Small anchorages of St Lucia

Fri Jan 31 Anse La Raye
We left the big anchorage of Rodney Bay with its 100+ sailboats and leisurely sailed downwind to Anse La Raye, a small fishing village that organizes a street seafood festival / block party every Friday. We were quite alone in the small bay with a few local fishing pirogues. Behind the rocks protecting the entrance of the bay, we saw the sailing cruise ship Star Clipper set sail from its midday stop at Marigot. In the afternoon, we were joined by 4 other sailboats.

The village, despite some concrete buildings on the seafront is still mostly wooden cases, tiny traditional Lucian houses. The atmosphere of the fish fest is nice and laid back with a mix of honeymooners from local top resorts, vacationers, yachties and locals. We tried boxfish for the first time, had some snapper and crabbacks, and were too full to go back for fried jacks. We listened for a while to the two young DJ's who where expertly remixing current top 40 with music of the 70s 80s and 90s as well as a variety of synthesizer sounds. They were still working hard long after we were back on the boat!

Sat 1 Feb Anse Cochons
Less than half an hour south of La Raye is Anse Cochons, a well known diving and snorkeling site. We had visited with a dive operator in 2013, and wanted to see a bit more of the land side. After anchoring (one one other sailboat there), we floated a kayak and paddled to shore with our snorkeling equipment. We swam the north side of the bay, and saw a nice variety of fishes and sponges, although the water was not quite crystal clear due to the swells. We swam back to the beach and enjoyed a golden apple juice at Ti Mange, the beach bar of the Ti Kaye resort. As we resumed our paddle around the bay, a horde of large tour catamarans appeared in rapid succession (Tango, Tango Too, Tango Mango, Just Tango, Endless Summer and Carnival Sailing) all disgorging hundreds of swimmers on the public part of the beach. All was calm for sunset however, except that the swells started making their way in the bay. We canceled our idea to dock the dinghy at the iffy dock of Ti Kaye and cooked onboard, rather acrobatically with the boat rolling hard.

And, the Vikings are back! In every harbor, creek and marina we have seen an incredible number of Norwegian and Swedish flags (as well as the regular sprinkling of Swiss ones). There must be something in the water for the yachts of these two comparatively small nations to outnumber the US flags...