Our first month in the Caribbean Part 2
Diatonic
Anthony Warr
Fri 15 Jan 2010 02:48
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12 35.7N 61 24.8W
15/01/2010
St Lucia
After 5 days sorting the boat and dinghy out we
left Rodney Bay on 2nd January to sail to Castries, the capital town where a big
festival celebrating Recovery Day (after New Years Eveand Day) was being
held, more loud music and throngs of people. On our second night we enjoyed a
goumet french meal at a fantastic
beach restaraunt.
  We left Castries and went to Marigot
Bay,
 a fantastic Hrricane Hole but now over
commercialised. Soufriere was our next anchorage for 2 nights and enjoyed a
visit to the Volcano and Botanical Gardens.
  Had another goumet meal at the Hummingbird
Restaraunt. We cut our visit short because we felt a bit threatened from
the boat boys who were forever coming out to us at anchor trying to sell us
something.
 Cleared Customs and went down to Vieux Forte
for 1 night before the 40 mile passage to Bequia. However we stayed 2
nights since the wind had risen and it looked quite rough. In the end we
still had a boisterous passage to Bequia with 32 knot winds between the islands.
Bequia is part of the St.Vincent group of islands and we had to clear in via
customs and immigration. We spent 3 days here and were able to get some
supplies such as gas water and fuel before sailng down to Canouan and
then Salt Whistle Bay in Mayrea.
 This is a most beatuful anchorage that boasts a
fantastc beach with the local boat boys preparing beach BBQs at
night.
The next day a 3 mile sail took us into the Tobago Cays where we
anchored behind Horseshoe Reef facing 3000 miles of Atlantic Ocean to
Africa.
  The wind was blowing quite strngly at 25 knots but fortunately
the reef is breaking up the big Atlantic swells and we
are relatively protected. The fluorescent turquoise bluey/green waters and
white sandy beaches of the nearby desert islands are magnificent. Although this
is now a marine park charging $10 (3 pounds) we are able to swim with the turtiles and snorkel around
the reefs. We have been planning to try and get though the coral reef
in the dinghy to get to a small deserted island in the palm trees (or Tony is!)
In the event we had high winds and heavy rain so spent the day on
board.
Our 3rd night was spent anchored at the back of one of the small islands
where boat boys were doing a BBQ. However we declined since they wanted $100
each (25 pounds) for a Maui Maui (Dorado) steak and breadfruit which we thought
was taking the proverbial.
Today we have sailed eyeballing our way through the reefs to Union Island.
Since we need to get up to Antigua, 400 miles north, which is quite a slog to
windward we have decided not to go any further south. If we don't get a US visa
we shall be coming down here again in May on our way to Trinidad. If we do go
north to the USA then we will very likely be coming down here in November.
We are anchored behind the reef next to the small runway in Clifton on
Union Island and looking forward to going out to dinner tonight. Fortunately
Clifton has an interner cafe that we can reach with our wifi and get all our
emailing done as well as this blog.
We will be leaving in the morning to go back to Bequia and then on to St
Vincent, St Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Guadaloupe, montserrat then Antigua but
will be taking 3 weeks over this so will do the next blog from Antigua.
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