It’s wonderful the arrivals area at the airport. Rebecca was on the flight and we had seen her come down the plane steps, now the wait till she was through customs etc. The beginning of her holiday. St Lucia south to Carriacou and back to St Lucia.

Car number five your time is up, (the car being the bit that holds the sail at the mast end and being attached to the mast so that you can pull the sail up) It broke, it spilt its ball bearings out onto the deck. It was finished. As it was below the second reefing point we could still sail, but only with a little sail. Mind you we had twenty five knots and a lumpy sea across to St Vincent, so a small rig was fine. In the calm of the island we had to motor. One of the locations for the filming of The Pirates of the Caribbean .is down this coast so it was fun to scope into the bay and look. Lots of boat boys wanting to help us tie up, but we had plans to get to Bequia. Now Bequia is a fun spot, but you do have to watch where you anchor, so that at four thirty am in thirty knot winds you don’t have to get up in your night attire and move an anchor. Did I say that’s what we did?

Morning and we had the signing in and the visit to the market, this is the one where they like you to buy from every vendor, spread the EC’s and the love man. It was good to be back somewhere you knew.

Mending the main cars was relatively easy; when you have the spares and there were three of us all working together, excellent team work! The new car pulled the sail up well, but we hadn’t anticipated the batten popping out the end, so sail dropped down, push back the batten and off we go towards Carriacou. A lot of chatter, a little snooze for some and before we know it we’re there. While David goes off to sign in at Hillborough Bay I’m down below with my foot on the sewing machine pedal to get the flag finished before he’s back, the flag went up as he came on board. Just as the sun goes down we up anchor and motor to Tyrell Bay. Rebecca on the bow being buoy lookout, me down below on the chart plotter and David helming and taking instructions! In the morning. we realise what a lovely bay we have anchored in, just need to move in towards the shore a little. A walk over to the other side of the island, to see what’s there, a little food shopping, and back on board for a swim. Ashore, in the evening we listen to a steel band and chat to locals and locals who moved away but come back for as much time as they can. video of the Steel band in Tyrell Bay (suggest right click and open in new tab)

This is also the place to catch up with other yachties. Carriacou laid back, safe, and friendly, a good place to chill out. An excellent place for Independence Day as celebrations included local food and rum cocktails.
We motor on the trip back round to Hillsborough to sign out, Rebecca taking in the sun and the view, David getting the paperwork together, and I’m helming, I hear the thud of a bass, can anyone else hear the music? No? we look back and see the carriacou ferry… see video clip.

Tobago Cays, blue blue green turquoise sea.

I don’t know how else to describe it. And I don’t know how to describe the snorkelling off over the reef other than it was very clear and there were lots of colourful fish all ignoring you, it was as though you were swimming in a huge open air aquarium. We also spotted a turtle, it looks odd in the water never very clear, just the head and a blob under the water, by the time you identify it, it dives back down under the surface. This was the fourth one we spotted, the fifth turtle head we saw, was in fact a coconut!

Rebecca continues to top up her tan, on route back towards Bequia. There seems to be a bet on at Rebeccas work that she will come back pink and burnt, the bet is a good way to ensure she doesn’t, lots of cream and carefully applied. Thanks guys! We race another boat as we tack the last few miles into Admiralty bay. The rules of racing when cruising are – it’s only a race when you are overtaking the other boat. If they are overtaking you then they must be motor sailing or perhaps 50% bigger!

Our plan now is to sail up to Bat Cave, Soufriere in St. Lucia, from Bequia, missing out St. Vincent just because it doesn’t have the best reputation as a safe haven. What happened though is this, we were later leaving than we had hoped, (due to chatting to another boat, the customs bit and shopping) the wind was strong thirty five knots and a lumpy sea all fine except that it was pitch black when we arrived a couple of miles off Bat Cave, we flood lit the deck to take the sails down, engine on, sails down, and lights out. When from out of nowhere a fast pirogue appears and the guys are shouting at us, we think that there is a net and slow right down, they motor very close to us and we feel nervous. It all happened very quickly, they had no lights on board and were motoring incrediably close to us, and we reacted by feeling threatened. We ended motoring on up into Marigot Bay which was really good and they did us a favour in that we found another great place good to be. The boat boys as I’m sure they were, were only trying to help, they probably saw us take the sails down came out to lead us to a buoy, pick it up for us, and only charge about 10 EC which is about £2.50 normally well worth the money. It’s a shame that on this occasion we were spooked! Into Marigot Bay and we negotiate the price for the help of Vine our boat boy, he leads us to our buoy and hands us the rope. Now we can relax. Waking up in such an enclosed lagoon was lovely.

Vine comes by to see if there is anything we want or he can help us with, he suggests a walk up to the top of the hill which we do. Then we have lunch in local café, local food at local prices. Excellent. A walk along the shore and a find of some cowrie shells another couple for my collection. Marigot Bay is the base for one of the charter firms, the marina has become a hot spot for mega and super yachts, and the resort has a five star hotel and spar. Rebecca gets a bird’s eye view of all of this from the top of our mast, not quite the top but a good distance up the seventy feet.

Benny’s has been booked for supper, down at Harmony Bay, we leave Marigot under genoa alone. As the Soufriere area is national park there is no anchoring, but buoys are provided, our buoy this time tied to the bow and a rope is taken from the stern and tied to a tree on the shore. Wonderful having a boat boy. Benny junior collects the laundry, takes our order for the evening meal and comes back to collect us for supper. Our dining companions tonight, one other table from Canada, who are staying in one of Bennie’s holiday homes.

Rebecca bags are packed, flight is at teatime so we still have a day, first a dip in the hot tubs at Diamond Falls,

lunch at one of the big estates, then the bags are booked in, and she’s ready for the off.

We have had a Fantastic time with her catching up on her gossip, news and plans. It’s not only good to talk it’s great to talk! And she goes back with her tan and no pink bits!

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