Kayaking to Rodney Bay Marina

[amstony]

Kayaking to Rodney Bay Marina, kayak trip #3

This was my third and longest kayak trip while on vacation.

This time I decided to head out and go some distance, hugging the shoreline and traveling to the entrance of Rodney Bay Marina. Rodney Bay is one of the top places to put your yacht or cabin cruiser in the Carribean, and every year there is a huge "yacht convention" that brings in boats from all over the world. There are also many fishing boats, cruises to Martinique and the ships that were used in the old movie "Roots" and the more recent "Pirates of the Carribbean", which was filmed on the next island, St. Vincent.

I left in the morning, before the crazies on Jet ski's actually wake up, and the water skiers and tubers have not yet had a chance to stir up the bay!

This final trip was a little more interesting than the other two I took. As I paddled towards the marina, I ventured past the town of Gros Islet, a fishing community located in Rodney Bay, kids were playing on the beach and waving. I also avoided some major rocks that were along my path!

Paddling along, I came to the entrance in about 45 minutes where I decided NOT to enter the marina bay itself. There appeared to be controlled access with the red and green stop lights, and I did NOT want to get detained by the harbor police (they have them on patrol) or hit some poor ship or vice versa coming in or out.That would have a litle detrimental!!

So I parked adjacent the entrance and within minutes 3 fishing boats were heading out of the bay and 2 were coming in. The 3 that came out, they had the green light. The ships coming in stopped at the red light, and the 3 coming out kept moving. Very interesting to watch.

When that was all done I paddled back along the shore and came to a jettey where a large flock of Pelicans were hanging out! As I paddled closer they started "yelling" and except for a few they all flew away. I took a shot of the "tough" pelicans who weren't afraid of me....

And within 45 minutes or so I was paddling back where ChanelGirl met me with a drink!!

 

[amstony]

Pics of Rodney Bay and Gros islet and yours truly!

 

[amstony]

couple of more cool pics, and that was that, No more St. Lucia kayaking for this vacation.

 

[bubba]

There appeared to be controlled access with the red and green stop lights, and I did NOT want to get detained by the harbor police (they have them on patrol) or hit some poor ship or vice versa coming in or out.

You probably had the right-of-way!! Well, that's if they saw you!!

 

[Jay H]

You probably had the right-of-way!! Well, that's if they saw you!!

No, not really, it's not the same as land, on a kayak you have a lot more control of where you are going (turning) as well as stopping distance... There's the law of gross tonnage i.e. the bigger you are the more right-of-way you have and it's hard to argue with anything as being in a kayak, you are almost as small as a swimmer!

A Marine radio is good and knowledge of the local navigational devices would be helpful at port entrences and stuff but you can always adher to the basic principal of staying out of any boats way! That typically works. Not every boat pilot uses the radio anyway (other than emergencies)...

Jay

 

[amstony]

No, not really, it's not the same as land, on a kayak you have a lot more control of where you are going (turning) as well as stopping distance... There's the law of gross tonnage i.e. the bigger you are the more right-of-way you have and it's hard to argue with anything as being in a kayak, you are almost as small as a swimmer!

A Marine radio is good and knowledge of the local navigational devices would be helpful at port entrences and stuff but you can always adher to the basic principal of staying out of any boats way! That typically works. Not every boat pilot uses the radio anyway (other than emergencies)...

Jay

I figured they were way bigger than me anyway, and being a "tourist" in a little boat, I'd be expendable!