The groceries are stored, the wine safely packed and the beer is in the fridge. It is time to start this last leg that will get me to my finally destination for this year, Grenada.
I have recruited my sister and an old roommate of mine and his wife to cruise with me from St. Lucia to Grenada.
We take off and head to Laborie, 20 miles down the coast of St. Lucia. I have found that a short first day is always better for a new crew. It let's them get used to the motion of the boat and saying in general. Greg and Janelle have not sailed with me in over 10 years and my sister admits that she is truly deck fluff and not much help in actual sailing. But she can mix a good gin and tonic, or a rum punch, get us things to eat and keep the conversation going, all things that are good to have.
"Wow" I say, "The book said it might be a little rolly but this is not stop rock and roll. I think we may need to put out a rear anchor to help hold us in place and into the waves."
We do this but it is only marginally successful. We end up sleeping better than we thought we would and head of to a new county the next morning. We do not get a very early start and I realize that this crew will not be one for early morning sailing. Time to make some adjustments.
Sailing to Chateaubelair, St. Vincent, we arrive there around 2:30. There are only 2 other boats in this beautiful anchorage. We lower the dingy and head to shore and to customs. People are friendly and they help us get unloaded on to a broken down cement pier. Customer are closed so we head to the police station. Once I get to the police station, I am informed that since customs is closed and we cannot check in today. She asks me what my plans are and I tell her that we plan to anchor here and spend the night. I ask her if it is ok to spend some time on shore even though we have not cleared customs. The police officer says that would not be a very good idea without customs having some record that we are here and checked in. She continues to tell me that she does not really think it is safe for us.
Back to the dingy we go. When we get back Mile High Dream, I drop the others off and go talk to the boat next to us. One other boat has already left and they let me know that they did stay here last night but are planning to leave very shortly. That would leave us by ourselves. There is that saying safety in numbers and we would only be a number so we pull up anchor and head 3 miles further south to a safer anchorage.
The Wallilabou bay is where some of the town scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean were filmed. Some of the props are still there and the restaurant is very welcoming and fun. We are able to clear customs, and spend a very safe night in the bay.
" Let's get out of here and sail to Bequia. That is a very cruiser friendly place with lots to do."
The wind is strong so we do not put all of the main sail up. The wind is soon up to 25-30 knots and the waves are getting bigger. This is what I remembered about this area when I sailed here before. It is only 18 miles so we know we do not have to put up with the wind and waves for very long so we plod along. Actually we are moving pretty fast for a sailboat and we arrive early afternoon. The harbor is full of other sailboats and it is time to explore.It will be nice to spend a couple of nights here and treat ourselves to Mac's famous lobster pizza. It is so good.
We spend an extra day here, swimming on the beach, seeing a sea turtle sanctuary,and shopping at the market.
The wind is howling when we get up. Oh well, we will just put up less sail as we head to Tobago Cays. This is a national park and one of the most post card perfect sites that I have ever been to, but not today. The wind is howling and the waves are crashing even though we are inside a very protected reef. i am able to swim with 3 sea turtles and we see quite a few more while we sit on the boat. With the current weather, this is just not a fun place to be.
We spend one night even though we had paid for two and head out.
By the afternoon, the sun is out, the winds have calmed down and we wished we would have stayed at the Tobago Cays.