St. Lucia Jazz Festival

WOW!!

The plan was to do 4 days of the St. Lucia Jazz Festival, which has become a music festival. But Mother Nature had her own plans. Thursday was rained out, in fact we were looking for Noah, the animals were pairing off, no chimpanzee just humans in foul weather gear.

Friday we woke up to rain, then the sun made an appearance. We were hoping that the sun and wind could dry the land enough for the festival to open. Four boats got together and shared a water taxi, called Orgasm. At the back entrance to the grounds we were held up by Rufus, a security guard. Olga tried her best to sweet talk us in early, it had us all laughing, but didn’t get us in early. We tore up the hill, to secure the perfect piece of grass, stole chairs, hunkered down with a few drinks for a night of entertainment.

A 56 year old KC came out with his sunshine band. KC played a lot of his old tunes, brining back memories. We were all on our feet, singing along with him, doing the jive and the hustle. At one point KC joked “have a look at me now, this is what Justin Timberlake will look like in 30 years.” Next was the most anticipated artist of the night Amy Winehouse. Amy came out, tripping over her heels and turned to her band to find out what her first song was, and then she needed confirmation of the words. Needless to say, she was drunk. Then the skies took pity on her and opened up! Her act was shortened and Kassav came on the stage. This is a popular Martinique/Guadalope band. Earlier that day droves of sailboats came into the anchorage from Martinique. (Martinique is only 20 miles away.) The band played to the French fans for 2 and a half hour, finishing at 2:20 AM, 6 hours after a cruisers bedtime, but we preserved.

Orgasm picked up the die hards (Richard Cory and Interlude), for an all day and evening event, while Sundowner and Dream Chaser had morning and afternoon naps. Saturday started with a local artist, Michel Aubertin, who signs everything from reggae to opera, he was amazing. His opera song brought tears to Don’s eyes (Richard Cory). This woman from Britain Estelle had the crowd up dancing, even though it was the heat of the day. Michael McDonald got the crowd going with his old songs. But the highlight for us was George Duke featuring: James Ingram, Jeffery Osborne, Bebe Winans and Teddyson John. They had their own sets, but improvised, often signing someone else’s songs, or calling them on stage to sing them together. Bebe Winans called James Ingram on stage to sing the female part of this duet. The grand finale of the day was when all the artists came out, kibitzed, laughed and sang. Truly an amazing day, finishing at 12:30.

The gang was back together on Sunday, with Orgasm picking us up at noon. (Finally Karen asked the question, why name the boat Orgasm. John, the boat’s owner, said because life was an orgasm!) Mystery solved. Sunday was ladies day, being mother’s day. The highlights were George Duke featuring: Patti Lavelle, Shaka Khan and Nicole David. Patti was amazing; Nicole a local artist had beautiful voice. In the finale, she out sung Shaka Khan. Chicago played a long set, again everyone was on their feet! The last band was a locally popular band from Jamaica, which had us all sitting. The night ended at 10:30 with a great display of fireworks. St. Lucia did themselves proud.

A special mention goes out to our photographer friends on Richard Cory, Don and Olga, who provided the festival pictures for your enjoyment!

Monday was a day of rest! However Sundowner (Bob and Sue) was leaving to return to England for hurricane season, so we went to dinner with Sundowner and Dream Chaser (Neil and his father Adrian). We had a great meal of ribs and all the fixings, at the Chart House. Richard Cory couldn’t join us as Don was down for the count, with the flu.

It seemed that right after the festival, several of the boats came down with a bad flu. Cheryl was one of the victims, on Tuesday!

We meet two new boats, Altair and Sea Wing. Karen introduced them to Castries, the capital of St. Lucia. Karen did runs to shore for food and drugs for Cheryl and Richard Cory, while Cheryl continued to hack up a lung.

We now have peace and quiet, as the music and Cheryl’s coughing has stopped.

For those who remember Dr. Dolittle, we are off to Marigot Bay in St. Lucia, where Dr. Dolittle was filmed, to spend two days enjoying the fresh water pool and hot showers!