Last time we left you we were in the Rodney Bay in St Lucia. In this post we explore St Lucia a little more, make some new friends, and sail south to the beautiful island of Bequia, one the Grenadines in the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
So we met some lovely people in the last two weeks. In Rodney Bay we were anchored next to a striking boat called Endorphin Beta, a Moody 54. We had been there a couple of days, and Colin came over to introduce himself. We invited him over to Azimuth for a sunset beer that evening and I think its safe to say we all got on very well! Dr Colin Porteous, a retired surgeon from Scotland is a character for sure. Colin and his wife Izzi had just completed their 10 year circumnavigation by sail. Congratulations to them on this amazing achievement! Izzi had flown back to Germany to visit their new grandchild who had been born whilst they were sailing from South Africa to the Caribbean.
We had several lovely evenings with Colin during our stay in Rodney Bay and got to hear many of the stories of their travels around the world. Very inspirational stuff for us as we settle in to our own journey. By all accounts, the things ahead of us sound truly amazing and we look forward to what is to come!
Later in our stay in Rodney Bay, some more friends of Colin arrived on their boat Maia, They had met each other in South Africa. We had a lovely evening together. Laura and Dick had also nearly completed their circumnavigation. They were headed North up the East Coast of America. We hope to keep in touch and maybe our paths will cross again! Laura and Dick have complete a mammoth sail over the last nine months, all the way from Queensland in Australia to the Caribbean!
We wish Colin fair winds as he travels back to Scotland across the Atlantic in the next couple of months. Fair winds to Laura and Dick too on their passage up to the USA.
Whilst we were in St Lucia, we celebrated our 23rd Wedding Anniversary with lunch in a nice restaurant next to the marina.
So we had one other adventure of note whilst on St Lucia and that was a visit by local minibus to visit the little town of Soufriere nestled beneath the volcanoes (the Pitons) on the South end of the Island. We set off from the marina dock early, unsure of the logistics of the local buses. As soon as we arrived at the bus stop, a local minibus was already picking up other people and whisked us off the capital of St Lucia, the bustling town of Castries. So far so good, and extremely cheap too. We negotiated our way through the bustling market place, with mountains of tempting fresh fruits and veggies and found the back street where you catch the bus for the next leg to Soufriere. There were two seats left, which we squeezed ourselves in to with the other locals and off we went. The next hour and a half was exhilarating indeed! The road winds its way up and down the steep precipitous mountains with tortuous hairpins. We clung on for dear life as the driver of the bus drove like a rally driver, taking the hairpins at speed with the tyres squealing, performing overtaking manoeuvres on impossible sections of roads that would have impressed any rally driver, whilst the engine screamed for mercy! Looking about the van, the rest of the passengers didn’t seem to think anything of it, just another day on the bus?! But oh the views were something else, the jungle would suddenly give way to spectacular panoramas as we hit the next summit, and we would drop in to pretty bays and seaside towns at the bottom of steep ravines. Still it was nice to arrive at our destination! it was already lunchtime when we arrived and the last bus was leaving again for Castries at 4 that afternoon. So we took a few hours to have lunch at a local restaurant and explore the local area. We made it to the Diamond Falls botanical gardens which boasts volcanic rock pools for bathing only to find it was cash only and we didn’t have enough money, doh! Still it was worth the effort to see the rest of the town before boarding the crazy bus to get back to Rodney Bay!
In total we were in St Lucia for over two weeks. Our friends were moving on, and we felt the same urge too. So we planned our next sail to head to St Vincent and the Grenadines. We had heard some bad things about crime and hassle in St Vincent, so we decided to skip that Island and head straight for the Grenadines instead. We left at 5 in the morning to allow us enough time to sail the 72 miles south and reach the island of Bequia just before it got dark.
It was a lovely sail with a bit of motoring to get through the lulls down the sides of St Lucia and St Vincent. We arrived just before dark and dropped the hook in Admiral Bay in Bequia. The next day it was my birthday!! What a place to spend it…. first impressions of Bequia was that this place is stunning…. We woke early and checked in to the country and then headed for a walk down the St Margaret Trail to see the local beaches
We had passed some great bars and restaurants on our walk so we headed back for a birthday lunch at Mac’s Pizza Kitchen. Oh and a couple of cocktails ….
After that it got a bit silly…. the rum punch was flowing a little too easily at the “Whalebone” Bar. We had a great afternoon and met some cool people.
One cocktail too many I think, but somehow we still managed to stumble back to town, board the dinghy and head back to the boat via the anchorages floating bar! Once there we realised Ailsa had left her phone in the previous place …. doh! Amazingly it was still there when we zipped back to their dock in the dinghy. Back to Azimuth where we pretty much collapsed for the evening! All in all a pretty perfect birthday I would say?
We are looking forward to exploring more of this island, so join us next time!