Sorry its been so long since the last update. we have been having a great time, sailing from St Lucia to Martinique, back to St Lucia to pick up our friends Jessica and Julie, south to St Vincent & the Grenadines (Bequia), back to St Lucia to drop Jessica and Julie off. After dropping our friends off we headed back down to St Vincent & the Grenadines (met with friends on Wild Thing) and south to Grenada where we would be leaving the boat for hurricane season (or as it turned out covid season).
So after our crew (Dave & Jason) flew home from St Lucia, Scott & I had the boat to ourselves after having crew for over 6 weeks. We sailed up to Martinique for 6 days. Martinique has a very different vibe than St Lucia, it is one of the French islands in the Carribean and definitely has that European feel. Vert laid back and relaxed, with fewer rules. It was great. We anchored at Grande Anse with many other boats (most French-flagged) and dinghy’d in to the beach. No dock, so just beach it between the swimmers. I was half expecting someone to come running up with a whistle and wave us off, but no-one seemed to care. Just be careful of the people in the water and all is good. The other nice thing was the lack of beach vendors selling the same trinkets. The closest we saw of that was a gorgeous young woman selling bikinis and wraps – she would take off one bikini, put on another and model it for prospective buyers, then do the same with the wraps. Scott really enjoyed this… This was also where we scuba dived from the dinghy for the first time with the gear we bought in Tenerife. We took the tanks to the local dive shop to have them filled, loaded everything into the dinghy and off to a dive site – tie off to a dive buoy, gear up and over the side. It will be nice when we can get our own dive compressor so we don’t have to find dive shops to fill tanks. We found quite a few good dive sites along the cliffs… coral was really healthy and quite a few smaller fish, eels, lobster… none of the big stuff though. One of local dive shop operators told us all the sharks were ON the beaches.
The closest we came to excitement at Grande Anse was when our anchor dragged and the boat started drifting out to sea. It is a damn good thing Scott was on board at the time! I was on shore waiting for the dive shop to fill our tanks, so Scott had to deal with that his own.. working through the gaggle of boats and re-anchored right against the shore. After a few days, we headed south around the corner to St Anne (Marin) and spent a couple of days there. This is where we learned how to hunt lion fish !!! While in Marin stocking up on cheap French groceries & beer in Martinique we stopped by a dive shop & picked up a “Hawaiian sling” and some instructions on how to safely catch lion fish. Lionfish are an invasive species in the Carribean (they are native to south east Asia). Very beautiful, but their fins have several venomous spines. Some people manage to filet them without taking the spines off (they are just super careful), but we did not want to chance it… we actually cut the poisonous fins off while underwater.. Scott would spear the fish & I would snip them off with a pair of scissors & then put them into our mesh bag to bring up to the boat. They are super good eating!! Made chevice & fish burgers.
We left Martinique on Sunday morning for a beautiful downwind sail back to St Lucia to pick up our friends Jessica and Julie. Made really good time averaging about 7knots. There was a bit of a time crunch since we wanted to check in & out of St Lucia before the customs and immigration office closed at 4:30. The plan was to head south for an overnight sail to St Vincent & the Grenadines. Jessica & Julie’s flight plane landed just before 3pm, and it was a 45 minute taxi ride to Soufriere. Jessica & Julie arrived at the port just as expected and with plenty of time to spare… unfortunately with all the excitement, their taxi driver left with Jessica’s carry-on bag still in the back seat! Oh shit, what do we do now !!!??? The taxis in St Lucia aren’t like your local cab company where you just call them up & say “hey your driver that just left… can you get ahold of him”.. each taxi is independently operated, so unless you’ve got the guy’s phone number.. there is no way of reaching them! Scott was just finishing up with the customs paperwork & the 3 of us girls had minutes to decide what to do! One of the locals with a mini van said he remembered what the taxi looked like & told us he could probably catch up to him as he was most likely going back to the airport and there is only one road going there! We didn’t have time to waste as the taxi already had about a 5 minute lead on us! So Julie & I jump in the mini van, his kid in the front & another guy in the back. Did we ever mention that St Lucia roads are very narrow & winding ??? Holey crap… I don’t know how fast we were going, but that mini-van was taking corners on 2 wheels! Meanwhile, back in Soufriere, Jessica & Scott were talking to the police there, explaining what happened & trying to get them to get one of their police cars closer to the airport to try to intercept the taxi. After about 30 minutes, we caught up to the taxi… he was on the side of the road.. an off-duty police officer managed to get a hold of him & asked him to stop & wait for us. Thankfully we were able to get Jessica’s bag back & had a less stressful ride back to Soufriere. That helpful samaritan only cost us about $200EC (about $130 Canadian). St Lucia customs check in/out on a weekend is pretty pricey.. add in Jessica & Julie’s cab ride from the airport ($120Cdn).. it was starting to get expensive in St Lucia and time for us to get the heck out of there!!! Scott & Jessica had taken all the luggage out to the boat by dinghy while Julie & I were in the Indy 500.. so all we had to do was let go the mooring ball & head out !! And have a well-deserved drink !!
It started out being a really nice downwind sail… then the rain came… the seas were really rolly… and then the wind died to nothing.. the last few hours we got a bit of wind again… Typical!! It was a bit of a rough start for the girls… I’m sure they were wondering what the hell they got themselves into !! We arrived in beautiful Bequia around 7am and spent a lazy day on the boat catching up on sleep! The next morning Scott & I filled our dive tanks & found a beautiful dive spot a short dinghy ride from the anchorage. Really healthy corals and tons of fish… Bequia is a really beautiful little spot… great anchorage.. lots of little shops & restaurants.. beautiful beaches and a cool floating bar. Everything you need the locals can bring to your boat (for a price).. diesel, water, ice, lobster, fish, fresh bread.. We took a day to sail around to the back side of the island and anchored near one of the smaller islands where Jessica& I did a dive right from the boat… it was a bit of a swim across a patch of turtle grass, but we did find a nice reef to explore. It was Jessica’s first dive in a few years, so perfect for getting back into it. It took us all day to go about 15 miles in total… the girls learned the meaning of “you just can’t get there from here”. Lots of tacking back & forth as the winds were just not in our favour! But still a beautiful day being out on the water.
The next day Jessica & I decided we wanted to dive the point that Scott & I dove on… it was a really good dive site.. Julie came out with us.. we tied off at a mooring ball & “manned” the dinghy while Jessica & I dove. Fishermen were constantly checking on Julie to see if she was ok.. guess its unusual for a girl to be sitting out in a dinghy fishing by herself!!
The next day we started heading back up north as we would be dropping Jessica & Julie off back in St Lucia.. so St Vincent was our next destination. We found a perfect mooring at Young Island. Quite a few boats there & lots of people hanging out on the beautiful white sand beach. Not much for snorkeling or diving… Scott & I tried a dive site around the corner, but the current was way to strong & we aborted the dive before the current took us back to Bequia. The anchorage was a really nice spot to inflate the floaties and just hang out.
Unfortunately our week with Jessica & Julie was coming to an end. We only had 2 days left & that included a day to sail back up to St Lucia. Our next stop was an anchorage on the northern end of St Vincent.. Chateaubelair. We had heard so many negative reviews of the anchorages on the north end of St Vincent. Everything from petty thefts to murder! The murder of a yachtie occurred about 7 years ago and the suspects were from Venezula. Unnerving considering what we experienced in Cape Verde in January. We really did not want to miss this part of St Vincent for its lush rainforest and mountains, so we decided to be extra careful. We chose an anchorage that had 4 other boats in it… and talked with one of the yachties who was already there. They told us they’ve been cruising St Vincent for several years and that it was safe… just take the regular precautions & lock your shit up! There were only a few boats here & the boat boys far outnumbered the yachties. We were quickly approached by a couple and shown where to anchor & asked if we needed anything. The boat boys range in age fron 8-60+. Fitzmore (one of the oldest boat boys) helped us find the falls and gave a tour of the town. Most of the boat boys were very polite and respectful, but some of the younger ones tended to hang around longer than welcome.. we learned we just needed to be firm with them. We talked to a few of the locals and they are lovely friendly people.. they told us crimes are opportunity based and there are sometimes a few bad apples.. lock everything up and you should be fine.. it was worth the stop and Scott & I ended up anchoring at Chateaubelair again after dropping Jessica & Julie off in St Lucia…
It was a nice sail back to St Lucia.. although the winds were not in our favour… we originally wanted to drop the girls off at the commercial port of Viex Fort, closer to the airport, but the winds were forcing us north up to Soufriere.. which meant a longer taxi ride to the airport… but we made it in plenty of time. Even catching a couple of Mahi Mahi for a fresh fish burger lunch! It was sad to see the girls go… nice to have company on the boat… especially 2 more girls !!! We didn’t stay long in Soufriere… made sure the girls got to land on the water taxi & we turned around & headed back to our overnight anchorage at Chateaubelair. It was a long 12-hour day of sailing… but at least the return trip was downwind !
From Chateaubelair we took most of the day to sail back down to Bequia to enjoy a couple more days there.. it was such a beautiful little spot and great wifi! Now time to figure out what we want to do for our last month of sailing. The plan was to end up in Grenada to haul the boat out… we did want to make those arrangements soon, rather than leaving it to the last minute.
After a couple of days in Bequia we headed south.. we had wanted to explore the private island of Mustique, but it would have been a straight into the wind sail and from what we heard there were lots of restrictions of where you could & go not go on the island, so we headed downwind for the island of Canouan. Unfortunately we were a little disappointed when we arrived.. the main (only) large hotel on the island was closed for renovations & thus there were very few boats anchored as there were very limited restaurants and shops open as a result. I did a bit of snorkeling & was able to hang out with a beautiful huge eagle ray for about 20 minutes while it fed… was awesome to watch !! The next morning we rented a souped-up golf cart & toured around the island. There is a beautiful new marina at one end of the island (I think the cruise ships may stop there)… the locals live in the middle of the island.. and then the other end of the island is privately owned and you can’t even drive in if you don’t live there or are a registered guest. Kind of sad that even the locals can’t explore 1/2 of their own island!! Since there wasn’t much else to do on the island we headed to Salt Whistle Bay (Mayreau) which was highly recommended by a Canouan shopkeeper. It was beautiful !!! One of those picture perfect beaches with palm trees on the shore and crystal clear turquoise water. We arrived around 3pm and the bay was packed with boats !! One of the boat boys led us to the front of the pack and we dropped anchor in about 2 meters of water practically on the beach.. our draft is 1.4 meters! It was amazing!! Just a quick 2 min swim to the beach!! Tons of cruisers hanging out on floaties, so we got ours out & joined up with a group. The next day we hiked up the hill to the main village on the island.. explored the windward beach.. and enjoyed the beauty of the bay! Even got to taste some sea urchin roe.. interesting!! Did not want to leave this beautiful spot, but there were other islands to explore!
Off for a quick 2 hour sail to the Tobago Keys !! Another picture perfect spot! A beautiful shallow anchorage surrounded by small islands and reef… and tons of turtles! A really nice spot to relax, swim, watch the kiteboarders and hike on the small islands. The view from the top was beautiful! A couple of nights here & we headed to Union Island, stopping off at Little Tabac to look for pirate treasure !! Little Tabac is where one of the final scenes from Pirates of the Carribean was filmed.. and also where the crew from SV Delos buried some treasure a year ago (alas, but all the moonshine is long gone & we forgot to download the directions while we had wifi).. So a walk around the island was it.
Union Island has a bit of a tricky anchorage near the main town of Clifton… tons of shallow spots & reefs to watch out for. One morning we saw a catamaran end up on the reef… about 10 of the local fishing boats quickly headed out to it & were able to get it off the reef. Had an expensive drink at Happy Island. The island was completely built by a local out of conch shells… pretty cool, but $10Cdn for a small beer!! Yipes… time to drink on the boat!