French food and decent wine

The sail from St Lucia to Martinique followed a now familiar pattern, wind again forecast on the beam but in reality forward of the boom, around 18 knots but with gusts arriving regularly at well over 20 knots, two reefs in the main and water over the deck and over Scruffbag and myself. We arrived in St Anne relieved to be at anchor in the busy anchorage. We had decided to stay for two nights but spent most of the first afternoon hanging about waiting for a bus, which took us to the marina at Marin to check in. This system is brilliant and very cheap, all done on computer and a charge of only 5 euros for the printing of the clearance document.

The next day we enjoyed some French bread, some wine and a very decent cup of coffee. Though the town was very small, the European influence was very apparent. However, we decided to move up the coast to the larger town of St Pierre.

The anchorage at St Pierre is a narrow shelf and it gets very crowded. In addition, boats seen to swing more randomly than in other places so distance is an important factor. We duly anchored and settled for a gin and tonic in the cockpit. However, we noticed that we had swung quite close to another boat so we decided to move. This was where we made an error. We had the dinghy on the back, having towed it from St Anne, and we forgot to shorten the rope attaching it. When we reversed we wrapped it round the prop. OMG. Still, nothing doing till daylight and we were anchored ok so we settled in for the night. At 2am we were awakened by 2 big bangs, An Amel ketch 52 ft had dragged its anchor and crashed into us. Luckily no damage was done but the skipper just took off without a by your leave. The knock had moved us slightly too close to another boat and, with no engine ourselves and nobody on board the other boat we spent a sleepless night, kedge anchor at the ready.

The next day Scruffbag tried unsuccessfully to remove the rope, using a scythe we had bought in La Palma. We then tried the first of two diving schools in the town. The very brusque young German owner was very unhelpful so we went to the second one. What a difference. The grey, ponytailed owner said they would be with us as soon as they saw we were back on the boat. True to their word three people turned up and the rope was cut free in minutes. They would not take any money so we hope they enjoyed the litre of whisky we got them.

The dinghies in St Pierre had to be tied to a high concrete jetty so, like most others there, Scruffbag would drop me off at the steps, move along the jetty, tie off and mountaineer up. This day he forgot to take off his flip  flops, slipped and fell into the water. Though he managed this easily enough, he had bruised his ribs, cut his shins and bruised his groin. His flip flops floated away but he rescued one and a young man dived off the pontoon and rescued the other.

Back to the boat he went for a change of clothing and then we looked around the town. It was destroyed by a volcano eruption in 1902 with 29,000 killed and the current town is built around the ruins of the old with many ew houses having several old walls - very interesting to walk around.

We visited the vegetable market and the supermarkets and enjoyed French food and wine. After months of frozen chicken (old hen if truth be told) it was fantastic to buy delicious beef. We also bought some dorado from the fish market. That was a mistake, as we discovered from our frequent visits to the toilet later that night!!

The next day we were well again and were able to visit a rum factory, a short uphill walk out of town. This was set in the grounds of an old chateau (plantation house) and surrounded by fields of sugar cane and the air was pervaded by a sweet smell. The visit itself was fascinating setting our own pace on a marked track and seeing the steam engine that still powered the factory. This was all free and followed by a free tasting. Needless to say we made a purchase or two. We were amused by the hordes of egrets feasting on the cane before it went down the chute for crushing.

We waked back into town, downhill this time and went to the tourist office to make use of their checking out facilities. Tomorrow Dominica.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Leaving Bequia we had a forecast of around 15 knots of wind, slightly forward of the beam, What we got was about 18 knots of wind never less than 60 degrees and with gusts up to 25 knots on a regular basis. When the gusts came, which was quite often, the wind swung even further forward. The seas in the channel between the islands was lumpy and we were frequently dumped on by waves. Fortunately, in this climate, you may be very wet but at least you are warm. We cheated and mainly motor sailed, arriving in Walillabou Bay, St. Vincent in the early afternoon 

Noonsite, which seems to be populated by an extrordinary number of scare stories, had warned us of aggressive boat boys, dinghy thefts and general lack of security. What we found was friendly boat boys who helped us tie a stern mooring from the buoy and ferried us ashore for a very reasonable price. We felt extremely secure and we loved this peaceful little bay

The bay had been the setting for parts of the film, Pirates of The Caribbean and a lot of the set was still there, albeit a bit tatty. There was also a bar/restaurant with cheap local food, showers and a patron who was happy to phone and ask customs to come along and deal with entry clearance.

From the bay, we had time to walk to the nearby waterfall and although it was nowhere near as dramatic as those on Grenada, it was still pretty and I was able to have a swim in its pool



The next day we were off again en route to Soufrierre in St Lucia.We had been warned that the channel between St. Vincent and St. Lucia could be bouncy and windy and that we should stay close to the coast with reefed main, engine on and no headsail until we were a few miles into the channel from whence we could gauge the state of play. In the event it was not too bad, though with a north easterly of about 20 knots, we motored about 10 miles into the channel. We had 2 reefs in the main  and we did get wet. In addition to the waves dumping, we also had squalls

Before long we saw the familiar mountain on the coast of St Lucia which appears in so many postcards

We arrived in Soufrierre mid afternoon and had to pick up a buoy as anchoring is forbidden because of possible danger to the coral. We only planned to stay one night so we took a taxi ashore to clear in. It is quite a poor town and not particularly impressive and we had to pay an overtime fee as we checked in on a Sunday (and you must check in the day you arrive).

After one night we were off again, heading for Rodney Bay.


We spent two nights in Rodney Bay, where we visited a supermarket for supplies and had a brief look around the town. There was a lot of tourism and lots of tourist bars and shops but again, we were not inspired to do much exploring so I guess you could say we have not really had much experience of St Lucia and the next day we set off again for Martinique.

Hand steering to windward

We don't do much sailing to windward. We don't do much hand steering. From Carriacou to Bequia - almost 40 miles, all to windward, all hand steered by Scruffbag and myself. I cannot say it did anything to improve my love of windward sailing. The wind was about 60 degrees and the gusts were strong when we sailed past the valleys, the highest wind speed noticed was 30 knots, though generally they were in the mid 20s. The tiller was heavy, at times needing two hands and Scruffbag steered for 1 hour to every half hour that I steered.

We reached Bequia and motored into the bay of Port Elizabeth where we had last been for the millennium celebrations in 1999 and called a water taxi to go ashore and clear customs. Dee Dee turned up in her boat, Blessing and we used her the following day too as she regaled us with stories of when she sailed around the island on a catamaran. We only planned to stay for a couple of days so we decided not to blow up the dinghy this time.


The town had certainly grown, with lots more businesses serving the tourists and lots of stalls along the front and waterside restaurant The Whaleboner was the restaurant where we had celebrated the new year 2000 with friends, Nick and Liz, their friends Helen and Phil and our daughter Heather. Sadly Helen is no longer with us.

We promised ourselves a drink there for old times sake. Although we had planned to stay only 2 nights, the weatherforecast was for winds on the nose so we blew the dinghy up and decided to stay longer. In the event 2 days turned into two weeks so we were able to explore most of the island. It is so small that we did this on foot.

We walked over to the other side of the island to visit the whaling museum. Bequia used to have a big whaling business and sadly they still have licence to kill one whale per year. After an hour's walk we came upon the museum but it had clearly been closed for some time. At lest we saw some of the island. We also met Audie Bandana, a Bequian who had returned from Canada to live in his late father's run down cottage. He told us he had some songs on YouTube from when he performed in Canada. He was a lovely man but when we found his music online we could see why he never made it as a singer/guitarist.After we left him we went to a nearby beach to eat a picnic lunch and have a swim,

Another day's walk was to the turtle sanctuary. We had visited this sanctuary for Hawkbill turtles 19 years ago and it was still run by the same man (now 80 years old) and helped by his grandson. He used to be a diver/fisherman and killed many turtles in his youth, before becoming aware of the decline in numbers. He hatches them and keeps them until they are 7 years old and big enough to avoid the sharks and has now returned over 900 to the ocean.

On our walk we came across many beaches ruined by the seaweed that has been washed up all along the Atlantic coast of the Caribbean and elsewhere in the region. The smell is appalling, the beaches unusable and the effects on the tourist trade for the hotels on this side of the island is devastating. They try to clear it but it is a losing battle and one hotel put a boom out to protect the beach but that just broke. Global warming!!

Our final walk on Bequia was to the south of the island. We went as far as we could, passing a luxury hotel that seemed quite empty.The town nearby, Paget Farm, was the least touristic part of the island with friendly, chatty people, a fishing community and lots of rum shacks selling drinks for half the price of those in Port Elizabeth.

Bequia was by far the most expensive island we have visited so far, with everything geared to the tourist market. We went to visit Chameleon Cafe in Port Elizabeth. This is owned by Tom Vernon, our friend Liz's son and by his ex partner, Leandra. Tom no longer lives on Bequia but Leandra still runs the cafe. It was very well appointed with lots of varieties of coffee and snacks. biscuits, cake, breakfast, juices etc, but it was very expensive even by Bequia standards and, unfortunately the wifi was very poor so we did not use it as our local I'm afraid.

We finally realised that the winds were going to keep blowing from the same direction for some time so we decided to alter our plans. We had originally been going to sail from Bequia to Martinique in one go but now we planned to do short hops over the course of a week or so.

First stop St. Vincent.