13:50.00N 61:05.00W

 

Our passage to St Vincent saw us arriving in Cumberland Bay on the island of St Vincent at about midday. This was one of our favourite anchorages from last year. Very simple but beautiful. The bottom of black sand shelves away rapidly so in order to secure a fixing it is necessary to anchor and then tie back to a tree or one of the spikes that the locals have provided. There are a number of small local restaurants and one run by a French couple designed along the lines of Pirates of the Caribbean. Sounds naff but generally well done.

 

The whole area was devastated by a massive rain storm on Christmas eve and there are signs everywhere of what the river and mudslides did that day and night. One village we went through we saw where a mudslide had taken away a few houses, five people had died there. The river bore no resemblance of what we had seen last river. The force of the water had gouged out a massive swathe of earth and rock.

 

On our full day there we when for a short taxi ride to see Dark View Falls. Again the devastation was obvious but it was fun getting under the fall, we had taken our wash kit so a dhobi was in order. The vegetation was impressive and we spent an hour or so enjoying the experience.

 

We had eaten at the locals restaurant the first evening and had a superb meal, the second night we thought we would try out the pirate haunt. This was delightful, the food was superb, all local stuff like tuna and dorado, plantain, bread fruit, papaya, home made ice cream and rum. The French owners were friendly and couldn’t do enough to help.

 

We started the next day with a crossed anchor with our neighbours, we had suspected this and had warned them the previous night of an early start. So in order to get away they had to move off first. Even so we were underway by 06 30 for the 35 mile upwind leg to St Lucia. We motored up the first few miles in the windless shelter of St Vincent, past Souffriere the volcano Norm and I climbed last year. Norm remembers it well with not a lot of affection. The large swell warned us of what was to come. Out of the shelter of St Vincent we were hit by a good force 7 and a big sea. Close hauled this made for a wet ride and it was all in life jackets and safety lines.  Some how you don’t believe the Caribbean should be like this. We had this for about an hour until we emerged from what we imagined was the wind acceleration zone around the north of the island and things calmed down. The rest of the passage was pleasant, close hauled, force 6 and moderate sea state. We almost managed to lay St Lucia in one tack but the wind shadow of St Lucia put paid to any tacking and we motored the last 3 miles.  Just to put Pat’s mind at rest, she will be arriving here in two days, the passage to St Lucia was the last windward passage for a long while as the island chain comprising the Lesser Antilles now bear away to the west.

 

 

We are tied to a mooring buoy in the marine reserve bay between the Petit Piton and Gros Piton. What you could call and impressive location. Sally and I went snorkelling and then rowed off down the coast for about a mile to this posh place for  drink and watch the sunset. We rowed back in the dark, Norm had given us up for lost at sea. We were a bit naughty and didn’t clear in when we arrived yesterday so we have to get that sorted early today.

 

 

RT at Anchor in Cumberland Bay, Joseph in the foreground

 

Evenin‘ all

 

 

Cumberland Bay

 

Interesting Eh

 

 

Avast ye, pieces of eight, etc, etc

 

Petit Piton

 

Petit Piton

 

Arty Sunset

 

Relaxing in temporary luxury before return to the hovel