Marigot Bay, Saint Lucia tide times

Marigot Bay is 8 km south of Castries by road and a reliable stop on the charter yacht circuit that runs the leeward coast of Saint Lucia. The bay is almost entirely enclosed — the entrance channel is narrow enough that the inner anchorage is invisible from seaward until you are actually through the gap — and the shelter it provides from trade wind and swell has made it a recognised hurricane hole since the age of sail. The story most often attached to the bay is the claimed use by a British admiral during the American Revolutionary War who anchored a fleet here and disguised the masts with cut palm branches to avoid detection; the historical documentation is thin, but the story has persisted.

The more verifiable history is that Rex Harrison filmed Doctor Dolittle here in 1967, and the bay appears as a recognisable backdrop in the film. Today the inner anchorage operates with a fee-based mooring system; the Marina village on the south shore and the Discovery at Marigot Bay resort on the north shore are the two main facilities, connected by a small foot-ferry that crosses the 80-metre channel every few minutes. The mangrove fringe on the north shore is accessible by kayak from the marina; the roots provide shelter for juvenile fish and the occasional green heron.

5 metres. 0 knots, noticeable for kayakers and dinghy sailors transiting in or out. The passage is straightforward for powered vessels; for paddlecraft the ebb is the current to time carefully.

The outer bay, immediately inside the headlands before the narrow inner throat, is exposed to the southwest swell that wraps around the island's southern end; the inner anchorage is effectively calm in all but extreme conditions. Restaurants on both the north and south shores of the inner anchorage operate from the water, accessible by dinghy or foot-ferry. The Rainforest Hideaway on the north shore is a floating restaurant on a pontoon in the mangrove; access is by the foot-ferry from the south marina.

Kayakers and paddleboarders based at the marina typically work the outer bay and the stretch of coast south toward Anse la Raye in the morning glass before the trade fills — the outer headlands produce a short, steep chop by afternoon that makes the return to the marina into the wind significantly harder. Shore anglers fish the outer point on the north headland on the morning flood; the deep water immediately below the cliff holds snapper and jack. 3 metres on height.

For the entrance channel current, time your transit for the half-tide rising, when the current has slowed from the ebb but has not yet built toward the flood peak.