12:35.5N  61:24.5

 

Union Island

 

Its been a busy time on SV Jon Jon. We sailed down to Grenada to meet Graham and Sharon. Grenada is a funny old place, not quite Caribbean  its British influences have not faded as quickly as other places. It has a great bus system, good supermarkets and some great sheltered anchorages and ports, BUT we didnt quite get it. We had a sublime sail down the windward side of the island before turning right and putting into Prickly Bay. It was like sailing into the upper reaches of the Carrick Roads in Falmouth with huge posh houses on the cliffs and grassy hills. Prickly bay was full of yachts most of them seemingly that never move and people who left 5 years ago to sail the world just got there and decided not to move on. In fact the whole island is a big expat sailing community (mainly uk). And you can see why. Its EASY! good cheapo shops, good communications, good boatyards but sadly we didn’t really get it. It felt a bit like Gibraltar in the Caribbean. Still we had a great time with Graham and Sharon there, we had BBQs on the boat with our new toy,

 

watched England lose in the Rugby, snorkelled the underwater sculpture park and looked for comets! Graham and Sharon did a great job of smuggling cheese, wine choccy and spirits over. They weren’t stopped for any of it, but Graham also brought a survival BBQ which was basically 12 small metal rods in a hollow metal tube which you then spent 6 months attempting to assemble. Graham has obviously not seen “Day of the Jackal “ as the customs guys in Grenada were only too interested in this “gadget” which he had to try and assemble in front of the customs guard to prove it wasn’t a gun. After (what must have seemed like) 2 hours of amusing the guard and still failing to erect it (Graham had not brought the instructions) he was let through. Luckily the 1 pound of semtex(mazipan) smelling cake wrapped in silver foil in Sharons bag was not seemingly a priority for them. Thanks for coming over guys it was fun.

 

In Prickly Bay we also met up with new friends Bill and Ali who are from Fowey and St Austell and are running a charter company over here. We did (and won ) pub quiz at the marina with them and also took part in bingo night....this we expected to be a sad affair ...but no. It was genius and possibly the best entertainment we have had in the islands. The manager of the marina runs it, imagine Pheonix Nights but no wheelchair, hundreds of locals descend on the marina for the big cash prizes (nearly 400 quid a game) including the local gangsta and rasta lads. If you win house you have to do a dance on stage before you get to collect your winnings and in the meantime the manager is giving away random prizes like household goods, toy dolls and tampons in an attempt to humiliate, at every opportunity, the said gangstas and rastas! It was a good night helped by 3 beers for 2.50 if you play!

 

After saying a sad goodbye to G&S we got fair winds for the long hop up to St Lucia to pick up Phillipa and Charlotte.  We felt like a charter boat ourselves bouncing around the islands but we got to do some sailing which after sitting in Grenada getting fat was welcome relief and the sailing was fast and furious and fun. We met the Petfords at the Pitons

 

 

this is them and yes they were that white!!!

 

and had a great time running down to Bequia in the dark, snorkelling with turtles, making superyachts move,

 

oi stop invading my space

 

running out of rum and having to dash for a marina in St Lucia and generally taking the p all week. We even took some friends of theirs who were on honeymoon for a day out!!! Charlotte did a great job of crewing especially when it came to driving the dinghy.....well everyone likes a donut don’t they Charlotte?

 

Finally we had to say goodbye as they headed home on their ridiculous flights that went via outer mongolia, (well NY). We met up again with our now good friends Graham and Chrissie, who nearly convinced us to buy a Halberg Rassy 42 but sense prevailed in the end. We changed plans 15 times that day before going back to plan A and we headed for the last time past mount doom (the volcano on St Vincent) and onto Bequia where we watched Lou arrive by plane with Coconut Airways from Barbados. She had also come bearing gifts as well, a huge 1kg of dairy milk

(available in the duty free shop at Gatwick, Cara and Jaff), some Clarins for Kirsty (made from gold dust and rocking horse shit.....also available in any duty free shop at Gatwick) and my new favourite gadget ....a underwater case for my iphone, which I gave to Darth Vader to put to good effect videoing turtles and Lou’s bum in Tobago Cays (see vid.......HK51HNHqDL8 . We did Saltwhistle bay on Mayreau and had breakkie at Robert “Righteous” Lewis 007s bar

, (needless to say he was a rasta!)

 

two fab nights including a beach BBQ at the Cays,

 

2 nights parked off the highly exclusive PSV resort where we spent a lot of money in the Bar celebrating Lou’s birthday with Alistair and Tilly (our new friends from Devon on Honeymoon thanks for the Red Cross Parcel guys) and we sprooked up the boat for her

 

and suffered the next day heavily! Finally today we are off to Union Island,  back to Happy Island ! for more rum and rollicking good fun. Hoorah.

 

Birthday girl

 

We are then off to Grenada again to pick up Cara and Jaff, do Carriacou and finally head to Trinidad where sadly we will have to fly home a month today! At least we can then finally dry out a bit! mmm actually we are heading for Ed and Gaynors in Fowey ...no chance there then.

 

sunset at Bequia

 

Lee and Kirsty