St Vincent & The Grenadines

Wallilabou Bay, St Vincent

From St Lucia, we sailed south to Bequia. We broke the journey by stopping in Wallilabou Bay, St Vincent, so that we could approach Bequia in daylight. We had been warned off Wallilabou by many people, with stories of thefts from boats and hassle from boat boys. We were approached two miles out by a rowing boat, but we did not take up his offer to tow him in and we got plenty of offers of help when we got into Wallilabou. We picked up a mooring from the Wallilabou Anchorage Reastaurant and the lads tied a stern line to a buoy just off the bar. Robin quite liked the idea of having a line direct to the bar! We were surrounded by six or seven lads on various floating crafts trying to sell us everything from fruit, ice, trips in the rainforest, jewellery etc. They all tell you that this is their job, as if it was our job to immediately hand over tens of EC dollars. We politely declined all their offers and went ashore to clear customs and have a free (cold) shower in the restaurant. We returned later that evening for dinner and had the price of the mooring deducted from our bill. The following morning, we found a willing helper to undo our stern line and we were off. In all, we had had a very pleasant evening, along with another 4 boats.

Bequia

As we approached Bequia, we were met by what we thought was a complete nutter, standing in his dinghy in large seas. He turned out to be Tim Wright, a local boat photographer. The following morning, we were approached by his assistant with the proofs. It is a great pity that we had reefed down in the strong winds as it would have been nice to have a good photo of 'Sulmar' under full sail. We bought a picture nevertheless as a souvenir of Bequia.

Admiralty Bay is extremely busy, full of boats of every size. It is stunningly beautiful, but the peace is shattered by speeding water taxis, dinghies and small fishing boats. Moorings have been laid close to Port Elizabeth, making it very difficult to anchor close to the town. We picked up a mooring, intending to stay two nights. We ended up staying a week due to Gillian getting food poisoning from one of the restaurants. Meanwhile, Robin polished our red strip along the top of our hull (which was looking exceedingly pink in Tim Wright's photo). The owner of the mooring, 'Fat Shag', gave us a reduced rate for the additional nights.

Before the fateful meal ashore, we did quite a lot of exploring. We took a taxi to the Hawksbill Turtle Sanctuary at Industry Bay. A retired local fisherman collects them when they hatch and releases them at three years, giving them a much greater chance of survival.

We walked back via Spring beach and came across various abandoned lorries and part of a matra-marconi satellite. There is a path all along the beach around Admiralty Bay, and numerous dinghy docks so you can explore the beachside bars (most of which have a happy hour). The following day, we took a taxi to the top of Mount Pleasance, from where you can see amazing view of Hope Bay and the islands of Petit Nevis, Battowia, Baliceaux and Mustique, The taxi driver was very chatty and he told us who owned all the nice houses we had seen on our walk the previous day, the problems of land ownership, water catchment issues and various other Bequia trivia. He dropped us off in Friendship Bay, where we had lunch and did some sunbathing on the beach before walking back to Admiralty Bay. Apparently, ten percent of Bequia's population is of Scottish origin. We did meet a few individuals that looked as if they had easily substituted whisky for rum!

Mustique

The short sail to Mustique was a brisk beat and we were soon in Britannia Bay. We picked up a mooring, as you are not permited to anchor, and went ashore to explore. We had a drink in Basil's Bar built on stilts over the water and then went in search of something to cook for dinner. The general store was an interesting mixture of produce, all extremely expensive. The most surprising was red peppers priced at the equivalent of 10 pounds for 2! We left with some chicken and mozarella.

The following morning we went for a walk along the east of the island, where we found Lagoon Bay, a fabulous white sandy beach with crystal clear water. All along the beach path, there are secluded picnic tables and BBQ sites that are maintained by the Mustique Company. No doubt they are intended for those renting one of the 81 villas on the island, but we enjoyed a brief rest in the shade anyway. We then walked up the hill to view the west of the island. The only evidence of the many villas are the private property signs every so often along the roads. As we walked back down to the boat, we came across a large aviary with two beautiful yellow,green and blue parrots. They were very curious and were glad to see us. One constantly repeated 'Morning' to us very loudly as we left.

Canouan

We left Mustique at noon for the short sail to Canouan. 2 hours later, we were in Charlestown Bay. This a a beautiful bay with clear water. We went ashore and walked to to top of the steep hill overlooking the bay. There is a lot of construction going on. Most of the houses are built on stilts on the steep slopes. It doesn't seem the safest foundations, and very flimsy, especially for being in the hurricane belt. The reef on the east side of the island is spectacular. The local children were very friendly, telling us to go and see the beautiful beach. We watched them play crisket outside the school (empty beer crate as wickets). Our pilot book raved about the pizzas at Pirates Cove Bar in the Tamarind Beach Hotel, so we thought we might eat ashore. This resort is on a nice beach and the hotel has provided a good dinghy dock. However, our sundowners cost us so much, we had home-made pizza on board instead. As the sun set, a donkey brayed as if it had lost a long lost companion. It continued making a terrible din all night and was still at it as we left in the following morning.

Tobago Cays

We left Canouan at 1000 and headed for the Tobago Cays. Having read all about the reefs and currents, we were a little nervous of the pilotage ahead of us. When we got to the waypoint at the top of Mayreau and attempted to line up the leading marks, we found that the leading marks were in fact behind large charter yachts anchored off Petit Rameau. Luckily, we were able to follow the various waypoints that we had entered in the GPS, keeping a constant lookout for coral heads. This was a little alarming, but proved to be troublefree. As we got through the gap between Petit Rameau and Petit Bateau, the full beauty of this anchorage became clear.

The Tobago Cays is a group of small uninhabited islands protected from the sea by Horseshoe Reef. The water is crytal clear, and an amazing variety of brown, gold, turqoise and green. The small beaches on the islands are soft white sand and clear water. Surf breaks on the edge of the reef and pelicans, frigate birds and terns swoop overhead, diving down intermitently to pluck out a fish.The anchorage is open to the full force of the wind, so is quite breezy (great for our power generation). The anchorage is busy, but there is plenty of space. As we anchored, a boat vendor asked us if we wanted a hamster?? These boat vendors will try anything for a sale! We took the dinghy to a couple of the islands and then out to one of the dinghy buoys on the reef. We could understand why they do not permit grapnel anchors on the reef. The coral and fish were fantastic. Luckily the boat vendors go home before nightfall, and with no loud music from the shore, we had a lovely peaceful evening, with nothing between us and Africa except Horseshow Reef. The following morning, we experienced our first Caribbean sunrise. As all the anchorages are on the leeward side of the islands, the sunrise is normally blocked by hills. We would have like to have spent more time in some of the more exposed anchorages, but strong winds were forecast for the next couple of days, so we set out back north to Bequia.