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Amazing Grace - Amazing Grace Log 1 - Monkeying Around



Over the last week, we’ve spent countless hours packing, organizing, traveling, and preparing for our around the world trip before arriving in beautiful St. Lucia about a day and a half ago. Don’t get me wrong, the preparations aren’t over, and we have a long day of work provisioning, safety inspections, installing sails, etc. ahead of us. But we took a break to prioritize “keeping the crew happy” (the most important thing, according to Captain Dave) and explore this magnificent island.

Upon arrival, our first break was the beginning of rally happy hour with the other World ARC boats. Of course, beers by the boats while meeting new people is right up our alley. We met people on boats from all over the world (heavily Great Britain, Australia/New Zealand, and Scotland/Ireland/Belgium). Our fellow cruisers are interesting, lighthearted, and so kind sailors of varying experience levels (encouraging) and we can’t wait to start this journey with them.

Then our adventure yesterday was one of the coolest things we’ve ever done. We took a bus through St Lucia to the inland rainforest, while our guide told us all about the land, the people, the government, and the economy. Fun fact: the ratio of women to men in St. Lucia is 7:1 (according to our guide, that’s the land’s greatest attraction- insert eyeroll here). We went up over 1,500 feet into the rainforest through banana farms, villages and gorgeous views of the blue, blue ocean. Bananas are the nation’s greatest export, and as I write this post I’m sitting on the deck of Amazing Grace enjoying the sweetest, most delicious banana I’ve ever had.

Deep in the rainforest, we swung through the trees on a series of 12 ziplines, connected by rope bridges and steep stairs. It made the Midland Canopy Walk look like a set of monkey bars. We zipped over gorgeous streams and waterfalls. We saw mango trees and bamboo and all sorts of gorgeous exotic plants- but to my chagrin we never saw the extremely rare St. Lucia Amazon (parrot). In fact, there was a surprising lack of wildlife- maybe due to the loud zip of the lines that went up to 30 MPH. It was exhilarating and breathtaking and, if you ask admiral Anne, pretty scary!

We 10/10 recommend a trip to St. Lucia to see it. The pictures and videos can’t compare to the real thing, but visit our blog to see pictures and videos of the fun we had: www.theseanicroute.com

Kristen Pankratz

First mate, Amazing Grace


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