Sailing into Saint Lucia, Lesser Antilles
After a peaceful day and night at sail, we came into sight of our next destination: one of the most beautiful of the Antillean islands, home to the French empress Josephine, St. Lucia. Now a piece of paradise in the warm tropical Caribbean Sea, this island was for over two centuries the object of some of the most bitter and hotly contested battles that raged in this part of the world; in fact St Lucia changed hands between Britain and France a record fourteen times! This fact, combined with its rugged and lush beauty, earned the island the nickname, among local inhabitants, “the Helen of the West Indies” after Helen of Troy who was also much fought over.
Morning found us at sail in the lee of the island, a position we had strived for in the hope of finding optimal conditions for lowering our Zodiacs whilst under full sail for a photo opportunity – not an easy task, as one can imagine. Brisk winds made this impossible for today, and in fact caused us to overshoot the island, however far from being disappointed this gave us an even greater treat: we had to tack the Sea Cloud II round to head back towards the western coast of the island and our anchorage in the Bay of Soufriere.
Tacking requires one to bring the head of a vessel to wind and across it, so as to bring the wind on the opposite side and thus change direction. Whilst this might sound relatively simple on a smaller sailing boat, it is quite a feat of seamanship on a square-rigger, so we all gathered on the lido deck, where we could get a good view of the whole operation, and were taken through it step by step by our Expedition Leader. It was fascinating watching our crew pull the spanker sail from starboard to port, whilst the jibs had been lowered, and the wind conditions were such that this manoeuvre was enough to swing the stern of Sea Cloud II round, allowing her bow to cross the wind. The sail crews then rushed forward to brace the mainmast to a port tack too, and for a while the yards of the two enormous masts were facing the opposite directions until the ship came around completely and the foremast yards were also braced to the portside – and off we were towards our destination.
In the distance we could make out the spectacular silhouette of St. Lucia, with its landmark “pitons” silhouetted against the blue sky. These are a geologic formation that arose when the dense plugs of basaltic lava that upwelled within the volcano and solidified then became exposed once the rest of the volcanic cone was eroded away. We landed at the base of these structures, in the town named “Soufriere” due to the nearby sulphur vents, and had a wonderful afternoon exploring this most friendly and fascinating of islands.
After a peaceful day and night at sail, we came into sight of our next destination: one of the most beautiful of the Antillean islands, home to the French empress Josephine, St. Lucia. Now a piece of paradise in the warm tropical Caribbean Sea, this island was for over two centuries the object of some of the most bitter and hotly contested battles that raged in this part of the world; in fact St Lucia changed hands between Britain and France a record fourteen times! This fact, combined with its rugged and lush beauty, earned the island the nickname, among local inhabitants, “the Helen of the West Indies” after Helen of Troy who was also much fought over.
Morning found us at sail in the lee of the island, a position we had strived for in the hope of finding optimal conditions for lowering our Zodiacs whilst under full sail for a photo opportunity – not an easy task, as one can imagine. Brisk winds made this impossible for today, and in fact caused us to overshoot the island, however far from being disappointed this gave us an even greater treat: we had to tack the Sea Cloud II round to head back towards the western coast of the island and our anchorage in the Bay of Soufriere.
Tacking requires one to bring the head of a vessel to wind and across it, so as to bring the wind on the opposite side and thus change direction. Whilst this might sound relatively simple on a smaller sailing boat, it is quite a feat of seamanship on a square-rigger, so we all gathered on the lido deck, where we could get a good view of the whole operation, and were taken through it step by step by our Expedition Leader. It was fascinating watching our crew pull the spanker sail from starboard to port, whilst the jibs had been lowered, and the wind conditions were such that this manoeuvre was enough to swing the stern of Sea Cloud II round, allowing her bow to cross the wind. The sail crews then rushed forward to brace the mainmast to a port tack too, and for a while the yards of the two enormous masts were facing the opposite directions until the ship came around completely and the foremast yards were also braced to the portside – and off we were towards our destination.
In the distance we could make out the spectacular silhouette of St. Lucia, with its landmark “pitons” silhouetted against the blue sky. These are a geologic formation that arose when the dense plugs of basaltic lava that upwelled within the volcano and solidified then became exposed once the rest of the volcanic cone was eroded away. We landed at the base of these structures, in the town named “Soufriere” due to the nearby sulphur vents, and had a wonderful afternoon exploring this most friendly and fascinating of islands.
