Trip to St. Vincent's and Grenadines

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

We hoped to get an early start to St. Vincent Island which is the next island south of St.Lucia, however the Customs personnel were 15 minutes late arriving to work and Charlie had to fill out an identical copy of a document he filled out to check us in in order for us to "check out". Then the marina had to tally our bill including electricity and water which were metered. Finally at 0930 we left Rodney Bay heading south. We had had an early morning downpour, but no rain the rest of the day. The winds were light; 5-9 knots when we started out and steadily built up to 12-13. However, they were on our bow. Our heading was 226 and the wind was 200 degrees. We were motor sailing which helped bit. We sailed by Choc Beach and Marigot Bay on our way south. We also sailed by the huge Hess fuel storage facility. As we were passing the famous volcanic Pitons on south St. Lucia, we picked up a west setting current as well as rollers, white caps and the wind was exactly what our heading had to be. We realized about 1:30 (1330) that we could not make the

20 miles to the north side of St. Vincent before dark so we turned around and headed back to Soufriere and its twin pitons. A boatman met us as we were approaching offering to find us a mooring near Benny's restaurant. He helped put us on a mooring. It was on the ourtskirts of this bay so it would not take us long to be underway the next morning. Several other boatmen came buy trying to sell us fruits or calabash shells decorated. Benny's wife came by to welcome us with her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter. Several water taxis stopped at the nearby shore to let persons off or pick up others from the beach. We had dinner on the boat because Charlie did not get much sleep the night before.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

We were hoping to get an earlier start this morning but when Charlie went to check the oil in the engine, he discovered that the oil dip stick was missing. It took us a while to find it under the engine and were very lucky it had not yet fallen into the bilge where we would never have found it! Once we were underway, the wind was still coming from the

direction we wanted to go and was 14-18 knots. We put the second reef in the main sail and were glad we did when the winds increased up to 23 knots between St. Lucia and St. Vincent. We were still motor sailing and were only making 4.3-5 knots speed with the engine. Luckily the cl

oser we got to St. Vincents the wind direction was a bit better. Once we were in the lee of the island, it died back to only 10-14. We had hoped to make it to Young IS and Blue Lagoon which are on the south tip of St. Vincent. we were not going to make it this far by dark so we chose to go into Buccament

Bay. We tried to anchor where the cruising guide had told us to and hit bottom so we asked local boater nearby where to go and he sent a young man in a dinghy over to the other side of the bay to obtain a mooring for us. They didn't even charge us for it. There is a large resort in this bay taking up half the beachfront. The houses are colorful stucco as we have often seen on the islands.The bay was very rolly. We heeled back and forth 15 degrees on each side. During dinner, both of us had our wine glasses fall over. We have experienced worse during this long cruise, but it is never easy rocking back and

forth. It was interesting to watch the activities onshore as well. A sunset cruise came sailing back to the resort and later there was a big bonfire at the resort. We ate dinner on the boat and enjoyed the beautiful starry moonlit night. The night was pleasantly cool.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Finally a beautiful sailing day. We had 11-14 knots of wind and we could sail without the motor with full main and jib. We sailed directly to Bequia skipping Young Is. and Blue Lagoon. We left about 0900 and arrived about 1130 into Admirality Bay in Bequia which is the first island of the Grenadines south of St. Vincent. We tried to anchor twice before taking one of the many mooring balls in this wide bay. Then we had to get the dinghy off the top of the sailboat

and put the motor on the dinghy. We did not get to shore to check into customs until 1:30p.m. It took quite a while so we did not have an opportunity to get some lunch till almost 3 p.m. We ate at the Fragipani Hotel. There was a plaque saying that the family had been involved in shipbuilding and were now in hospitality since 1897!

We had had the last medicine which was filled on Monday shipped to us a Bequia. While Charlie was at Customs, I dropped by Solana's Boutique and it had arrived! I was amazed!

It is very hot and muggy. As on most of the island stops we have made, there is little airconditioning

Most of the shops and restaurants are open air. We had thought to go over to one of the several beaches in the bay but there was a heavy rain shower just before we returned to the boat. Charlie did not think going over and sitting on wet sand sounded appealing. Since we had eaten lunch so late, we just enjoyed cocktails and snacks tonight. I was able to get online by subscribing for 24 hours to HotHotHot. Again we enjoyed sitting in the cockpit, where it is cooler, looking at the moon and stars. We will explore Bequia more tomorrow.