St Lucia Shuttle

Maureen announced “I made a dentist appointment”. It was an announcement that many people make, usually for a cleaning or other routine checkups. A few months ago, I lost two fillings and needed some “repairs”. The fillings are at least 50 years old, if not longer. When you think about that it is really amazing they last that long. What other things did you buy 50 years ago, used heavily every day, and didn’t need repair? Soon after another filling came out and it sems like a chunk of the tooth came with it. Ok, too much detail but Maureen had a good experience with a dentist in St. Lucia – an implant – so off to see the dentist.

Dr. Glace in Rodney Bay is only about 25 miles away. But since we were in Martinique and he is in St. Lucia, that is about a 4 hour ocean sail. But that depends on wind and sea conditions. It also means customs clearance in Martinique and Customs, Immigration, Health and Port Authority clearance in St. Lucia. In other words, it’s not a hop in the car for a 15 min ride to the dentist.

It was an easy sail south to St. Lucia in northeast winds and typical trade wind seas. We sailed on a Friday to avoid over time charges when clearing in and anchored in Rodney Bay. We tend to ignore the old sailors dictum to “never sail on a Friday”. I don’t think old sailors worried about overtime charges. We also came to St. Lucia for a quick “shuttle” trip to New York (by air) for a week. I had some tax work to do, and we promised our daughter to do some babysitting for a few days.

Monday morning, I saw Dr. Glace who quickly filled the cavities and we decided to have a cap done for the third. On Wednesday I was back to be “fitted” with a cap which will be ready in about 3 weeks. Later in the week we brought the boat into Rodney Bay Marina and prepared to fly back to New York for a week. Seeing cruiser friends and others in Rodney Bay made us feel like being in a “home base”. It seems like Antigua, St. Lucia and Trinidad are becoming our “home base” islands or nexus islands to conduct boat repairs, doctor visits and air travel arrangements.

We did fly to NY for a week, completed the tax work, babysat for a few days, saw family and friends, celebrated St. Patrick’s day and then flew back to St. Lucia. The weather was ok but considerably colder than the 80 degrees in St Lucia. A few snow flurries and cold winds greeted us but we survived! The only problem flying off island in St Lucia is that it is at least an hour and half taxi ride to the airport. This time it took two hours and as we arrived at the airport just as they started to board. The one flight a day cannot be missed!

We few back to St Lucia with another couple that were going to sail with our cruiser friends Bob and Brenda on PANDORA who were also in St. Lucia. The six of us took a road trip the day after we arrived and had a great lunch at Ladera’s. Ladera is a high-end resort overlooking the Pitons. St Lucia is one of the most beautiful islands in the Caribbean and the Pitons are two of the very impressive “pointy” mountains of the island.

After the short visit to St Lucia is was time to sail back to Martinique as our daughter Melanie and husband Dave will visit and stay with us for a week. The sail back on Friday was not as good as the sail down as it was an upwind sail and head seas. Maybe those old sailors knew something. But now we are back in St. Anne planning a week with our daughter and son-in-law. We are looking forward to that. Besides beaches and sun, sailing and restaurants, they want to climb the volcanic Mt. Pelee. Well, they are young enough. This three-quarters of a century body is not up to that task. I’m just grateful my teeth are still in my mouth. We sail to St. Lucia after a week with Melanie and Dave to get a cap.