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That describes our anchorage last night. The evening with Anne and Jim was great. The usual eating, drinking and (long) stories. The anchorage, unfortunately, never really settled down and both boats were churned around all night long. I slept through it but Helen was close to mutiny by the morning. I’ve never seen her so keen to move early. In fact, we were up and gone before we could contact Bees Knees. They knew it was a strong possibility we’d all move around the corner to Vieux Fort to escape the swell.
So here we are back outside the harbor. We’ve checked out of customs and immigration. Customs was straight forward as this was in the dock right by us. Immigration, however, was at the airport 2-3 miles away. We walked each way which helped pass the day and now it is done. On the way back we performed a final bit of minor provisioning at the supermarket on the way.
We’re now practically set to head south in the morning. We’d had some concerns about a northerly swell which may impact our primary plan but checking the weather sites I see the swell comes as far south as Guadeloupe. We are well clear. So our plan is to head to Baliceaux and anchor there a couple of days before heading off to either Bequia or Mustique to check into the Grenadines. Baliceaux is uninhabited and a passer by for charterers so hopefully it will not only be quiet (like Maria Island) but also calm (unlike Maria Island). We’ll be setting sail no later than 7am as it is nearly 50nm to our destination. We’ll be passing the east coast of St Vincent so we shouldn’t have issues with wind shadows.
One of the (sadly) exciting things about heading south is watching the latitude approach zero. We’ve been in the 13’s for some time. Soon we’ll be in the 12’s.
After writing yesterday’s blog we were approached by the one other boat in our anchorage – Brad who was captaining a 60 odd foot monohull called Blue Whale. He needed some help undoing a couple of screws and I was more than happy to oblige. He’s been a professional captain in the islands for a few years now. Apart from helping undo two screws we had a good chat about the islands and a show around the boat. Brad also gave me the coordinates of a good anchorage in Tobago Cays away from where everyone else goes. We must give this a go in a week or two. Before parting we invited Brad over to Dignity to have a look around.
This morning around 9am we set sail just around the corner to Maria Island. Even though it wasn’t too far we decided to see if we could sail most of the way. We headed out into the Atlantic for 40 minutes then tacked back. With the wind dropping and quite a strong current we were heading back along our original track so we turned on the motor and made it there without too much faffing around. Approaching Maria Island we were tantalized by a streak of turquoise visible between the mainland and the island where we had to squeeze through the reefs. We found the cut in the reefs quite easily and kept in 60 feet of water until we were clear of the breakers around us. We turned into Maria Island and, sheltered from the ocean, dropped our anchor in her lee.
As we ate lunch Bees Knees, who we’d been in contact in the morning, rounded the corner, came through the cut and anchored next to us. We are the only two boats around here which is great.
This afternoon I dusted off the Hookah and scraped the barnacles off both hulls. The underwater bit takes two hours – double that when you consider all the gear prep and tidying. This evening Anne and Jim are coming over for a barbecue. I’m feeling hungry after this afternoon’s exertion.
FOOTNOTE: While here we noticed a couple wind kiting for some hours. We were later to learn that they were cruisers from “Nebula”.
This morning we decided to have a little look around the Jalousie Hilton Hotel before we set sail. The location, set between the two Pitons, is utterly sublime. The hotel is exceptionally nice and probably very expensive.
We had managed a VHF chat with Bees Knees and altered our plans to go straight to Marie Islands. They were going into Soufriere to pick up a ‘ton of limes’ as they were running low and couldn’t imagine existence without them. We would make our separate ways and meet up later.
Leaving the Pitons we experienced winds from all directions which kept us amused for a while. Once we rounded the corner and started heading east we soon discovered the winds were staying around the mid 20s (apparent) with a ½ to 1 knot current from the east. This meant slow progress to our destination. We radioed Bees Knees to say we were altering our destination back to Laborie, the original intention as we didn’t think we’d make Marie Islands let alone Vieux Fort in good time. Later, when they rounded they found the winds beyond where they liked to sail and headed back to where we had been moored to wait out the weather.
After beating away for another three hours we made it to Laborie where were met by some more boat helpers who guided us in through the reef to a mooring ball. They wanted to charge us US$40 for the privilege but we bargained them down to US$10 – the same price as Soufriere.
We then took our dinghy to the jetty and took a walk through the town. In many ways Laborie is much like some of the other towns we’ve seen in St Lucia and Dominica. We walked the length of the ‘high’ street and came to a terraced bar looking over the beach where they sole cold Piton beers for next to nothing. We soon were chatting to Muline who was running the bar on behalf of her friend who was in Canada having a baby.
Leaving the bar we walked back along the beach which was simply beautiful. Locals were playing on the sand as it is still the Easter break. The shoreline had many local fishing boats anchored up. We are very glad the conditions kept us to our original plan.
Yesterday, Bees Knees found the mooring balls between the Pitons all taken so they ended up near us. We had a brief get together to discuss plans over the next week. Largely based on an ‘off the beaten track’ article in Cruising World, the general idea is once we leave this area we’ll first go to Laborie on the south side of St Lucia. Next we’ll head round the corner to the Marie Islands and the reefs there. We’ll then check out of Vieux Fort which boasts the cheapest lobster in the eastern Caribbean. Heading south we’ll bypass St Vincent to the east and sail straight to Baliceaux, a set of rarely frequented islands. From there we’ll sail south to Mustique where we’ll check into the Grenadines before finally heading off to Bequia. That’s the plan for now. After that we may part as we have different timetables south but who knows.
Our plan for today was to find a guide and climb to the top of Gros Piton, the larger and most southerly of the two Pitons. Jim and I first dinghied ashore to see if we could rustle up a guide. The only one at the dock wanted to charge US$75 each with another $100 for the taxi there and back. This was far too much so we formed our own plan. First, we aimed to get out boats around the corner into Jalousie Bay in between the two Pitons. Then we’d look to see if we could find a guide there to take us up. Returning to the boats we took a detour to the bay to see if any balls were free. There weren’t any so the plan was to wait for boats to depart and head over in turn. We agreed Dignity should head over first as being right on top of the Bat Cave we also had the pleasure of the smell of guano all night long.
We weren’t on the boat long before we saw someone heading out so we slipped our mooring and headed over. We just managed to hook up when we heard from Jim that they’d received an offer to take us up Gros Piton for US$50 each including the taxi fare. This was more in line with our expectations so we agreed to do this.
Soon we were picked up by a water taxi with Anne and Jim already aboard. We were taken around to the south side of Gros Piton to a local beach and dropped off with our guide Marlon. Marlon was really nice and we would recommend him to anyone. All you need do is ask for him at Soufriere and don’t believe anyone if they say he is dead. It’s a competitive business and folks often have preferred relationships and have been known to say things like this to deter folks from their recommended guides. Marlon actually did the entire hike in bare feet which was quite a feat in of itself. We were also accompanied by a dog which seemed keen to make the entire climb on the off chance a bit of lunch was going spare (which she did get).
The climb was hard work but worth it. Fortunately the path was dry most of the time so the going was firm. The overall climb of 2,600 feet was made worthwhile by the views from the top. Our first stopping point was on the north side looking at Petit Piton and the island to the north. We could see all the way to Pigeon Island off which we were anchored for the last week or so. We ate our lunch at this view point before heading over to the other side of the summit to see a clearing to the east. The rest of the summit was overgrown so apart from these two views, the majority of the climb up and down had limited views. Apparently, Petit Piton offers a lot more views. For another time. Nevertheless – we all had a good time and burnt off some of the fat recently gained. I took my handheld GPS and here is a record of our trip. It’s a bit jumpy and will be inaccurate in places but it’s fun to see anyway.
Once back aboard Dignity Helen and I went for a swim on the reef next to where we were moored. That’s not before we knocked back a celebratory beer and a couple of chocolate digestives. The reef was pretty good but we both got stung by unseen critters. We’re now hoping a mooring ball goes free so we can call Anne and Jim over. We’ve just missed one ball going free as I was typing this blog. There was someone else in bound so I reckon even if we’d seen it earlier it would have been difficult to snag it in time.
This morning we left our slip in Rodney Bay Marina and headed away, perhaps for the last time. We left the first reef in the main from our last sail but soon found it necessary to shake it out as winds were pretty light.
For this trip I put out four separate lines, each with a different lure, including my ‘special’ made up of a fishlike lure and some attractive (to fish) yellow feathers. I was feeling hopeful. Except for a few gusts down through valleys, the winds remained light for the whole trip. At one point they switched from east to west so we tacked without changing heading. We spied Bees Knees anchored in Anse La Raye where we believe they are off for a hike to a waterfall.
As we neared Soufriere we were overtaken by two of the Carnival party cats both of which were fully occupied with locals and blaring out loud music.
Three miles out we were met by a boat helper who promised to help us with a mooring. A mile from the turn into Soufriere I reluctantly pulled in all the lines. The biggest lure showed signs of something having taken a chomp out of it but that doesn’t count. One of these days we’ll have fresh fish but not today.
Our boat helper took us over to south side of Soufriere as the mooring balls by the Bat Cave were all taken. We dined on homemade rotis before aiming to rest.
Just after we finished lunch we noticed the mooring ball closest to the Bat Cave was free so we slipped ours and headed over. As it is such a good snorkeling spot we both jumped in and had a good swim around. We ventured into the crack in the cliff which constitutes the Bat Cave and were amazed at the shear number of bats clinging to the walls inside. Before finishing the snorkel I managed to get stung by a jellyfish. I think the last time I was stung was here too.
We’ve just been in touch with Bees Knees who are approaching the area. They are going to check out the balls between the Pitons. If there is more than one free they’ll let us know and we’ll motor over for the view.
