Cruising the Grenadines. 12:27.3N 61:29.2W

MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Sat 3 Feb 2007 20:58
Its been a while since our last blog - will try harder promise!
 
Since leaving Barbados we slowly sailed south through the Grenadines.
 
Bequia (pronounced Beek way) was our first port of call. Port Elizabeth was gorgeous. Pastel coloured buildings in a lush green back drop with very friendly & very 'relaxed' people.
 
 
We felt right at home here and stayed longer than planned. There was a music festival going on during our stay and all kinds of bands played, from a famous rock band from Sweden (no not a funky ABBA) to a local steel drum band. None of the bands were being paid to perform and as a result it was very laid back, with a great atmosphere and good fun was had by all. The Swedish band had all their equipment go astray on a flight mix up but the locals scrounged up some equipment and nobody was any the wiser. We met some good people here and had some great parties. Hopefully we will get to see them again soon.
 
From Bequia we moved on to Mayreau and the Tobago Cays. These places were typical picture postcard Caribbean anchorages.
 
 
You know, white sands, palm trees, beach huts, drunken bums needing a palm tree to lean against, that sort of thing.
 
We had some great experiences including swimming with giant turtles and coming face to face with a huge porcupine fish in a cave. His head was the size of a football with big googly eyes. It didnt seem fased at all and was quite happy for us to pull stupid faces and blowing bubbles at it. We guessed it was his home and wasnt moving for anyone and besides he had probably seen it all before. He was a very cool Caribbean Porcupine fish.
 
The Cays are a must do destination. It is a bazaar experience being behind a reef or a low lying beech, anchored in calm azure blue waters protected from the Atlantic Ocean swell. All you hear is the roar of the waves hitting the windward beaches but only feel the cooling trade winds. Feeling jealous? well you should be cos it was great and we are definately going to return.
 
We then moved onto Union Island and checked out of the St Vincent Grenadines and entered into the Granada Grenadines (Tyrell Bay, Carriacou).
 
 
The view from our cockpit is the 'Happy Island Bar'. It is built on a bed of Conch shells, behind the reef and probably gets washed away every season when a hurricane comes through. It will probably look completely different when we come back through next season. Adonde (Neil & Tracy) has been with us for the last few weeks and here is evidence that their catamaran does sail pretty quick when the wind blows and now that it is lighter having eaten most of the food they loaded on for their Trans-Atlantic. (Neil is strutting his funky stuff specially for the photo and Tracy is hiding a bad hair day).
 
We will stay here for a few days and our next stop will be Grenada and then on to Trinidad for the carnival. Should have some wild photos from the carnival.