We pick up this little story from Marigot Bay. We left there Tues. morn and had a sloppy motor/sail down to St. Vincent in what eventually became a fairly stiff breeze (25-28k). It was all downhill and once we got in the lee of St. Vincent the sea flattened out and made a nice ride of it.

We ducked into a small anchorage big enough for about 3-4 boats and were joined by another Norwegian Bavaria cruiser for the night. Then a late morning start for Bequia and Admiralty Bay (Port Elizabeth & Hamilton). We got in about noon, waited till 1300 for customs and immigration to open, and cleared in to St. Vincent. I did not know this, but the 'nation' of St. Vincent includes St. Vincent, Bequia and the archipelagos of The Grenadines and Tobago Cays. We're headed there after the holidays before our jump to Grenada. All of these are at the very southern end of the Caribbean island chain. There are a few hundred miles between Grenada and Venezuela -- with islands all along the way. But with the pirate activity around Venezuela, a couple hundred miles is about as close as I want to get!!

Bequia (beck-way) is a nice little stop. But this is not the Mediterranean, Dorothy!! The difference between the 'haves' and the 'have nots' is as apparent as the skin color. It is really quite sad. And with the prices of food and everything else so high, I wonder how these people are so supposed to improve their lot in life.

There were probably 2-300 boats in Admiralty Bay -- many of them from the ARC and we made acquintance with again. But after the first night the anchorage got rolly and I was looking for an exit plan.

So today we went around to the south end of the island to a very nicely-named Friendship Bay. There are only 6 boats total here. As soon as we got the anchor set a boat of locals sold us two spiny lobsters for $60 EC (Eastern Caribbean dollars are pegged to the US dollar at 2.67 EC/dollar). So we are having lobster dinner for Christmas EVe for about $20!! At least that is cheap around here!

The spiny lobster doesn't have any pinchers -- just one big, honkin' tail and it is covered with lots of sharp, little points. I guess that is its only defense. A lobster with no pincers -- it reminds me of the Gary Larsen cartoon with 2 bears sighted through a rifle scope and one bear saying to the other bear (with concentric circles on its stomach) "Bummer birthmark, Fred!"!!!

We caught up to s/v Juno in Admiralty Bay and they are expected over here tomorrow. Meanwhile I left our spinnaker with a sailmaker in town to get a bid on repairing it. I thought I might be able to do the job. But now I am not so sure. My Pfaff sewing machine does not do 3-step stitch and I am not sure if the foot will pull the slippery spinaker cloth through anyhow. So I may just belly up to the bar and get a pro to do it.

I think the plan is to sail south from here early next week, and pick up the kite on the way back north. Customs always ask me "What is your next port of call?" I always have to scratch my head and answer "I dunno." Then we come up with a port to fill in the blanks with! It is crazy. Even if I knew where we were going to go, it would likely change by the time we left!!