Mountains and Beer...what's in a name ?

Hi all from St. Lucia.....

THE CREW left Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, mid-morning after T made homemade pancakes with fresh bananas which we had purchased from one of the local boat boys. WONDERFUL !! The sail down the coast of St. Lucia was beautiful, fast and fun with the Trades doing their best to push us along at just the right speed.


We decided to pick up a mooring 20 miles down the coast under and between St. Lucia’s famous Piton Mountains. The twin mounts rise directly from the sea to nearly 4000 feet. They are truly spectacular making for a dramatic anchorage….little did I know how dramatic the Pitons would be…..

Per our usual procedure, Captain Dave is on the wheel and Trudie, armed with a boathook, was to pick up the pennant attached to the floating mooring ball and slip our dockline through the eye in the pennant. T grabbed the pennant, but it was very short and she could reach down far enough (or close enough to the water) to slip the dockline through the eye. The CAPTAIN was already on the bow, ready with instructions….”Go back to the wheel, I’ll handle this”, I directed. I couldn’t reach down far enough either, so I had to drop the pennant back into the water.

T asked if she should bring Persephone around for another pass at the mooring ball (no easy feat, as it was blowing nearly 30 knots under the mountains (meteorologist geeks remember katabatic winds) and T had only picked up one previous mooring ball in benign conditions). Sure, give it a try, I yelled back to the helm in a voice that bordered on condescending (really not expecting T would ever be able to control the boat in those conditions well enough to nose the bow to a 18” ball bobbing all over the place in the wind and waves and stop 30 thousand pounds of boat before running over the bobbing ball). I heard the engine power up, the boat spun on her keel, and T aimed the boat perfectly….as we approached I heard her throttle back, and put the boat in reverse at just the right moment to arrest our forward momentum. I “skillfully” (NOT) hooked the pennant, got the boathook twisted in the line, wedged the pole against the lifelines on the boat and instantly heard a loud …..SNAP !! The boathook blew apart in my hands !! (I have owned this boathook for 30 YEARS !! No exaggeration…it was a GREAT pole…I’ll miss it !!) My eyes almost popped out of my head as the remnants of my nearly new boathook floated away….

Trudie, “bring her around again” I yelled to be heard over the wind; not believing I didn’t hook up the boat on the SECOND pass!! T again spun the boat on her keel and was again aimed at the mooring. Meanwhile, I rushed back to the cockpit locker and got out my “emergency boathook”; actually it is the handle to the cleaning brush with a flimsy boathook end that snaps on in place of the brush….sort of the ginsu knife attachment of boathooks with the quality you would expect from a ginsu knife .) And, wait, there’s more ! 

This time, (pass #3) I hooked the pennant, got the line through, but the line got tangled and I couldn’t pull it through the eye; so I had to again drop the pennant. Again, T spun Persephone around for ANOTHER perfect pass at the mooring . Now being an expert with lots of practice today (and a bit dizzy after going around so many times), I hooked the pennant, ran the dockline through the eye and tried to release the boathook from the pennant….NO WAY ! The hook got stuck in the line and I couldn’t extract it. The pole started to bend, so I had to let go so as not to break my fragile ginsu boat pole. With the tension released, the pole sprang straight up into the air, did a perfect 10 foot high end over end dive into the water and started floating way to join the first pole. What do I do ?? I NEED a boat hook on board for the next mooring !! (25’ from Persephone and moving quickly….) I glance at the dinghy and quickly cancelled that option as the outboard motor was not on it, and the oars were stored in the locker….damn !! (50’ from Persephone and picking up speed….) I quickly tore off my hat and sunglasses, checked my pockets (think Clark Kent changing into Superman) and dived into the water after the pole fully dressed. A short swim later, I was able to retrieve the pole as Trudie was lowering the boarding ladder. T took one look at me, and said “boy, you look like you could use a cold one” !! I handed her the pole with a sheepish nod …..

“HEY, when did you learn to maneuver Persephone like that”, I asked as I climbed the boarding ladder and was now dripping all over the cockpit ? “I’m a lot better at this than you think or give me credit….” she retorted, with that look over her shoulder that every guy hates, as she descended into the galley to get a cold local beer…. The name of the local beer….yep, you guessed it “PITON”

For once, I just shut up, opened the beers, toasted Trudie and smiled at the Pitons…..the mountains and the beer.