New Arrival

We were all very excited as we found out we were going to have a new arrival on board. A new person to scrub the decks and cook in the galley. A new crew member to wake at 3 am to be on coffee and tea duty. A new crew member to carry the bags and scrub the heads. We waited patiently for my brother to arrive, the week went ever so slowly as we bobbed up and down outside Rodney Bay. To pass the time, schoolwork was done and we even took Jangles into the marina to give her a quick scrub before the new arrival.

Scrubbing Jangles

Beautiful sunset

The day had finally arrived for us to see my brother! We hired a car and took a drive to the airport on the south of the island. After an hour and a half of driving through the beautiful St. Lucian countryside, we arrived at the little airport. My heart was racing as I stood excitedly, waiting for my brother to come out of those double doors. Eventually, there he emerged. . .with no bags. My sister and I ran to embrace him. Five months was too long to go without seeing my brother. He needed to get some information about what port we were anchored in and he then went back inside and emerged once again, luggage in hand. On the drive back to the boat, we stopped at a small pub and gave Josh his first rum and coke on St. Lucia. He was also pleasantly surprised when he tried banana chips and actually liked them! As we drove back to the marina, we played music and sang very off key at the top of our lungs the whole way. People in cars were smiling and giving us thumbs up as we danced and sang. We went for dinner at the marina before heading back to the boat. We sat and ate pizza and laughed as the sun was setting. We continued to laugh as five of us squished into the dinghy and headed back to the boat. Once we all got on the boat, the day started to hit us and it was off to bed pretty early.

On our way to the airport

                                          

He arrived!

Pub

On the party boat

We awoke early on Sunday morning, just after 6 am as we had planned a tour for the day for Josh to see the island. We got on a bus just after 8 am and drove to fetch a few more people. It seemed to be a popular honeymoon destination as every couple we picked up were in St. Lucia for their honeymoon. After a short 15 minute drive to Castries, we departed the bus and got onto Carnival 2, the party catamaran. We sailed down to Soufriere and then took another bus to the botanical gardens. We went on a tour around the garden, finding out information about every flower and plant that inhabited that tranquil place. We also got to see the Diamond Waterfall before getting back in the bus to go to the restaurant for lunch. Lunch was all local foods: mac and cheese, dasheen balls, chicken, fish, rice etc. We then went to the sulphur springs and enjoyed the delicious smell of sulphur in the air as we learnt all about the history of the volcano. It was almost 2 by the time we were done, so our bus went back to the party boat. We motored to a black sand beach, where we anchored for people to snorkel and swim if they so desired. We all jumped in the water to swim, to cool off from the hot sun. Joshua bought a very pretty shell which he spent the rest of the afternoon blowing like a horn just to annoy me. . .sigh, we definitely know he has arrived. After we swam, the booze cruise began. Rum was being served with anything and everything they could find, coke and fruit juice seemed to be the two favoured additives. The music got louder as we sailed back to Castries, all the honeymoon couples wouldn't dance, so the Jangles family, all five of us, we danced with the crew until we eventually reached our final destination. It was then back on the bus and back to the marina for us. We got take away noodles from Starfish and had dinner on the boat whilst the sun set. Joshua was fast asleep by 6pm as is jetlag had finally had the best of him. We all decided on an early night as our sails would be raised at 3am the next morning to head to Barbados.

                                         

sulphur springs

Dancing on the boat