Nics Diary – Part 12

Places Visited:

St Lucia – Soufrier, Marigot Bay

St Vincent & Grenadines – Bequia,  Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Union Island (Chatham Bay)

Carriacou - Hilsburgh & Tyrell Bay

Grenanda – St Georges, Prickly Bay, Hog Island

This entry covers 5.4-28.4.13. Over the last month or so, whilst waiting for Stevies Passport to arrive in St Lucia, we decided to head south and see some more islands. We have recently celebrated our 2^nd year anniversary of being together (20^th April), and our 1 year sailing anniversary (22^nd April).  Boy how time flies. We cannot believe that we have been sailing for one whole year already (apparently I am now a real sailor – says the captain)!! What a fab time we have had!

Pregnancy wise, everything is going well – even my nausea at sea has finally calmed down - all looking good for the next Atlantic crossing!

16 weeks - and yes my ass is getting fat too!!

St Lucia:

We attempted to anchor in the small inlet outside of the bay in Marigot, but unfortunately the holding wasn’t very good, so we headed further south to Soufrier and stayed the night. Soufrier was very smelly (of sewage -not so good for a pregnant sensitive nose!!) and felt a little unsafe so we did not go to land here, but enjoyed the nice view of the Pitons. 

The Pitons

The next day we decided to return to Marigot bay and take a mooring ball inside the bay. Marigot bay is very touristy, has a few resorts and restaurants, and a wee bit of beach where you could swim. We had seen another yacht ‘Hanta Yo’ many times on our travels, both in the med and in the Caribbean. We decided to pop over and say ‘hi’. We jokingly told them that they must be following us, as we had seen them many times over the last year. They didn’t say much, so we assumed that many people must tell them the same, as they have a very unique, easily identified yacht, as the name is written along the whole side of the hull, in bright green.

Marigot bay is a very pretty place, but little to do, so we checked out, and headed for Bequia.

Bequia:

A wee while after arriving in Bequia, surprise, surprise, Hanta Yo appeared. They popped over and invited us for a drink. We had a good chat, and it turned out that they had been to most of the same places in the med as us, and at the same time, as we had first thought! Talk about a small world! Both Juergen and Antje (sorry if I have spelt it wrong) were lovely and it was great to share stories of our adventures. They happened to be heading in the same direction, over the next week or so, so we agreed to meet in Tobago Cays in a couple of days. 

Bequia was quite pretty, with nice beaches, and a lovely shore walkway. We managed to pick up a wee bit of food, but the supermarket wasn’t so super so tins were looking like an option over the next wee while. 

Mayreau:

Hanta Yo left before us, but as there yacht was smaller (and slower) than ours, we soon caught up with them on the crossing to Mayreau. We first saw them on AIS, they we put the foot down, so that we could catch up, and take some nice photos of them sailing, and they took photos of us too. 

We stayed the night in Mayreau, where there was a wee bit of a town, and some pretty beaches. We were starting to get the feeling that we were reaching some isolated islands, with still no sign of any reasonable supermarkets!

Tobago Cays:

Tobago Cays are a group of wee islands, protected by reefs, and they were beautiful. Not a house, supermarket, or restaurant in sight though. Some of the water around the islands was quite shallow, giving it a beautiful turquoise green colour. There were white sandy beaches, with palm trees – exactly what I imagined the Caribbean to be like. I have to admit, from never being to the Caribbean before, and only seeing it on TV or brochures, I have been really surprised at the lack of palm tree beaches, with beautiful waters! So, I was really pleased to see what I had been dreaming of. 

We stayed there for a few days, and had Hanta Yo over for dinner. I never in my life imagined inviting neighbours round for dinner, and only being able to offer them corned beef hash, as we had no fresh meat! They didn’t mind, as they had little food too. 

The following day we visited another island, had a swim, and climbed to the top for some stunning views. We called this island ‘lizard island’ as it was full of big iguanas! Juergen snorkelled around this island in search of lobster, as Antje really wanted some for dinner. He saw quite a few, but they were too fast for him to catch!

Jeurgen & Antje

Union Island – Chatham Bay:

Moving on, with Hanta Yo, we went to Union Island to check out, and decided to stay in Chatham bay for the night. There was nothing there except for a few restaurants on the beach. Boatie boys from each restaurant came around the yachts, trying to persuade us to come for dinner. After a little haggling, all four of us decided to go to a restaurant that was offering lobster for dinner. We were the only guests in the restaurant, and the lobster was yummy – to Antje’s delight!

Carriacou:

We travelled here again with Hanta Yo, and after checking in at Hilsburgh, we moved around the corner to Tyrell Bay. Still with no food on board, and no real supermarkets in sight, we again decided to eat out. We found a tiny wee shack on the beach that was offering dinner really cheap, and a camp fire on the beach to follow. We had a lovely evening – delicious food, then singing around the fire, with some locals jaming along with drums!

Granada:

I was really looking forward to visiting Grenada as apparently it was previously regarded as being outside the hurricane zone, and hence was busy with cruisers who lived there much of the year.  We checked in at St Georges, where I was absolutely delighted to find a real supermarket, which even gave a discount to boaties! For me, it felt like Christmas! It even had butterkist toffee popcorn – fantastic!!

Unfortunately we said ‘good bye’ to hanta you here, as they were heading towards panama, and we would be heading back north, after visiting some bays on the island. It was so nice to have some female company for a while. Antje agreed, and was almost in tears when we said goodbye! We had a fab time with them – you will be missed hanta yo!!

We moved on to Prickly bay – which is meant to be the highlight of the island for cruisers. The marina there did live music on a Friday night, and the atmosphere was great. We met quite a few people that night – and really enjoyed ourselves. Unfortnately, the anchorage was really rolly, so we moved on to an anchorage around the corner. 

This anchorage was next to a tiny island called Hog Island. Apparently it is ‘the place to be’ for cruisers on a Sunday, as the beach bar (the only thing on the island) has a cruisers BBQ. We went along in the afternoon, but didn’t find the atmosphere terribly inviting. We returned to the boat around 5pm, to find all of the other cruisers just arriving for a sun downer. By the looks of things, during the day it was a party catamaran (not cruisers) that dominated, and the cruisers arrived in the evening. Nevermind, we were too tired to return to the party, so we just had a nosey from the boat. 

Quite a few yachts in this anchorage appeared to be permanent residence. The man on the yacht next door seemed to be going to work each day, and his son was going to school by dinghy! After work he went to the wee bar on hog island, joined by many other yachties, for a sundowner. It looked like quite an established permanent yachtie community. (Not that we spent our time spying on the neighbours!!)

So, after our wonderful adventures of some of the southern islands, we headed back to St Lucia for Stevies Passport (which finally did arrive – thank goodness!), and the collection of our 2 new crew members – Graham and Mandy. I will fill you in on the stories from this time, when I next update the blog in a couple of weeks – hopefully from sunny Bermuda!