a white mooring ball. His T-shirt, imprinted with a signature logo and with a clip-on identification tag affixed at the sleeve, identified him as a licensed "boat boy" with the Soufriére Water Taxi Association. The woman aboard the approaching vessel threw a dock line that the man neatly caught and threaded through the ball's pick-up line. "You want an island tour? Maybe some ice?" he inquired. "Maybe later," came the woman's answer, a reply met with a smile and casual wave as the man set off in search of other cruisers destined to sample St. Lucia's marine assets. |  |
| Friendly and brimming with natural assets both on land and sea, the Windward Island of St. Lucia — south of Martinique, north of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and east of Barbados — is working hard to develop its marine tourism and is succeeding especially in the areas of yachting, day cruising and sport fishing. "Our objective is to develop yachting as a major tourism sector," says Peter Hilary Modeste, director of tourism for the St. Lucia Tourist Board, based in the island's capital city of Castries. |
While the official ports of entry to St. Lucia are at Rodney Bay Marina to the north, Vigie Marina outside Castries, Marigot Bay where The Moorings yacht charter company is located and Vieux Fort at the southernmost tip of the island, it is the west coast town of Soufriére that is working hard to add itself to this list. "This makes an ideal first night stop-over for yachts coming from Martinique," says Kai Wulf, the German-born manager of the Soufriére Marine Management Area (SMMA), a non-profit organization started in 1994 to protect the natural assets of a seven-mile area of water in the shadows of the Pitons and stretching north and south from the town of Soufriére. The draw here is some 60 moorings that allow for safe anchorage in the park for easy access to snorkeling and scuba diving. Local business people are anticipating an influx of mariners to patronize restaurants, bars, provisioning and hardware shops. Using the moorings within the SMMA requires the purchase of a Coral Conservation Permit that is priced according to a vessel's length and length of stay. Prices range from $10 for up to two days for yachts up to 35 feet to $25 per week for vessels over 65 feet. "We go boat to boat to collect the fee," says Peter Butcher, chief ranger for the SMMA. "People don't really mind paying when they know it goes to help conserve the area." On land, it is the volcano, aptly named Soufriére meaning "sulfur" in French, and the Diamond Botanical Gardens, that are almost as captivating as the Pitons. Billed as the world's only drive-in volcano, the Soufriére crater is a short walk from the parking lot and reveals itself as more than 20 pools bubbling with black lava mud and belching intermittent bursts of sulfur-smelling steam. Those who bring a bathing suit can soak in the lukewarm waters of the natural hot springs. "The last time it erupted was 1780, but because all the geologic plates are interconnected, we feel tremors here when there is an eruption somewhere else in the Caribbean like Montserrat," explained Anne Fletcher, who is one of four guides who lead half-hour tours through a portion of the seven-acre volcano. Five minutes' drive away is the lush botanical gardens where jungle-like greenery studded with tropical flowers lines a paved trail leading to mineral baths and a steep waterfall. This area is steeped in both historic and Hollywood fame. Josephine Bonaparte, wife of the famous French emperor, is said to have bathed here as a young girl during visits to her father's plantation nearby, while it was movie stars Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner who slid down the falls during a pulse-quickening scene for the movie, Romancing The Stone. From Soufriére, there are a number of day charter trips offered by the Soufriére Water Taxi Association. Half- and full-day sport fishing excursions depart from the tiny pier in front of the SMMA office on the waterfront, and so do shopping voyages to Castries, champagne sunset outings, glass-bottom boat trips, snorkel, scuba diving and whale- watching adventures. Modern fully-equipped dive boats depart from the nearby Anse Chastanet hotel for scuba dives in SMMA waters, but the most picturesque transport is the brightly painted 22- to 25-foot Martinique or Trinidadian-made pirogues that ferry folks for their days charters. Another service of the Soufriére Water Taxi Association is arranging for boat watchman or someone to keep an eye on a vessel while cruisers might be ashore for dinner or a night on the town. Crime is not rampant here, but the service is one of the many ways the town is employing to encourage yachtsman and make them feel safe. Those looking for a more extensive charter have at two major choices. First, Destination St. Lucia (DSL) Ltd., a yacht charter and management company based at Rodney Bay Marina, have a 15-yacht fleet of 37- to 52-foot monohulls and multihulls for day and week bareboat charter. Second, The Moorings St. Lucia base in Marigot Bay offers monohulls ranging from 41- to 60-footers and multihulls 38-foot to 45-foot in length for crewed and bareboat charter. The most popular itineraries from here are four days north to Martinique and back, seven days south to the Tobago Cays and back, and seven days one way to Grenada with dropping the boat at The Moorings base on this island. These cruising grounds are great to sail after gaining experience cruising the British Virgin Islands, as this southern Caribbean destination is a little more exciting, a little more blue water. |  It is the brilliant turquoise-blue waters of Marigot Bay and Doolittle's — a quaint beach bar and restaurant named for the 1950s movie starring Rex Harrison that was filmed there — that attract many sailors and landlubbers alike. In fact, Doolittle's Bay Rally is a Sunday afternoon antic not to be missed. "We start here at the restaurant downing two local Piton beers, then jumping aboard contessas, kayaks or paddle boats to race across the bay to The Shack for two more beers. Then it's upwind to The Moorings for two beers and back to Doolittle's," explains David Shimeld, British expatriate and owner of the restaurant and attached Marigot Bay Beach Resort. "The aim is to win at any cost. It's all about cheating, and sometimes we get laughing so hard it's difficult to complete the course." Hard-core racers and distance cruisers set their sights each year for Rodney Bay Marina, finish line for the Atlantic Rally For Cruisers. For the last two years, a maximum 225 yachts made the 2700 nautical mile passage, departing in November from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and arriving in Rodney Bay during the first week of December. "We host a series of activities for the ARC participants," the Tourist Board's Modeste says. An ARC Village at Rodney Bay is set up with replicas of West Indian chattel houses full of local foods, drinks and crafts for sale. Nightly entertainment includes live music with tunes thumping from soca and reggae to the country and western that St. Lucians learned to love during American soldiers' stay on the island during World War II. "Our yachting infrastructure has grown because of the ARC, and our economy benefits from everything from provisioning to yacht repairs," Modeste says. Rodney Bay Marina has grown to 232 slips since the ARC made the port its destination ten years ago, making it the second largest marina in the Caribbean and second only to Puerto del Rey in Puerto Rico. The full-service marina has a host of amenities, such as, a mall with shops ranging from a grocery and drugstore to cyber café, travel agency, bank and cellular phone rental; bars and restaurants, and an extensive boatyard with 90-vessel dry dock facility, 50-ton travel lift, and many repair services. There's also seven-day-a-week duty-free fuel available. Enticing independent cruisers and those from the ARC to stay in St. Lucian waters is one of the reasons behind the rally festivities. Other organizations also help out with added enticements. "Our big regatta each year is the Heineken Regatta, set for January 17-19, 2003, and run by the St. Lucia Sailing Club," explains Green, who in addition to running Endless Summer Cruises is president of the St. Lucia Yachting Association. From 25 to 30 yachts participate in the race that is heavy in the cruising classes. Year round, the St. Lucia Yacht Club sponsors a series of Sunday afternoon races in Rodney Bay that anyone is welcome to join. The town on Soufriére, with the Soufriére Marine Management Area in the waterway beyond. While the Rodney Bay area is a marine focal point for the island and has everything a yachtsman could want, to truly experience St. Lucia is to include the Pitons as part of a visit. Just say, "Ki distans sé Piton-an yé hòd isi-a?" using the local Creole French patois, and an affable St. Lucian will be happy to tell you how far it is to the Pitons. |
Web site: www.dsl-yachting.com The Moorings, St. Lucia Base, Marigot Bay, St. Lucia, WI. Tel: (758) 451-8531 or (888) 952-8420. Web site: www.moorings.com Rodney Bay Marina Limited, P.O. Box 1538, Castries, St. Lucia, WI. Tel: (758) 452-0324; Fax: (758) 452-0185; E-mail: rbmarina@candw.lc Web site: www.rodneybaymarina.com Soufriére Marine Management Area, P.O. Box 305, Soufriére, St. Lucia, WI. Tel: (758) 459-5500; Fax: (758) 459-7799; E-mail: smma@candw.lc Web site www.smma.org.lc St. Lucia Tourist Board, Pointe Seraphine, Box 221, Castries, St. Lucia, WI. Tel: (758) 452-4094 or (758) 452-5968; Fax: (758) 453-1121; E-mail: slutour@candw.lc Web site www.stlucia.org St. Lucia Yacht Club, P.O. Box 764, Gross Islet, St. Lucia, WI. Tel (758) 452-8350. | Cruising sailors can now stay long-term in St. Lucia without the hassles of paying $40 per person every 6 weeks. A continuous stay of up to 6 months is now law, as of September 2002. Better yet, port fees and customs and immigration charges for yachts have been streamlined to a flat rate based on the length of the vessel and the duration of stay in St. Lucia. Also, yachts no longer have to pay a consumption tax. Rates in U.S. dollars are:
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