In this video, St Lucia and Cruising the Caricom Bubble on a Budget by Sailboat, we leave Rodney Bay St. Lucia for Marigot Bay where we find a beautiful anch...

Closed Captions (CC):
in this video we leave rodney bay st

lucia

from marigo bay and we check out the

local scene we talk about costs

customs and the health procedures here

in the caribbean and we share with you

some of the repairs we've done to our

dinghy

to keep it going as we cruise on a

budget here in the caribbean

last time on sailing bellachandra we

finally leave grenada for st

lucia into our first overnight passage

in several months

if you're new to the channel hello i'm

noelle and i'm dan and we're

sailing bella chandra we're a couple

canadians from nova scotia canada we

sailed all the way to the caribbean and

we're sailing around the caribbean now

and if you haven't subscribed to our

channel just go below this video look

for the big red subscribe button press

that button

so we got all of our custom stuff taken

care of here in st lucia we submitted

the negative results we had on our pcr

test and submitted our clearance to the

port authority

and we are all good to go here and we're

going to hang out here in st

lewis ship probably for about a week or

so until we get a really good weather

window

and we'll probably head for antigua at

that point

rodney bay is not too bad there's a lot

of resorts here there's a few beaches

there's a big town with a mall and all

that stuff a couple grocery stores so

it's pretty convenient for cruisers if

you're stocking up or if you're heading

on

we're going to leave rodney bay today

and sail

down the coast a bit to marigo bay which

is this little

quaint anchorage so it should be a good

sail today we got a decent wind

we'll be behind the island for most of

the day so uh

i'm not expecting anything crazy from

the wind the windward side of the island

they're calling for gusts up to 25 knots

normally we wouldn't

sail on that but we're on the leeward

side so it should be fine

[Music]

me

[Music]

me

[Music]

me

[Music]

me

so i gotta say our sale here was pretty

nice we only flew the jib the whole way

it was downwind sailing pretty much the

whole day and you know you get that if

you

pay close attention to the weather and

choose the right wind angle like the

right day with the right wind

and you know sometimes it works out

really nice sometimes it's

completely different than what you think

it's going to be too so you got to be

careful but

yeah no it was a great day it's a good

sale all right we've arrived in marigo

bay

and it's lovely here it's so beautiful

it's a beautiful day

we got palm trees and there's some beach

resort stuff over there and i guess

there's a bar close to shore

looks like there's some good snorkeling

some cliffs to see

it's really nice we're excited to check

it out marigold bay

st lucia

[Music]

so i'm just frying up some eggs here to

make a couple breakfast wraps we got two

tortillas left in the bag so the last

two breakfast wraps

and st lucia um so yeah

it should be good the last two wraps in

all of st lucia

if that could be no it's not i don't

know

well it's the last the last two that we

have on board anyways

last piece of cheese not the last of the

eggs but

we're getting there

[Music]

so

i've been enjoying my interaction with

the locals here so far

it's been really good i love the banjo i

love

how open they are and oh man they're

great negotiators

they're great sales people that's that's

i'm enjoying that i'm enjoying that

banter

yeah the beaches here are really pretty

uh mine

like we said though uh some of the

resorts are open so we we're a little

hesitant to walk on the

beaches that are in front of resorts

because every beach here in st

lucia is open to the public even the

ones

that resorts are built on and i think

that's really neat it's like

yeah you're a part of it all you know

but you don't want to be a part of it

you know

it's like going to a resort for free in

some ways there's

maybe three really decent anchorages and

there's been some crime recently

making one or two of those anchorages

maybe not so safe

yep there's just hasn't been great

reviews on the anchorages

some say oh this anchorage people aren't

so friendly and kind to visitors and

or this anchorage had a dinghy stolen

you know just read your active captain

reviews

and stay on top of that the biggest one

i guess would be rodney bay

that would also be the safest one mainly

because the marina and customs officials

being there and everything but mainly

what you would do there is your check in

there's a beach you can hang it on the

beach you can go to the mall and go into

town and everything but you can do it

all pretty quickly

to us right now and i think we're just

going to visit this anchorage and go

back to

rodney bay yeah and we're done we're

going to check out we'll start moving

north again start moving north yet

i think our next stop will be antigua

and barbuda unless martinique opens up

right now it's close off to only

travelers that are in the european union

or in the uk

if it opens up to us we may or may not

go there it depends on their coveted

numbers and if we feel safe going there

and then what we will have to do

if we want to leave there do we have to

do another two week quarantine

somewhere else and that affects our

travels so we may not want to go there

for that reason yes

because if they get become a part of the

bubble all good

we don't have to do two weeks quarantine

but anything outside of the bubble right

now is uh

it's just that much more challenging i

don't know if i can do two more weeks

quarantine

yeah these are the questions that come

up every time you talk to cruisers if

you talk to another boat or

just in passing or at the bar or you are

invited to another boat

this is the the main topic discussed

i'm so tired of talking where are you

going uh what does it cost

i don't even want to hear you talking

about it right now what's gonna happen i

know

like the normal things you would talk

about is cruisers

like you know where's the good snorkel

spots or you know what's the best beach

bar

we're not even talking about that

anymore coming to st lucia

we had to pay for pcr tests it was

pretty expensive we had to get them in

grenada and in grenada pcr test

was 400 ec which for us is 200

canadian we needed two tests so that's

400

canadian yeah we had to take the test

before arriving to st lucia and we had

seven days to get here

what really got us though is that it

took us five days to get the results

back

and our window for entering into st

lucia was getting smaller

once we did arrive and we went to do our

customs they're like what took you guys

so long

you're here five six days you're cutting

it close like what took so long

and dan's like oh no like it does look

sketch but honestly it's just because of

the pcr test results

it's made us more anxious it's

frustrating and it's expensive

and it leaves you in strange positions

between countries that you really

shouldn't be in like

explaining why it took you seven days to

do a two-day passage or something like

that

yeah but there's nothing normal about

the situation that we're all in right

now

so the few times that we did dinghy to

shore there was a customs official

standing there waiting at the dinghy

dock to look for these blue bracelets

right there's a bit of confusion at

first because when we received the

bracelets

they had asked us to hold on to them we

don't necessarily have to wear them

and then she's like you can wear them

but it's up to you

we went to another anchorage marigold

bay and

we went to the dinghy dock and another

official approached us and they were

actually

quite upset that we weren't wearing the

bracelets

even though we had it in hand and showed

it to them right away yeah there's

definitely some aggression in there

and and it makes us uncomfortable and

you think they're going to be taking you

into their office

surprisingly saint lucia is well up and

running there's resorts here that are

full of people

that aren't wearing covid masks which is

kind of strange cruise ships tour boats

coming in it's like business as usual

here it makes us a little bit nervous

i'm happy to see all the locals wearing

masks i've been wearing my mask

you know unless we're sitting down at a

table and having a drink other than that

where we've been wearing our masks

when a local sees you without a mask

they'll remind you you know

you should put that mask on and that's

great yeah it's really good with the

cruise ships coming in and the flights

landing and everything they should be

that strange and it makes a lot of sense

the other thing that's going to be

frustrating for us leaving here

is paying for an additional pcr test

it's good that these countries are

requiring a pcr test from us i think

that's a great thing

but the cost is very high for us to get

a pcr test done here is a hundred

dollars

us a person so that's another 200 us

just on pcr tests and that has nothing

to do with

port entry or you know any of the

normal protocols of entering a new port

we didn't have any of this budgeted

we it's outside our budget and it's just

kind of

making us pinch everything a little bit

more it's definitely

takes a hit on the wallet let's say that

if you're coming to cruise in the

caribbean

make sure that you consider the

realities of the new norm of covid19

here and what that's going to require

because

you won't be able to move about without

having all the correct tests

all the eyes dotted and t's crossed as

you're moving between these countries

yeah

so as you can see our dinghy hasn't been

doing too well

especially right here where the transom

meets the pontoon

it's really been a problem we've had to

glue this joint here

several times on both sides and

continuously the force of the engine and

just the age of the glue

is not holding up and the transom really

just

becomes loose at those spots and

literally separates so i've done kind of

a quick jimmy rig with this

by adding some bungees here that holds

down this flap

and that seems to do the trick to hold

the transom in place at least

you know as long as the bungees hold up

in the saltwater environment

and i've got them wrapped around the

handle over here on

both sides basically the same yeah i

mean it works

it's uh it's getting us by but it's one

of the things about this dinghy i'm

really not impressed with the basic

manufacturing

also if you look here where the paddles

are attached this attachment point has

undergone

a lot of wear and tear and we don't

really paddle all that much

it didn't last very long it's just the

salt water kind of ate it away

the original attachment point here is

gone i've created some temporary fixes

here using some pvc

pipe and some stainless steel wire it's

enough that it'll work to get you out of

a

tight spot if your engine dies but it

may only work once or twice and then

i've got to repair it it's really just

maybe bad design or bad materials in the

original construction of the dinghy so

not really too impressed our dinghy is

from bombard it's a bombard

typhoon dinghy so if you're dingy

shopping and you see any dinghies from

bombard for sale

check them out very closely if it looks

anything like ours

you will probably have the same issues

over time so it might

be good to look for something stronger

than this

typhoon thanks for watching if you

enjoyed this week's video

please don't forget to subscribe hit

that like button

leave us a comment below we enjoy

reading them that's right and if you

haven't checked on our patreon page it's

always a good time to do so

patreon is a place where you can give

back if you like what we do

thanks bye

[Music]

winter narrator oh

all right i'm gonna we're just gonna

talk off of each other

it doesn't have to be perfect we don't

have to stop and redo things okay yep

sounds good all right

are you ready i'm ready i'm getting

ready

okay if you're new to the channel hello

i'm noelle

and i'm dan and we're sailing bella

chandra

go and we're sailing bella chandra

leave starting a ring

let me see if it's still recording we're

done

done talking about it done all right

what's next