Saturday January 19, 2019

After Dan left I checked in and then headed straight for the shower; boat showers barely get the stink off you let alone the salt, so I just stood there and let the water wash away ten days of sea residue.
While walking back to the apartment I noticed the little bar in the Pantime Steel Orchestra yard was advertising meals, Trini Bust Up, so I stopped in to get on. I hadn’t realized the bar was open to the public since there’s no sign out front. As soon as Juliette took my order I fell in love with the place, I can’t put my finger on it but there is something about it that makes me want to come back time and again. The bar doesn’t have a name so I’ll call it the no name bar.





Some of the awards for the Pantime Steel Orchestra

Took the bus to Rodney Bay and picked up a few things at the supermarket. Finished off the evening at Bosun’s and called it an early night turning in around 9:00.

Sunday January 20, 2019

Trendy stopped over early and we went into Castries, I wanted to see Boomer’s mother and check on how she was doing. She looked great despite battling cancer for many years. She has some property for sale near Soufriere, adjacent to the Jade Mountain Resort. I’ve though about buying a parcel as the price seems very good, but I will have to check into the details of a non-resident purchasing land, building a home and renting it out on Airbnb or some such site. The property is undeveloped and the power lines don’t run that far so that is an issue. Dan suggested running it like a boat with generators and solar power, this is after he just spent half a day servicing Skyelark’s generator.
Being Sunday, the market was quiet but I did manage to pick up some grapefruit, passion fruit and ripe tomatoes.
On the way back from Castries we stopped at the Mega Massey supermarket and picked up more meat and a case of Pitons along with a few other BBQing supplies.



A typical small house in the village of Gros Islet

Dan and Em stopped by to drop off some frozen stuff for me to keep for them while they are in Canada skiing and taking a look at the prospective new boat. We went to Golden Taste, one of the few placed that serves dinner in the evening in Gros Islet. We all had the BBQ ribs and they were very good, the side dishes that accompanied them could have been warmer though.
Once again it was an early night for me, as they headed back to Skyelark anchored out in the bay.

Monday January 21, 2019



The dreadlock tree

I met Dan & Em at Café Ole’ around 11:00 to show them the way to the Castries-Vieux Fort buses. They are traveling with carry-on only so rather than spend $80 US on a taxi they are going to take the bus for $8 US. We grabbed a bus to the bus stand then made the 10-15-minute walk over to where the Vieux Fort buses leave from.
Coming from Rodney Bay/ Gros Islet take the bus to Castries, it will stop behind the market, get off and continue straight down the street to the main road, turn right and walk until you see the blue customs building, turn left and head for the cocoa-cola sign, at the sign turn right and you will see the buses lined up. The next bus to leave will be waiting under a carport type structure under a tree.
Once back at the apartment I made a nice batch of pasta sauce using only fresh ingredients. Trendy and John came by for dinner and really enjoyed my sauce, I knew it would be good when the apartment smelled just like gramma’s house used to on Sunday afternoons.
Chairmen’s on the balcony and I bid the guys good night, after we made plans for a cookout tomorrow.

Tuesday January 22, 2019

Today was the last trial run for the BBQ setup before Kim arrives, the meat was well seasoned and we had another breadfruit to roast. We took our usual spot, it’s getting almost automatic setting everything up now and reminds me of the camping we do in the summer.



Grilling again

It was another beautiful day at the beach and another great meal. Once again we finished up the night on the balcony with our chairmen’s and music from the Bluetooth speakers.

Wednesday January 23, 2019

Today was the big day; Kim has been making herself sick worrying about traveling alone and I had my doubts that she would even get on the plane but the forecasts for windchills in the -25* range might have motivated her. As it turns out she had no difficulties; no delays at security in Buffalo and she was at her departure gate within 40 minutes of landing at Atlanta. Hopefully this experience will lessen her anxiety over flying home alone from Galapagos and meeting Skyelark in Fiji later in the year as I’m sailing in the WARC. Reka has offered to meet up with Kim somewhere in the US so she can guide her through the international connections and transfers.
I took the bus to Rodney Bay and then walked down to the end of the strip to watch the goings on at the fishermen’s co-op and the boats come in and out of the lagoon.



A fisherman cleaning his catch



Boats at the fishermens co-op

Afterwards I went to the beach for a swim and then stopped at the no name bar when I saw they were serving pilau for lunch, one of Kim’s favorites, Barry knows I like spicy food so he came out of the kitchen with a pickled golden apple, it was very nice with a good bit of heat. I met Trendy and the driver at Bosun’s. It’s nice using trendy’s buddy as he lets us ride down to the airport with him so we can meet her when she gets off the plane. The driver knew all the back ways so we wee able to avoid the traffic in Castries. Kim’s plane arrived without delays and soon she was enjoying the warmth of St. Lucia.



One happy lady

We got settled in and then went down to the marina for the night. We headed back early as Kim was tired from her long day of travel.

Thursday January 24, 2019

I let the guys know that we were going to cook out on the beach, but they knew we hadn’t seen each other in three weeks so they just did their own thing. By now people knew that when I have my roller cooler with me there’s going to be a cook out and ask “what’s for lunch” as I pass. We set up in the usual spot and had another lovely day of grilling and chilling. My breadfruit didn’t come out as well as I had hoped, I think the key is to buy it a couple days early and let it start to get soft. The grilled local pork was fantastic and of course you can’t beat the ambiance.





Grilling & chilling



Another beautiful sunset

Back at the room the fellows stopped over to say welcome Kim and drink more Chairmen’s. I always get nervous that the landlord is going to complain about the noise but I do have rules: no raucous behavior. No loud music, no smoking indoors, no littering and no leaving with silverware, so things stay in check.

Friday January 25, 2019

It was breakfast in the room, I bought passion fruit, grapefruit and plantains before Kim’s arrival as those are her favorites. I made us some eggs with ham and cheese, fresh bread from the bakery next door and of course a nice pink grapefruit.



Breakfast on the balcony

After breakfast it was straight to the beach for the day. It’s the perfect arrangement here, Kim gets to sit in the sun all she wants and I can lay in my hammock under the glue trees enjoying the shade and constant breeze, sometimes it’s almost like I got air conditioning.



Getting set up for the jump up crowds

We met up with Trendy at the Jump Up later in the evening. Early on it’s ore of a tourist event with a lot of recent pop songs being played and the visitors far outnumbering the locals. We had a couple drinks at Golden Apple and then headed over to Irie Bar on the next street better vibe and better music.
As it is every Friday and Saturday people, locals and tourists alike, were lined up down the street for Duke’s place, they are only opened two nights a week and only sell grilled fish with optional rice and “Auntie’s Fig Salad”. I had always wanted to try it so tonight was the night. We weren’t very hungry so I just got a portion of marlin with barracuda being the other option. I had them put the sauce on it (they have a 5 gallon bucket of it behind the counter) and then the reason for the line became obvious; however they make that sauce it’s amazing, oniony garlicy lots of butter and some kind of seasoning. If you’re ever there on a weekend don’t let the size of the line stop you it moves quickly, you’ve got to try this fish.



The smoke is bellowing from the grills as the crowd lines up down the street at Duke's



The crowd at the jump up

Saturday January 26, 2019

We packed up the grill, hammock and roller cooler then headed for the beach for our scheduled BBQ. The guys showed up after they got done making paper at Pigeon Point, Amigo brought some fish with him, for some reason they sell this fish with the skin removed, he didn’t know the English name for it.
You wouldn’t believe the number of people that comment on our grill, they’ve never seen one like this here before. We added another swing seat, a double-wide this time, I load tested it and deemed it safe.
After the beach it was back to the apartment for what has now become a nightly affair of rum and music on the patio.











Some photos from our cookout