After arriving in the dark in St Anne’s, Martinique, on the night of 28th Match 2024, we had a very lazy day on Good Friday, starting with a cooked breakfast of poached eggs and bacon, accompanied by freshly baked soda bread; it was the best we could do for Easter eggs on Paw Paw this year. The stunning sunsets, however, made up for the lack of chocolate Easter eggs over the Easter weekend.
After breakfast, we dinghied ashore to dispose of our garbage, clear in, stop in at the little church situated on the village square and enjoy an ice-cream under the shade of the trees on the waterfront. That was indeed the sum total of our activities for the day, aside from dosing on and off in the cockpit while enjoying the cool breeze.
Fortunately all the shops were open on Easter Saturday, which allowed us to get all our errands completed, particularly, to do a “bulk” provision in preparation for our upcoming passage westward, not something we had expected to be doing again, but with the lack of variety and supplies, not to mention expense, on the other Windward Islands, Le Marin, specifically Leader Price, was the best place to purchase everything we needed and wanted, including all our French favourites, although this required two trips in the dinghy. Our busy day, however, never got started until we’d enjoyed a breakfast of French pastries and coffee at Mango Bay restaurant, following which we got dinghy fuel and visited the various nearby chandleries in search of a few specific items we needed.
Easter Sunday was another lazy day after we got our provisions sanitised and stowed, following which Elaine also decided to use her spare time to explore specific Irish traditions for this major event in the Christian calendar. As it turns out there were many traditions associated with Easter in Ireland, from a “black fast” on Good Friday to “cake dances” on Easter Sunday.
For some in modern day Ireland, Easter is all about chocolate eggs and a long weekend; even the pubs are now open on Good Friday. This, however, is a significant contrast to how it used to be celebrated, mainly as a religious festival, marked with some unusual festivities and customs.
As is still custom today, on Palm Sunday, “palm” is blessed in the church and taken home, although this can be any green plant such as conifer, spruce or yew, but it’s usually with branches of Leylandii; its abundance and flatness make it perfect for slipping behind statues or pictures in the home. In the past, slips of blessed palm were also worn by men in their lapels and it was customary to hang it in barns to protect livestock.
Good Friday, a day of prayer and fasting, meant a so-called “black fast” in days gone by, meaning that nothing but water was to be taken, nothing important was to be started, no work was to be done, although the day was considered a good one on which to plant potatoes and grain, no blood was to be shed, so there was no slaughtering of animals, no fishing boats were to be launched, no wood was to be burned and no nails driven through wood, in solidarity with Christ’s suffering on the cross.
Some women hung their hair loose as if in mourning and some people went barefoot all day. Men trimmed their hair and fingernails; doing this on Good Friday was thought to prevent headaches for the year ahead and, although cold and wet weather was expected, many visited graveyards, shrines and holy wells, where water obtained from a holy well was considered especially curative.
On Easter Saturday, holy water was blessed in the churches and people took containers of this “Easter water” home to bless the house and farm. At this time, since Lent was nearly over, butchers around the country held symbolic mock funerals for herrings, given that herrings sustained many people during the meat-free Lent and butchers were looking forward to an upturn in business by selling meat instead. In parts of the country, notably the southern counties and Cork city, they held a procession heralding the final day of Lent known as “whipping the herring’”, where a herring was tied to a rope and pulled along while it was whipped to pieces by the crowd.
At sunrise on Easter Sunday morning, many people rose early and gathered on a high vantage point to witness the spectacle of the “dance of the sun”, observing the sun reflected in a pan of water.
The use and decoration of Easter eggs is still customary throughout Ireland today. Not only had eggs connotations with life-power, but there would have been an abstinence from them for Lent, resulting in a rather large glut that needed to be used, satisfied by way of a feast of eggs for breakfast on Easter Sunday. Children added dyes to water to colour the eggs while they boiled or they were painted and decorated to be eaten, displayed or played with. An Easter dinner, comprising seasonal spring meats such as lamb, veal or kid were customary, with richer farmers distributing meat amongst the poor so that they too might enjoy a festive dinner. Dinner was followed by a “cake dance” held outdoors on Easter Sunday evening, with a large cake as a prize, a custom that has been revived in County Leitrim apparently. Will definitely have to see this!
The Easter weekend was brought to a close on Easter Monday with fairs, consisting of the usual trading and games, sports, sideshows, food and music, etc, to celebrate the end of the dark days of Lent and to look towards the late spring and summer.
For us, Easter Monday involved a nice hike from St Anne’s around the southwestern headland, followed by a light lunch ashore and then clearing out before returning to Paw Paw to prepare for our early morning departure to St Lucia.
Another tradition of Ireland undertaken over the Easter period is to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, which involves a formal ceremony to commemorate those who died and where the Proclamation of Independence is read aloud. It is attended by the President, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister). This year, however, it was also attended by Northern Ireland's First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, for the first time. Given that Easter 1916 was the foundational event for Óglaigh na hÉireann (the Defence Forces), representatives from the Army, the Air Corps and the Naval Service take part in the ceremony, as well as a brass and a pipe band. The ceremony concludes with an Air Corps flypast and prayers of remembrance.
Tuesday, 2nd April 2024, was an eventful and special day in many ways for us. Although it was a methotrexate day for Elaine, she decided to try something different by taking her medication just before breakfast rather than early morning and going back to sleep. This definitely helped with the nausea and made our sail over to St Lucia far more pleasant than it would otherwise have been. Having the wind and sea in a perfect direction certainly helped add enjoyment to the sail and by 1000 we were safely tied up in our berth in Rodney Bay marina.
After clearing in with Customs and Immigration, something we’ve done multiple times this year in St Lucia in particular, on this occasion, we had a new online form to fill in for Immigration, a form that was designed for someone arriving by air or cruise ship. Needless to say, it required a vast amount of irrelevant data for a yacht, including the name and address of the resort we were staying at. Setting frustration aside, we completed the form as requested, although it added a considerable amount of time to our cleaning in process. This was just another example of the hit and miss service we’ve experienced throughout the Windward Islands since our return. Regardless, once that was completed we made our way to the Rodney Bay Medical Centre, where Elaine had her blood work done.
As a treat we stopped in at the Swiss Bakery on our way back to the marina to enjoy a coffee and baked delight and then headed to the marina office to check in there. It was a tad worrying that a new controlled entry system had been installed at the marina office because the staff had felt unsafe. Given that we had preferred to be in the marina rather than at anchor because we felt unsafe too after the recent boarding of a yacht in Rodney Bay, this revelation didn’t fill us with a great sense of reassurance. Safety and security unfortunately has been a major concern for us since arriving back in the Caribbean, primarily on the islands from St Lucia southwards; a real shame given that we never had these concerns ten years ago. Back then there was the occasional theft of an unlocked dinghy, which continues today, but never yachts being boarded while cruisers are onboard or indeed cruisers being assaulted or murdered while onboard. In all honesty we were both glad to be leaving the Windward Islands because of this uncertainty. A real shame!
Back onboard Elaine tried to nap while Roy went to purchase a new water heater for the starboard side, since the multiple repairs undertaken on the new one we fitted in Australia, developed yet another leak. There was clearly a problem with this particular rather expensive purchase. However, neither of us were successful in our endeavours. Unfortunately Elaine didn’t sleep a wink and the water heater that had been available in December, was no more. A new anchor light still alluded us too. Guess we’ll be needing another delivery from the US. Instead Roy used the remainder of his afternoon to wash the deck in the pouring rain.
While our return to St Lucia on this occasion was a short visit, it was primarily for two reasons. The first was for Elaine to see the doctor for a review and to get her prescriptions filled prior to heading westward, but more importantly, it was for a celebration of life.
We first met Rowena and Richard, off Galene, 10 years ago during our first hurricane season in Bonaire and have remained friends over the years. A fond memory we have was getting completely pickled with them one impromptu night on Paw Paw in Antigua; Elaine and Rowena on a warm bottle of Johannesburger purchased that morning, but was absolutely putrid and Roy and Richard on the worst bottle of rum Richard had ever tasted. To this day none of us can explain why we continued to drink such unpleasant beverages on our empty stomachs, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
With Richard being the rum connoisseur that he was, he vowed to improve Roy’s taste in rum and bought him a decent bottle just prior to the start of our circumnavigation, with strict instructions that it wasn’t to be opened until we’d crossed the Pacific.
Of course, when we reached Australia and visited the Bundaberg Rum Distillery, buying Richard a bottle of rum was a foregone conclusion, a bottle which had sailed with us on Paw Paw since 2018 in order to bring it back to the Caribbean for him.
Sadly Richard passed away before we could give him our gift, but his family and friends had gathered in St Lucia to scattered his ashes just off Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay. Producing the bottle of rum during his sendoff, having conveyed its history, was very much appreciated by the family and indeed a fitting way to toast Richard’s life; a very special occasion for us and one we were glad to be a part of. Needless to say, it was also lovely to see Rowena again and to meet the rest of the family. St Lucia was one of Richard’s favourite places in the Caribbean. May he rest in peace.
The next few days were all about the final preparations required for our passage to Bonaire, one of the ABC islands in the Southern Caribbean. Preparations included getting through the usual pre-sail checklist, Elaine seeing the doctor for her review and test results, as well as to pick up her six month supply of medications at the local pharmacy and Roy running more errands for bits and bobs we still needed, including yet another new MOB (Man Overboard) light, since the last one, purchased in Gibraltar, simply fell apart; another example of expensive, poor quality equipment for a yacht! While Elaine was at the doctor, Roy took the opportunity to get some top up fruit and vegetables too. The final task was to top up the diesel tanks, which required two dinghy trips rather than queuing at the fuel dock with Paw Paw or indeed delaying our departure by having to wait on the fuel dock to open. Even the small savings we would have made on getting duty-free diesel wasn’t worth the hassle. Instead we opted to clear out for a sunrise departure, casting off the dock at around 0600, but not before wishing Elaine’s folks a Happy 63rd Wedding Anniversary and we’d enjoyed one last Happy Hour at the Broadwalk with Rowena to say our goodbyes. What we definitely weren’t expecting was to get a message from Time Bandit (Anne and Stuart), who had arrived in St Lucia and were anchored in Rodney Bay waiting to clear in the following day. Unfortunately, with Elaine only seeing the message after our outing with Rowena, the timing of everything precluded us from seeing them again, but we did see Time Bandit resting peacefully at anchor as we sailed out of Rodney Bay at sunrise on Friday, 5th April 2024, bound for Bonaire.
With that, we said our goodbyes to the Windward Islands.
