Day 3 Sunday April 17, 2005 The Pitons
It’s a lazy start to the day. We’ve slept in to all of 7:30 AM. Lynn and I decide to try out our new snorkeling gear. The water is deep here and we get to within 15 feet of shore before seeing a rocky bottom. There are a few colorful fish swimming about which keeps us ohhing and aahing. We get back and I decide to be useful around the boat. The main cabin between the ammas is divided between a small galley and a large circular sitting area with a table. The table is a nuisance making it difficult to move around. I decide to take it out and with a trusty screwdriver I easily get the top off. I’m scrunched up on the floor working on the base when my foot slips and I wack it into the metal base. Crunch goes a toe and I’m dancing and singing and crying and hopping about the cabin until the pain wears off. Not much you can do with a broken toe except grin and bear it. Bill helps me get the base off and without the table the space is much more open and inviting. Feeling flushed with our successful remodeling of the boat Bill and I decide to remove the emergency liferaft that strapped between the amas at the back just under the two davits used to raise and lower the dinghy. It seems that the dinghy tends to jam up against the liferaft and what do we need one for anyways, cat’s float right! We wrap two straps around the liferaft box and attach one of the davit pulleys. We release the straps holding the liferaft in and try to lift it. Instead of the 30-40 pounds Bill predicted she weigh’s a ton. Even the pully won’t life her so Bill goes down to push her up while I pull. Needless to say the straps slip and the raft box turns sideways and slips from the straps to go plunk into the water. The lid comes off and Lynn runds down the amma steps to grab it. We freeze anticipating the liferaft inflating but nothing happens. Bill manages to get into the dinghy and get the raft back under the cat. We rerig the straps and this time manage to get the sodden mess aboard. What to do with it? “Throw her back overboard” roars the captain. Instead we get it back in the box, inch it forward and lash it to a forward stanchion. Maybe we can trade it in for something useful.
After lunch and not wanting to take on anymore projects, Lynn and I decide to take a walk on the beach (yeah we’re having a busy time of it). Bill drops us off at a dinghy dock and we commence our little walk. It’s noon by now and it’s bloody hot! The sand burns our feet and we jump from rock to rock and connect the sandy patches, staying in the water as much as possible. We’re sweating buckets and together we decide that the beach at noon isn’t such a good idea.
Aaron, a friend of Bills, offers to guide us to a waterfall about a 20 minute hike away. It’s hot and the hike is all uphill but we’ve nothing else to do and the promise of a cold waterfall can’t be resisted. Along the way he picks a cocoa pod from a cocoa tree and cracks it open. The seeds are used to make cocoa (chocolate) but you don’t eat the seeds. You suck the thin membrane around the seeds and spit them out. The taste is quite tart and refreshing and reminds me of those tart candies we used to eat as kids. I tell Aaron I quite like it. We pay 10 EC’s for the two of us and walk down to the waterfalls. It is small and very picturesque, falling down the rocks from about 100 feet above. There are a couple of pools built where you can splash about. There are a few others here including two couples from France. Lynn and I splash about and then sit under the waterfall. The water is warm! It turns out that the Pitons are volcanic cones from ancient volcanoes. Ancient or not, the rock where the spring originates is still warm and we’re getting a hot shower instead of a cold one. It’s very refreshing though. On the way back Aaron plies us with more cocoa, soursop ( a softball sized green fruit with spikes that has a refreshingly sour flesh that you eat) and a cocoanut. I offer him $10 US and I think I’m being generous. He asked for $15 but I tell him that’s all I have. Oh, he’ll come over to the boat later and pick up the other $5. I repeat, $10 is all I have.
We have a drink at the little bar, radio Bill to come and pick us up, motor back to our yacht where Captain Bill has prepared another scrumptious meal complete with French wine he picked up in Martinique. Yep we’re spoilt all right!
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| Bill In St. Lucia | Boats at the Wharf | Bicycle Helmet? | Climbing for Cocoa Pods | Cocoa Pod Inside |
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| Cocoa Pod | Descending to the Waterfalls | Dwight and Lynn Under the Falls | Dwight and Lynn Under the Falls | Goddess Ashore |
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| Cocoa Pod and Soursop | Moored in the Bay | Enjoying the Falls | Chispa in Front of the Pitons | The Pitons |
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| Chispa under the Pitons | The Forest | The Old Folks Home | Waterfall Sign | Waterfall |