John returned to the
boat in early January with friends, Derek and Kathleen who were joining us for
two weeks. Anna and Jen left us to continue
on their travels.
On our last day in St Lucia before heading south, we were
joined by my good friend Frances and her husband George who were stopping in St
Lucia for the day during their cruise aboard a large cruise ship.
Grenadines 7th
– 27th January
John, Eilidh and I together with the new crew, Kathleen and
Derek headed south to Granada, sailing overnight in two watches. We arrived in St George’s, Port Lois around
tea time on 8th January. The following
day we enjoyed a full day taxi tour of the island with Andy, our driver showing
us all the interesting sights. We really
enjoyed the variety Granada had to offer including a guided tour of their spice
gardens.
Next we headed 45 miles north to the island of Carriacou and
anchored in Tyrell bay. We fell in love
with this un-spoilt island with a population of about 7000 and very low crime
rates. Again we hired a local taxi
driven by Vincent who clearly enjoyed showing off this lovely island. We stopped for a swim and lunch at Paradise
Bay which really lived up to its name.
The day was rounded off by dinner in the Lazy Turtle overlooking the
bay. The following morning John took the
dinghy ashore to check out and unfortunately the outboard motor chose this trip
to break down leaving john heading rapidly towards a reef with oars that
wouldn’t row! All was well when a fellow
sailor offered a tow and a local engineer fixed the outboard allowing John to
complete the task in hand.
Next stop was 10 miles north to Clifton on Union
Island. Dropping anchor in a
particularly busy and windy bay wasn’t helped by boat boys assuring us our
anchor was too small to hold us in this wind.
(They were very keen for us to accept one of their moorings which we had
heard weren’t the most reliable). Once
safely anchored, we took a water taxi to the most amazing beach bar yet, built
on a reef in the middle of the bay.
There we were treated to the most amazing entertainment of two kite
surfers performing acrobatics round and over the bar and at times over each
other. After 3 potent rum and cokes on
an empty stomach I barely made it back to the boat and certainly wouldn’t
without the help of my friends ‘lifting’ me onto the boat. The following morning we headed out to Tobago
keys which certainly lived up to all the pictures in the brochures. Shallow bays of clear turquoise water with
turtles swimming below the boat.
Kathleen was grinning from ear to ear having realized a dream of
swimming with the turtles. We also had
fun with the hammocks and swing seats suspended out over the sea on whisker
poles. The night was also awesome as we
dined on deck under the starts with the absence of light pollution again making
the sky a wondrous sight.
The following day we
headed a further 20 miles north to Bequia, an island similar in size and
population to Carriacou. We anchored in
Port Elizabeth. Again we were spell
bound by its natural beauty as we enjoyed a short tour in an open backed taxi
with us sitting on bench seats as we sped through the lush green hills where
history tells us many Scottish settlers made it their home. We ended the day by dancing the night away to
the sounds of a local steel band with Kathleen showing the local Rastafarian
with dreadlocks down to his ankles a thing or two!
We next headed north to St Vincent where we moored in
Wallilabou Bay, the setting of ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ film. I was a little disappointed at the level of
neglect I saw in what had once been a lively tourist attraction some five years
previous when I visited on a cruise. The
customs process was also quite complex as after clearing in we then had to get a 15 minute taxi ride to the next town to have
our passports stamped by a policeman who informed us this was a job that had
been landed upon them hence requesting a payment over and above what we had
already paid at the clearing in. Having
spoken to other sailors, they too had the same experience. Eilidh, Derek and Kathleen had a more
positive experience in a small beach bar where the aging bar tender expressed
his extreme displeasure at how the bay had been allowed to deteriorate and visitors
not made welcome. His generosity and spirit was a saving grace for the others
but John and I didn’t leave St Vincent, eager to return. John agreed to taking two friendly young Czech
travelers on the next leg of the journey, 75 miles north back to St. Lucia to
drop Kathleen and Derek off for their homeward journey.
Alison