Wallilabou - St Vincent 13:14:898N 61:16.252W

Pau Amma
Matthew Shaw
Sat 21 Jan 2012 23:36
I know we said that we wouldn't stop at St Vincent BUT. We have.

So far, so good. People nice and friendly. We are at a place called Wallilabou, much of the Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed here and old parts of the set are still here.

Pics will follow.

We are all itching from something in the sea. We all went for a good snorkel and have been itching all over ever since! The snorkelling was good. We are anchored about 20 metres from the shore. Our bow is anchored in about 30 metres of water and a stern line is attached to the shore holding us in. A new experience for us.

St Vincent is a strange and troubled island. Pilot whales are regularly slaughtered here and I have heard a lot about the Jails already. There are industrial scale Marijuana plantations hidden in the forest and the economy is dependent on this as well as foreign aid. Many buildings donated by China and Venezuela. Its interesting that this happens on the doorstep of the US.

So far we have seen NO presence on the water attempting to stop the smuggling. Customs and Immigration appear to be limited to the mundane paper pushing of carbon triplicate forms. Several of the younger Customs officers we have met have been lazy, rude and unhelpful.

The reason for all this? Corruption at the highest levels of government. Lack of leadsership, lack of entrepreneurial spirit, a lack of work ethic.

Anyway, its all lovely to cruise through, we have dropped our ££'s as even and considerately as possible - favouring the local people that have a spirit and work ethic.

My beef stew is steaming in the pressure cooker so my musings are over.