Port Louis Marina

We had to make the most of our inflatable dingy, as we were heading to Port Louis marina in St George’s, in the afternoon, and we cant stow it inflated. We had a paddle over to a gorgeous secluded resort called La Luna which was one bay along. I had a very inelegant arrival onto the beach, being dumped as I tried to get out the kayak. We walked along the beach and peeped in over all the private property signs. The vegetation is just so lush it looks like an emerald paradise.

Back to Polepole for a great big breakfast. In the afternoon we set off to the marina in St George’s passing our old quarantine berth from our time in June. The gorgeous old 3 masted sloop called Mandalay was still there and brought back many memories. Rowan executed a perfect docking, always a bit nerve racking when you haven’t done it in a while.

It was incredible on the one side of us were the couple we invited on board for drinks at Ocean World in the Dominican Republic. We felt mightily relieved as they were equally green to sailing as us at the time. Incredibly we had also moored with them on our first night in the Bahamas. Then on the other side of us were the Americans we had invited on board for a drink at Sandy Island off Carriacou, who turned us down which rather affronted Rowan. They did make up for it however, by introducing us to the lovely Paradise bar the next evening. Bizarrely both boats have been in the marina since July and making no signs of moving.

The reason we came into the marina was so that Terry could come and sort out the water pump and bilges. He was working seriously to Island time and finally arrived at 5pm. Luckily we had brought a spare pump back with us and once changed the leak stopped and all was good.

We went out for dinner with the one couple and relived our ghastly time in the Dominican Republic. They moved onto Puerto Rico which we couldn’t go to as it was only open to Americans, which is why we returned to Turks & Caicos. However they got kicked out of Puerto Rico after a week, no boats were allowed unless they were in a marina, and they were all full. They were escorted off by armed navy guards which really unsettled them.

We ate in the old fishing harbour area, looking over the water back towards the marina, very picturesque in the full moon.