I am compelled to note another fabulous meal in the Rainforest Hideaway in Marigot Bay – a completely wonderful experience. ! We had already ‘cleared’ and paid so we slipped our mooring early in the morning and headed south to St. Vincent.
St. Vincent suffers from a lack of an International Airport and is less developed than other islands of a similar size. There was, apparently, a scheme to extend the airport to receive international flights but they used the wrong tarmac and the heavier jets would sink into the runway …
The internet abounds with stories of security issues with accounts of pressure from ‘boat boys’ and we even experienced efforts to sell us goods by an old chap perched on driftwood like a surfboard! With the necessity to ‘clear in’ to the St. Vincent jurisdiction, we chose the soonest opportunity in Chateaubelair to ensure we completed the formalities before the officials knocked off for the day. This required a trip ashore in the dinghy and after completing the copious forms (with carbon paper and the inevitable rubber stamp) in both the customs office (someone’s house complete with washing and chickens) and the Police Station, we were rewarded with the necessary paperwork to allow our passage through the Grenadines.
The volcanic nature of the island means that in the average bays, the sea bed shelves very close to the shore so anchoring is tricky. Chateaubelair was a little exposed and the rolling at anchor suggested we should move on for the evening after the formalities and a quick cooling swim.
We reviewed several options for the evening and chose Wallilabou Bay which promised mooring buoys outside an hotel – in the event the buoys were all taken – according to the boat boy………. The line ashore after dropping the anchor utilised our new 165 metre webbing spool in a ‘slip’ so we can slope off in the morning before the inevitable hassle of ‘buy this, buy that’.
There didn’t appear to be anything to tempt us ashore so we enjoyed a super meal in the cockpit. With the dinghy lifted alongside, the new security bars in place, the boarding ladder locked and an LED floodlight covering the aft deck, we are prepared for the (probably non – existent) security challenges of the night.
Lynn writes:-
Well what can I say…the sun was shining and the most stressful part of the day was spotting the flying fish! Paula as usual being brave with a ‘sea sickness’ patch stuck behind her ear sailed on!
We arrived in St. Vincent after admiring this lush volcanic island…yes challenged by the paddle board fruit and fish salesmen. Well they are simply trying to survive…so we bought a few mangoes and lemons. It is a wonderful part of the world and so uncomplicated. Life here takes its course…you eat, swim and probably smoke something!!! Consequently they are all very, very chilled!
While Nick and Neville went ashore to ‘clear in’ we stayed on board…greeted by the fruit and veg sales person …a plastic bag full of passion fruit (we think), his transport is HIS log! A tree trunk which he hangs onto and steers towards any oncoming boat! If you do not need or want his wares how about offering him a beer???? We managed to convince this poor man that we had all the food we needed. As it was quite warm we simply swam into this wonderful bay….cool!!!! Watching out for the boys to return from the ‘official’ procedures or immigration!!! Nick had disappeared from our view and Neville was pacing the beach followed by a few locals probably offering a bargain of some kind!
Well we now have every fruit grown in the Caribbean, delivered directly to the yacht, we never had to set foot on dry land…lovely meal on board…tomorrow we will continue our journey to yet another wonderful destination! What is stress????
Paula writes:-
‘Seas the day,’
Literally it was the whole day as well!! But as mentioned before I managed it without too much bother, thank you Stephen putting me in touch with the patches!
Well we arrived in St. Vincent, such fun (as Miranda’s mum used to say.) I really don’t have much to add today as both Nick and Lynn have told you about our passage and what we found when we got here.
So………….. all good fun and we have had mad discussions about all sorts and most importantly Lynn has extended her knowledge of The United Kingdom and Great Britain in readiness for her test to become a real British person!!!!!
Bye Bye for now and speak to you all soon.
Neville doesn’t write-
He is suffering from a burnt face and other bits.
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