St. Vincent & the Grenadines
20 April 2016
It was time to start heading south and after a quick stop off at St. Lucia again, our next destination was St. Vincent, the setting of the film Pirates of the Caribbean, just 24 miles away.
We were really looking forward to visiting the island, which is often over-looked and just used as a stepping stone to the islands of Bequia, Mustique and the Tobago Cays that are very close by. The island doesn’t have the best of reputations from a security viewpoint, with the north of the island home to illegal marijuana farms and only a month earlier a cruiser had been tragically killed when his boat was boarded during the night.
After some research and communication we decided to go for it and headed to Keartons Bay, on the west coast, where we were met by Curtis and his gang to help us tie bow & stern to the Rock Side Café’s mooring buoys for the night. We were surrounded by lush mountains and crystal clear water that made for great snorkelling right off the boat. As soon as we arrived, local guys appeared on small boats from nowhere plying their goods. We bought some mangoes and limes, ordered bread to be delivered the next morning but declined the souvenirs. Everyone was very nice, not at all pushy and happy for a chat and that we were visiting their island.
At 6.30pm, Curtis picked us up and rowed us ashore to join other cruisers who were dining at the Rock Side Café, run by partners Rosi from Germany and Orlando from St. Vincent. Rosi had been very helpful with communications via email prior to our visit and were handed a welcome rum punch before we had a fabulous meal sat in the gardens. It was a great start to our visit to St. Vincent.