Blogs from Saint Vincent & Grenadines, Central America Caribbean - page 4

We enjoyed our final days in Bequia listening to live music at some of the local restaurants and did our last provisioning for the trip north. We figured we should stock up on what was known vs. the unknown in the stores on other islands (you know bird in the hand). We planned on going directly to St. Lucia, however, we had heard about Cumberland Bay on the island of St. Vincent and decided we had time to stop to see it for ourselves. We were glad we did! We thought we’d only stay overnight and continue on, but it was so nice we stayed an extra night. Cumberland Bay is a very pleasant anchorage tucked among the mountains of St. Vincent. It is a beautiful setting and a nice calm anchorage. One of the tricky ... read more

As we mentioned we are currently in Bequia, one of the many islands that are part of the Grenadines and therefore part of the country of St. Vincent & the Grenadines. We found it was a very pleasant island to spend some time on our travels south last year. Luckily there are a few ways we as cruisers can find out the schedule of events on the various islands in the Caribbean. We had heard great things about the Bequia Music Fest from others that had been in previous years. This year it was running from January 26th – 29th so hoped we could coordinate our travels to take in this event. We arrived in Bequia on January 11ththerefore were a little early for it so had to decide if we would going to hang around ... read more

Canouan is one of the smaller islands of The Grenadines. We knew being halfway between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator just off the coast of Venezuela would be very warm; but it was so comfortable during our brief stay with an almost constant off-shore breeze. The destination was picked by our host as a hop from Nevis for his birthday; he was especially lured by the golf course which didn't disappoint - challenging and beauful! Lucky us, you say! Lucky us, we repeat! The resort is very sprawley, but each couple got a golf cart to roam from villas to the beach, to the restaurants (open on a revolving basis), pro shop, spa, boutique, etc. The "girls" even hailed a rubber raft with an outboard motor to get us from one beach to another. ... read more

Mayreau (pronounced My Row) is the smallest of the inhabited Grenadines as it is only 1 ½ square miles in area and has a population of about 300 residents. We moved here from Union Island which wasn’t a large jump, but it felt like a world away. We had an enjoyable sail which was nice after having been at anchor for some time at Frigate Island. What should have been only a 2 hour move turned out to be 3 hours as the wind was against us and the seas were high. We anchored in the beautiful Saline Bay which has a fabulous white beach and good access to shore. When we pulled into the bay we were very surprised to see a large sailing vessel, the Wind Spirit. You can check it out on google ... read more

Martinique was the last of the French islands that we will be visiting this season. The Windward Islands run from Martinique to Grenada and were to be the easier ones to sail as we were now heading south. We left Trois Ilets in Martinique around 6AM on a Friday, June 10th and arrived in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia about 1PM. The wind started out light, but then built to 15 knots which was great. We were in the lea of the island, but once we got away from the protection of the island, the seas picked up, the winds picked up to 22 knots and found we were fighting a current. As a result our hull speed dropped even though there was more wind. Fortunately about 4 hours into the crossing the seas evened out and ... read more