St. Lucia – Atlantic Crossing!

I guess we could go on and on about the West Indies and the beauty of the islands but it would get redundant. St. Lucia is no different…beautiful weather and beaches. Formerly a British and French territory that grew up on sugar cane, agriculture and fueled by imported African slaves. St. Lucia has a more checkered and confusing past as the country changed nationalities 14 times over its brief history. It was a French Territory 7 times and a British territory 7 times as well. As with tennis, France was not able to “break service” and it remains an independent but British territory. Residents are taught British in the schools but tend to speak a “Creole” dialect of French and West African at home.


Pat and I took a 4x4 jeep tour of the Island on a beautiful sunny day. St. Lucia is a bit larger than our previous stop at Antigua. St. Lucia is 268 square miles and has population of about 160,000. Port Castries is the main city and a busy port in it’s own right. During the trip we stopped over at a beautiful beach that you could not get to without a 4 wheel drive. We spent a pleasant couple of hours swimming and forgetting what weather is like in March!

Like other Caribbean Islands, sugar production from cane is pretty much over….much has been converted to Rum production and St. Lucia is no different. Interesting little factoid in these islands, sheep and goats are all over the place. Unlike the North American varieties, the only real way to tell the difference between the two is the tail! Sheep do not grow a coat of wool like the North American variety and the faces look the same. The way to tell them apart? The goat’s tail will turn up and the sheep’s tail turns down……color like this you cannot get from a book 

By the way, pictures will be sparse at this point....still suffering with a slow internet connnection and I seem to be better off trying to fax pictures in......



Atlantic Crossing……Stop the Boat….I want to get off.



Words of advice for those contemplating an Atlantic crossing by ship……DON’T DO IT! Just kidding, but there are steps to take. Halfway through the last 6 days at sea I kept thinking of Dante’s inferno and precisely what “ring of hell” I was currently in. The on- board food becomes both repetitive and derivative…..I mean, how many ways can you fix Brussels sprouts and why would you bother? As a side note, here is a great recipe for Brussels sprouts. Heat up a pan to medium heat with a couple of table spoons of oil..place the sprouts in the pan and sauté until they are done (you can tell because they start to smell…..yuck!), quickly open your trash can and pitch it right in! It’s not Cordon Bleu but it’s my favorite way of cooking Brussels Sprouts.

Anyway…..lessons learned. First, have a routine otherwise you could end up sleeping all day. Not a bad way for a day or so but not for the whole trip. Second….be active. Pat and I walked or ran a minimum of an hour a day. Great way to work off the Brussels sprouts….Third, have plenty of diversions planned. Pat and I are readers and had fully loaded up Kindles to keep us busy. Fourth, consider some of the stupid games that the entertainment staff has come up with. (that is the ninth ring of hell BTW) They end up being entertaining and you get to watch the video on the one station that does work…..over and over and over again. Make friends…..we met several interesting people along the way who are sharing the same “Bataan Death March” that we are……makes for interesting conversation 

Don’t expect much in the way of communication….the internet was intermittent and terribly slow. Television was non-existent. All in all, I will take an 8 hour flight to cross the Atlantic than 6 days at sea. During one of those periods where my mind wandered I came up with a theory that the Titanic purposely struck an iceberg just to get it “over with”….

On to more positive (and entertaining subjects)…. We have been making great time and will dock in Funchal tonight ahead of schedule. Funchal is on the Island of Madeira of the coast of Portugal. Not unlike the opening of the Bastille…..we are all getting off the ship for any purpose we can come up with.

Look for our next post where I regain my sanity, a good internet connection and eat something without Brussels Sprouts in it.



Regards,



Chris and Pat