23/03/10, Carriacou Island
So after a full day sailing from St Lucia to Bequia, we stayed for the night in Bequia and then left again early the next morning and sailed down to Hillsborough, Carriacou Island. We arrived about 14h00 and then had to check back into Carriacou, Grenada, we stayed the night at Hillsborough, before sailing around into Tyrrel Bay the next morning. This is again a great sunset looking over Sandy Island.
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23/03/10, St Lucia - Bequia
Our trip between St Lucia and St Vincent was an uncomfortable trip, as must have had over 25-30 knots of wind in a very choppy sea, so had a lot of water on deck, probably the most we have ever had. I tried to load a video we took with our new camera, but battled to get it to load, so photo only.
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20/03/10, Pitons, St Lucia
So the time came to sail south once more to Bequia Isand and leave St Lucia. This is as we left early the next morning, with a view of Gros Piton.
The Pitons are two volcanic plugs in a World Heritage Site in Saint Lucia. The Gros Piton is 771 m, and the Petit Piton is 743 m high; they are linked by the Piton Mitan ridge. There are still sulfur springs and hot mud pools in the nearby Soufrière caldera, visible remnants of former volcanic activity in the area.
Saint Lucia's local brand of beer is named after these two mountains.
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20/03/10, Pitons, St Lucia
Just before sunset a passenger liner came for a closer look at the Pitons.
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20/03/10, Pitons, St Lucia
So here we are on the swing mooring, the colours of the water were unbelievable, with the deep water, then rising rapidly to the shallow shore.
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20/03/10, Pitons, St Lucia
While anchored next to Petit Piton, it was smoking and we were getting ash dropping onto the deck, also a very strong sulphur smell, as the smoke drifted down towards the boat.
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20/03/10, Pitons, St Lucia
This is how close we were to shore and it got a lot closer when the tide went out, not a very comfortable night on board......
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20/03/10, St Lucia
So after a night out on anchor, we made our way down south to the Pitons and looked for a mooring, this place has very limited anchoring spots and very few mooring bouy's, so when we arrived, all the mooring bouy's were taken so we had to look for a spot to anchor, we were directed to a place where we were allowed to anchor, but had to take a stern line to the shore, so one of the boat boys helped out....at a fee of cause. When ready to drop anchor, the depth is anywhere between 20 and 30 meters below the boat.....which is a problem, and when backing up, within meters the depth goes to 4-6 meters, so very tricky anchoring here, so we stayed one night here, but with a plan to stay for 2 but after checking out of St Lucia the next day, we decided to move and were lucky to get a swing mooring for the second night.
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20/03/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
They still have pirate ships roaming the Caribbean.............
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20/03/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Here is a shot of the complete Pigeon Island, including both peaks.
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20/03/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We unfortunately ran out of time and did not actually visit Fort Rodney, but here is a closer look.
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20/03/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
So once our liferaft eventually arrived, we moved out of the marina and anchored off Pigeon Island. We were sorry we had not come out and anchored earlier, but the Marina had a special going where we had to pay for one day and get one free.....
Pigeon Island is a former island in Saint Lucia. The entirety of the "island" comprises Pigeon Island National Park and is administered by the St. Lucia National Trust. Composed of two peaks, Pigeon Island was artificially joined to the mainland in the 1970s.
The Arawak people, the original inhabitants of Pigeon island, were driven out by the Caribs around 1000 A.D. The Caribs lived in caves along the shore of the island, and hunted for fish, shellfish, small animals and birds. They also foraged for plant food. In the 1600s, a French pirate, François le Clerc, used Pigeon Island as his base. He forged an agreement with the Caribs, so that they would not attack his ship.
In 1778, Admiral George Rodney, took over Pigeon island, expelled the natives and built a fort on the smaller of the two peaks. This fort is known as Fort Rodney. Rodney ordered all trees on Pigeon Island to be cut down, to increase the range of sight. From the higher peak, Signal Hill, Rodney was able to observe the French navy base on Martinique.
Over the next several years, the British built several other structures on Pigeon Island, including two barracks, mess hall, and a lime vat.
In 1782, Admiral Rodney sailed from Pigeon Island to confront the French fleet, which he defeated in the Battle of Saints.
In 1824, a barracks which had been destroyed by a hurricane in 1817 was rebuilt.
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20/03/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We really did have some fantastic sunsets here......
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20/03/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
The one day we went exploring by foot and walked to the beach, we also did a bit of provisioning.
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20/03/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Here we are relaxing in swing chair's next to the pool, sipping cocktails and another great sunset on the way....
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20/03/10, St Lucia
This is the guy that moves about the walk-on moorings and the anchorage offshore, selling fruit & Veg.
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19/03/10, St Lucia
And the sunset while having refreshments....
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19/03/10, St Lucia
A sunset from the mooring, we took so many photos of this sunset, maybe the best sunsets we have seen, were in St Lucia.
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19/03/10, St Lucia
After settling into our mooring, we were treated to a stunning evening in St Lucia.
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19/03/10, St Lucia
So because we had the liferaft to service, we decided to take a walk-on mooring at the marina, so here we are entering the lagoon.
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19/03/10, St Lucia
So about 14h30 we approached Rodney Bay, seen on the left of this photo.
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19/03/10, St Lucia
This is a shot of the landscape while sailing up the west coast of St Lucia, very unusual markings.....
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19/03/10, St Lucia
So with us doing great speeds, the Pitons approached quickily, but we were sailing to the north of the Island, to Rodney Bay. Here is a view of the Pitons, which we hope to visit on the way back down south.
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19/03/10, St Lucia
With 22 odd miles to go, Pizzazz was having a great day with our speed over the ground here at 8.6 knots and even touching on 8.9 at times....
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19/03/10, St Lucia
This is our chart plotter showing us approaching St Lucia, the black blob on the bottom left of the Island, doing 8.1 knots at the time....
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19/03/10, St Lucia
So after an early start, we made our way up to St Lucia, about 50 odd miles north. We were expecting a bit of a rough ride just north of St Vincent, we thought we had missed it by going early, but we did eventually get into a rough patch but did not last long and we had a great sail between St Vincent and St Lucia. This pic is leaving Wallilabou early morning.
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22/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We had to now check out of the Grenadines and this is the last place going north that we could check out. The Customs/Immigration are only in the office here between 16h00 and 18h00, so we went ashore and had some refreshments....then checked out and had a meal at the restaurant, before returning to Pizzazz.
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Thanks for the mail, you must reaaaly enjoy the last sail in the Caribbean and have a safe trip back.
We will try and catch up with you while you are back here
Thinking of you all the time
22/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
So after about 5 days in Bequia, and some really big swells coming into the bay due to weather activity up north, we sailed out north to Wallilabou Bay in St Vincent. This is where parts of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean were shot, with Johnny Depp. This bay is about 15 miles sail. This pic is Pizzazz moored up to a bouy right in front of the now restaurant.
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22/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
So after 2 nights in Saline Bay at Mayreau Island, we sailed early the next morning for Bequia, about 24 miles. This was one of the beautiful sunsets we had there.
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20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
So from the pub this is what you look out to.......
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Let us know your plans as we have stepped up lots of gears to get ready to leave at the end of this year
Missing you and really envious this side
Francois and Mads
20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
This is Salt Whistle Bay, a very beautiful location, it is small and the boats cram in here. We have been past here many times now and it has always looked very full, so have bypassed it. So we thought this time we would anchor in the next bay, Saline Bay, and would walk across.......it was worth the walk but the walk was very heavy, so we had a few beers and lunch at a stunning place here in Salt Whistle Bay and then caught a water taxi back to Saline Bay, which was an experience of it's own, these guy's only know one speed and that is fullspeed, but was great.
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20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
This is a photo of Tobago Cays from the top of Mayreau Island.
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20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
This is a local restaurant on Mayreau Island, when anchored there, the one day we went ashore and walked to the top of Mayreau and over to Salt Whistle Bay.
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20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Chatham Bay was a beautiful stop, we are now so sorry we did not stop here before, as the bay is full of turtles, the fish are so much more than anywhere else we know and the bird life was fantastic to see, it is very remote, although it does have about 3 or so local restaurants and one very smart one, where we got to know it at the Italian Restaurant, it has a pool as well and can order most kinds of food, including a hamburger, where the local restaurants only offer mostly Chicken, fish, conch and lobster type dishes. The bay has very high hills as seen in the pic, in this photo, is also the Italian restaurant on shore.
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20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
This is one of the boats leaving the anchorage in Chatham Bay, Union Island. It was a great sight to see.
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20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
So a sunset from Hillsborough, looking towards Sandy Island...
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20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
This is anchored off Hillsborough, Carriacou Island for checking out, we had some beautiful pics of the sunset, but this is looking at the main town.
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20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
So time to leave again, so we met up with our mates on the floating bar for sundowners and a farewell party and our host Denise.
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could you please pass on greetings to John and Shirley from Thiswan.
Would like to get in conntact with them.
From a hot Buenos Aires safe sailing Jo&Ulla
20/02/10, Rodney Bay, St Lucia
This is our place of meeting at times for sundowners with friends.....
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29/01/10, Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
Well after a close call at missing our flight from Gatwick Airport to Grenada, we met up with Shawn, who was sweating at that stage, and we arrived in Grenada on the Friday evening, 8th Jan. We stayed in Grenada for 2 nights, showed Shawn arround, what we could in such a short time, then boarded the ferry to Carriacou Island, on Sunday morning. It was great to be back on Pizzazz again. So we met up with friends and eventually prepared the boat and sailed off to Hillsborough, we had a great sail, with Shawn behing the helm....We anchored at Hilsborough and went into town for a look around and lunch, we stayed for a few days and then sailed off to Sandy Island. We again stayed here for a few days, before returning to Tyrrel Bay, and Shawn's time was about up already, amazing how quickly time goes by. Now we are having problems with our camera, so am battling for photos, Shawn has promised us some photos, and we have to look for another camera.
At the moment we are having a period of some heavy winds, so we are lying low and am getting time to tidy up Pizzazz. We are planning on sailing into the Grenadines next week and then on up to St Lucia, so stay tuned........
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11/12/09, Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
This is our hostess, Denise, aboard the floating pub, with our mates from Thiswan, John & Shirley.
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11/12/09, Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
So once we were all settled again that day, our mates Dave & Barbara from Kasheter and John & Shirley from Thiswan, said we should all meet on the floating pub in the middle of the anchorage, so off we went. The company was great and the music started and Lyn was up dancing to the reggae music, with the locals. We all had a great time dancing and a lot of laughs, so a good sending off for Keith & Lyn and Glyn & I.
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11/12/09, Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou Island
We departed Union Island the next morning and had a great sail across to Hillsborough to check back into Carriacou and Grenada. After lunch we sailed from Hillsborough and anchored off Sandy Island for a snorkel, and about 4:00pm we were back on a mooring bouy in Tyrrel Bay.
And then it was all over, another brilliant and, I think, a successful cruise of the Grenadines, we converted Lyn into a sailor......which was actually not difficult, but we enjoyed having Keith & Lyn onboard Pizzazz and sure they will be onboard many more times when Pizzazz is in Australia.
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11/12/09, Union Island, Grenadines
Here we are listening to some Caribbean music, sipping rum punches....with Pizzazz in the background. An amazing thing here was that in the pic above, the 3 boats most prominant in the picture, are South African built boats, a Montevideo 43(the best), a Shearwater 39 and a Dean Cat, they were not South African registered though, I think one was Canadian and the other British.
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11/12/09, Union Island, Grenadines
Early...ish the next morning we sailed around Mayreau Island and on the Union Island, we had a very lazy sail to Union with only the foresail out. We checked out as soon as we got there as we wanted to leave the next morning for Carriacou, to spend some time at Sandy Island. After checking out, we went to Happy Island for sundowners, rum punches......
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11/12/09, Tobago Cays, Grenadines
So our last night in the Cays and here the sun is setting over Union Island, our next destination, to book out of the Grenadines...wow!! it has gone so fast.
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11/12/09, Tobago Cays, Grenadines
Tobago Cays is a very special place, we spent time swimming with the turtles, who are not put off at all with people swimming around them, they have some wonderful patterns on their shells. Here is a pic of "Pod" (our dingy) and Pizzazz in the background.
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09/12/09, Tobago Cays, Grenadines
So after a stopover in Canouan, we moved on to Tobago Cays the next morning, which only took us about an hour sailing and we anchored in the clear water of the Cays.
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09/12/09, Bequia Island to Canouan Island
So one night we were boarded and I was stabbed, leaving a DEEP cut just on the rib cage area..........joking..joking, I was injured...while loading "Pod", our dingy, and then the whole crew ganged up on me and forced me to apply this stuff!!!....the scar remains.....
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09/12/09, Bequia Island, Grenadines
Yes, and then the time came to depart our favourite Island in the Grenadines. We left on Saturday and set sail for a stopover in Canouan Island.
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