New Town, Dominica to Bequia...
Chelone's travels.....
John and Susie Blair.
Thu 23 Jan 2014 00:00
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We sailed on down the rugged coast of Dominica
towards the town of New
Town, near Roseau and one of my favourite anchorages. It was Connies Birthday so we joined them with Fuego, Sam wich and Buckaroo aboard Gitanos for celebratory drinks and Birthday cake.  Our friends are keen to keep moving as they've things to do and people to see in Grenada which means we'll stay together for now as Susie and myself are keen to be in Bequia for the music festival starting on the 23rd of Jan. We continued south to Martinique with a short stop over at Anse Mitan which is just across the bay from the capital Fort De France. It was a popular anchorage with many yachts, the dinghy dock was within a man- made enclosed bay in front of a lovely hotel complex.  We walked into the village and had Panini's for
breakfast at a roadside
eaterie before having a wander about. Sightseeing
done and fresh baguettes
purchased, we returned to Chelone and continued on our journey south.
Our friends aboard their boats Gitanos and Hanaman
had overnighted in
Grand Anse D'Arlets a short way down the coast and
we'd arranged to
meet up with them in Rodney Bay Saint Lucia. I took
some video as we
sailed along between the islands, I'll try to
upload it to YouTube and post
a link.
Rodney Bay is a familiar stopover for Susie and myself, we anchored off the beach and went ashore to clear Customs. We met up with our friends and friends of theirs, another American couple Randy and Janet who as it turned out, I'd met Randy at Customs check-in in St.Kitts before Christmas!  We had a wander around the shops and with it being my Birthday Randy and Janet invited us over to their lovely Catamaran 'Lipari' across the bay for an evening in company with themselves plus Bruce and Connie from Gitanos. Onward down St.Lucia's coast and we arrive at the awesome anchorage between the famous 'Pitons'.  I wandered around in the jungle opposite
Chelone and found Calabash and Coconuts then later, Bruce suggested we share a cab and visit a Cocktail Bar mentioned in the guide book that overlooks the bay and Pitons....lovely job!      The 'Ladera' certainly had the 'Wow' factor!. As we walked through
to the front of the bar we were met by one of the most amazing views I think I've ever seen, the pics/video I took don't do it justice. We sat together enjoying our cocktails and reflected on the day's sailing etc, our moored boats in view below in the fading light.  Another passage between islands and we arrived in St.Vincent....   Chateaubelair to be exact...A Customs Clearance Port, I went ashore to clear in with Randy and Sam Wich and met up with a lady from Cardiff also attending to formalities. We then sailed around the corner to a preferred spot... Cumberland Bay, exotic, tropical and quintessentially Caribbean.  As previously mentioned, we're on a mission to make it to Bequia for the Music Festival so we remain in the Gitanos-Lipari-Hanaman flotilla and head off the following morning for the last sail for a good while....to beautiful Bequia, just eighteen miles south on a comfortable close reach. So, here we are....in one of our favourite anchorages yet again. We've only been here a day and already we've bumped into some great friends from last season....Oh, and Mark & Suzy Hicks just arrived!! and the Festival starts tomorrow!
We'll let you know all about it soon, but for now...Bye from us...xx |