St Lucia

St Lucia packs the whole Windward Islands story into one island. At the south-western end of the charter run, Gros and Petit Piton rise straight out of the Caribbean above the town of Soufrière — close enough from a mooring to touch, because the water beneath them is too deep to anchor. Fifteen nautical miles north, past Marigot Bay's landlocked hurricane hole, the coast opens into Rodney Bay's wide lagoon, where a proper superyacht marina does the island's fuel, provisioning and customs — and where, every December, several hundred blue-water sailors arrive at once as the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers reaches its finish line.

“The water directly beneath the Pitons drops away too fast to hold an anchor — every yacht that comes to look picks up a mooring instead.”

Signature anchorages

Moorings, not anchors, for most of the coast south of Marigot — the Soufrière Marine Management Association (SMMA) runs the Pitons end, two marinas hold the rest.

• Soufrière Bay & the Pitons — Anse des PitonsDirectly between Gros Piton (770m) and Petit Piton (743m), inside the 2,909-hectare Pitons Management Area, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004. The seabed falls away too fast to anchor, so yachts pick up an SMMA mooring — the largest rated for craft over 120ft (37m) LOA (length overall). Afternoons can turn gusty and rolly off the peaks; rangers sometimes ask for a stern line ashore.
• Anse Chastanet & Anse MaminA reef-fringed double bay just north of Soufrière town, below the Anse Chastanet and Jade Mountain resorts. SMMA moorings sit over sand and coral in 5–15m with good holding, and the Piton Wall's dive-able drop-off is close enough for an afternoon in the water.
• Anse CochonA quieter black-sand bay further up the leeward coast, also SMMA-managed, usually with far less traffic than the moorings under the Pitons; a healthy reef sits right off the mooring field.
• Marigot BayA landlocked harbour reached through a narrow, palm-lined entrance — one of the Caribbean's classic hurricane holes (a bay sheltered enough to ride out a storm) and a port of entry in its own right. Marigot Bay Marina runs to around 40 berths, six of them for craft over 51m, max draft 6m (19.7ft), plus mooring buoys further into the bay for smaller yachts.
• Rodney BayThe island's yachting capital: a wide lagoon guarded at its north end by Pigeon Island and the ruins of Fort Rodney (1778). IGY Rodney Bay Marina is a full port of entry — 32 superyacht berths to 87m LOA, max draft 3.9m, max beam 18.3m, among 253 berths in total — and the finish line for the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) every December.

The scene

A transatlantic fleet's December finish line, a Friday-night fixture older than most of the marinas, and the fort that watched over it all.

Table & stay ashore

Two clusters — hillside tables over the Pitons at Soufrière, and a boutique cliff north of the marina at Rodney Bay.

A week, sketched

Pair with

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