Caribbean Cruising

After 5 days in Rodney Bay marina and two of our ARC crew departing for the airport we felt it was time to check out and make use of the cleaner water of the anchorage! Some people do the ARC in order to do an ocean crossing. Others do it to get to the Caribbean. I fit into the latter category!

Indeed there was a little hull scraping to be done. Most boats get some goose-neck barnacles around their stern in the clean warm water of the tropical Atlantic. We were no exception but I was pleasantly surprised to see how well the antifouling had worked after almost 2 years. There were some other minor repairs to be done after the crossing - one genoa halyard had to be replaced, some minor sail repairs and the mainsheet block.

1315 20th Dec - I’ve just completed the eye-splice in the new red genoa halyard ( - quite a performance) and have resolved to limit my splicing activities to a bare minimum ( - the staysail halyard got a knot and a seizing.  We shall probably go ashore this afternoon and send this from the internet shop. Happy Season wherever you are!

After a few days there we set off Southwards on our way to Bequia. We stay in the lee of the mountainous island getting fairly close inshore by the time we pass the diving resort of Anse Chastenet, which is just before our intended stop of Soufriere. We are met by a boat boy called Clinton on "Distant Thunder" and agree that he should take our stern line and tie it around a coconut tree when we get to the anchorage off a bar/restaurant called the "Hummingbird".

The town of Canaries on the West coast of St Lucia has a mountainous hinterland

The Hummingbird anchorage at Soufriere, St Lucia. We get a local boat-boy to take a stern-line around a coconut tree!

Sunset from Soufriere

We have a swim and a walk ashore, then next morning head out for the next island - St Vincent. Looking back we get a terrific view of the Pitons.

The Petit Piton

Looking back at the Pitons when on our way to St Vincent - they are the national emblem of St Lucia.

A couple of hours later we see a whale jump - and again - at a distance - it is really lovely to see it even though it is at a safe distance! In the afternoon we get into the lee of Mt Soufriere, St Vincent - we start the engine and take the sails down. The French influence in the place-names is obvious - many of these islands had a French period. It is just slightly awkward that different islands use the same place-names! We go into Wallilabou where there is a customs station for us to check in - we meet boat-boys Franklin and Godfrey who take our stern lines ashore. We meet up with Simon and Allison on Roxi (fellow ARC entrants) and others and walk up to the cascade up the valley and have a good swim in the fresh-water pool. Then we come down and have a nice rum punch in the Anchorage Restaurant.

Next day we set off and head for Bequia - it is only a short passage of 3 hours or so but partly due to the popularity of the anchorage it takes a little while to anchor in a good place.