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American Spirit II - Day 453; We Get Acclimated in St. Lucia & Go To a Great Indian Restaurant; Saturday, April 4, 2015



One year ago today:

"Day 91; Mike's B-Day; Leaving Nuku Hiva, One More Shark, Mainsail and Racing to Ahe; Friday, April 4, 2014. Mike Mogavero, who flew home on Thursday, had a B-Day today. If we'd have known that Wednesday night, we would have announced his birthday during the native dance like other Rally crews did."

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Up at 5:30 AM. Coffee. It had rained during the night and the dodger center window was not zippered down. Oops. Our blue recliners are wet. I read in the cockpit.

Joel gets up at 8:20 AM. No breakfast today as we ate too much for dinner last night.

At 9:00 AM the car rental guy, Shawn, shows up at the boat. After filling out the paperwork we follow him to the parking lot to get the car. After that Joel 'dresses the boat.' Meaning, he put up a lot of flags that I had bought from the Rally over a year ago. We're supposed to 'dress the boat' whenever we're in a marina or anchorage. After this we empty out the starboard aft lazarette to find Darlene's flippers.

At 10:30 AM Eric from Nexus joins us and we're off in the car to buy some new SIM cards for our 3 phones. We have to go to the city of Castries to our north; St. Lucia's largest city. Once in Castries we find the streets really narrow; people are walking everywhere; and there are almost no parking spots. I finally park in a police station parking lot full of police cars and police motor cycles; and Joel and Eric head off on foot to find the Digicel phone store nearby. Joel is successful. While they're gone I'm looking at our road map and a notation on it says Marigot Bay, "Described by novelist James Michener, as 'the most beautiful bay in the Caribbean.'" Impressive.

At 1:20 PM we have lunch at a local restaurant called La Monique's Restaurant & Bar, close to our marina. Joel and I order fried chicken and Eric orders Mahi Mahi. The meal is good and inexpensive.

We're back at the boat by 2:30 PM. Joel takes a nap from 2:45 PM to 4:30 PM. I nap from 3:15 PM to 5:00 PM. After we get up we clean and organize the boat because Darlene is coming tomorrow. I lay out our final 3 charts for the trip home.

At 7:30 PM we go to an Indian restaurant on a second floor balcony in the marina. We have papadam and garlic naan; and I order chicken and Joel goat as our main courses. We have some sort of syrupy pastry and ice cream for dessert. The service and food provided is maybe the best I've had since leaving the US. The 3 ladies who waited on us are the most cheerful, pleasant and efficient I ever witnessed on this trip. And the food was very good, especially Joel's goat.

Back on the boat, we watch the movie 'Eagle Eye.' Its about an artificial intelligence computer that goes awry. A most unbelievable plot, and I was not liking it until the end. I'd give it 1 1/2 stars out of 4.

Joel is in bed by 11:40 PM and I follow at 1:05 AM.

Brian Fox




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