Tomorrow we’re definitely out of here. We’ve been looking at the islands around us and sharing ideas with Bees Knees. They have a tighter time frame to reach Grenada than we do so our plans are set to diverge.

As they stand our plans are to head south to Canouan and stay a couple of nights there. There we will say our Au Revoirs with Anne and Jim as we head back north to Mustique. This sequence will hopefully reduced the effort of getting back upwind/up current to Mustique. Then we expect to head south to Worlds End Reef just off the east of Tobago Cays. Then we’ll head west to Mayreau threading through the Tobago Cays no doubt stopping from time to time.

From there it gets a bit vague. We may head down to Union, check out of the Grenadines then down to Carricou and check into Grenada. I’d like to squeeze in Petit Martinique as the provisioning is supposed to be pretty good there.

We need to get to Grenada by around the 15th of May so we have time to sort ourselves out before flying to NJ to see Ben graduate.

Today we expect to go for a walk. We may go for another dive on the hookah but that’s not settled yet. I’m off to town in a minute to drop trash, swap a book with one I want at a book swap and buy one more piece of fishing gear – a sinker – to help my line of pink squiddies to stay below the surface. Then we’ll be set for our fish bonanza.

We have four lines out again. No fish so far. I’m seeing a pattern emerging here.

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.

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”.

After lunch we walked around town some more and found a supermarket where we bought chocolate and something to take home in May. Overall, the town was middling in size with more than average decay despite the fact the streets were populous and active.

We have since moved Dignity away from the harbour wall about 500ft to a nearby beach. In doing so we’ve lost our access to the internet (boo hoo). That makes for a quiet night in. Where we are is frequented by sudden gusts so not as quiet as it could be. We’ll probably watch a movie tonight.

Right now we’re anchored outside of Vieux Fort and will be dinghying in shortly.

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.