An island of palm trees and reefs, maybe 1 mile long by ¼ mile with room among the reefs for only a boat or two in 10 feet of water. That is Petit Tabac, a destination to be respected and approached by experienced reef pilots only and visited briefly, at low tide, unless you like rollers yanking at the anchor. But with consideration for the above, there is not a more remote, picturesque tropical island in all of St. Vincent and The Grenadines and maybe not the West Indies.

A short sail from there, the Tobago Cays await, with diving, turtles and water the color of Blue Curacao. It has been a month now that we have been in Grenada and back and forth to St. Vincent with our friends Dan and Debby Hoyt from New Jersey and now Hans and Dani Himmelman from Nova Scotia.

Grenada has become a second home, specifically Le Phare Bleu Marina in Little Calivigny, our base for island tours and waterfall adventures. As we now work our way through the islands of St. Vincent, it feels good to be underway again, saying goodbye to Carlos, our favorite "boat boy", Pleasure, the Chatham Bay character and all the other hard working locals out here. This will be our last visit for the season as we head north to Antigua, The Virgin Islands, Bahamas and home to the Chesapeake.

This has been a season of standard fare, if Caribbean cruising can be considered standard, perfect tropical weather with various equipment issues; refrigeration, water maker, generator, fresh water pumps, even the dinghy engine. These issues are apparently designed to keep Steve busy and sometimes even befuddled. Remarkably, he manages to fix or jury rig each and every breakdown with help from our visiting friends toting luggage packed with parts.

It is eerily quiet in the Caribbean, the wind has been down for weeks, to under 10 knots at times, and the cruisers and charterers are fewer than last year, which was also a down year. Megayacht captains are complaining about no charter business, we see them idle in Antigua or just out for a day sail with the crew. It is somewhat amazing that the recession has idled the "idle rich" along with the rest of us or maybe the mind shift from conspicuous consumption to quiet enjoyment has finally filtered up to the super wealthy.

With Satellite TV onboard, we are so much more in touch, from the frightening natural disasters happening around the world, the Super Bowl, watched with Brits (as we could find no Americans with which to have a Super Bowl party), the unbelievable snowy winter in the U.S. and the Winter Olympics, while floating in 85 degree water! Lucky for us, the Canadian Hockey teams won as we watched the games with Hans and Dani Himmelman from Nova Scotia, and everyone knows how those Canadians are about ice hockey!

Next week, we start the journey north with a stopover in Antigua to fly back for a week, then on to the Virgins, Bahamas and home. We will leave the Caribbean with no particular plans for next season so the big question remains, "Where will we go from here?"