I woke as we came into Castries on St Lucia.

It is a beautiful Island, but on this trip SWMBO and I thought we would explore the town a bit.

As I signed off the ship SWMBO was behind me. By the time I got to the bottom of the gangway she had disappeared. I waited for ages, signed back onboard ...... no sign of her! So I went off again and waited.

It turned out her card was not being recognised by the machine so she couldn’t get off. She had to head off to the reception desk and have another one issued. So that is her on her third card.

Once again, everyone is a taxi driver wanting to take you to Marigot Bay. I even had somebody walking down the road with his weeks shopping stuffed in a couple of carrier bags telling me he was a taxi driver who could take us on a tour. Frankly, I didn’t believe him.

We came across a Police Inspector carrying a rather natty stick. It was like a thin extending baton (for keeping the natives at bay) with a whistle built into the end! In my day, all my whistle was connected to was a chain.

The craft market was quite a place – a maze of narrow alleys packed about 10’ high with all sorts of local ‘crafts’ tourist tat, spices and colourful clothing. Almost sensory overload. We bought a dress and an extremely loud shirt for the themed night next week.

I didn’t buy anything from the prettiest drug dealer I have ever seen in my life.
I was standing taking pictures while SWMBO was in a shop and a stunningly beautiful girl in a wonderful bright blue business type outfit stopped and asked if I wanted any goods. She opened a small coolbox in her shoulder bag and there were the biggest ‘joints’ in the world. More well rolled packets than joints I suppose, about 2” think and 6” long. She explained that it was all local stuff that she put together herself. I gently declined her very nice offer and she closed her coolbag and walked off. She wasn’t in the slightest bit phased by the police dealing with a minor road accident just a few yards away. She obviously feels that tourists are more likely to buy her stuff than the locals as we saw her trying again another couple of times. Her stuff was certainly more impressive than the joint I was offered to share by the old guy at his roadside tourist tat stall (at least I think he was old – maybe he just looked that way from smoking his ganja).

By the time we got back to the ship we had walked few miles in the 28C heat and my back was killing me. Maybe I should have taken up the offer from one of them.
SWMBO nearly threw a fit when she tried to get into the cabin and her key didn’t work. So she is now on key number 4. We shall see tomorrow if it lets her off the ship.

We had a rather – no, very disappointing burger for lunch – let’s hope that the Indian we are being taken out for by The Captain and The Captain's Mate (who enjoyed their game of golf today) on the occasion of our anniversary is better.