People were always stopping on the little bridge to admire our boat. I think they are fascinated by the scooters on the flybridge.
We departed Marigot Bay at 9:00am on July 7, for the 49-mile run south to St. Vincent. We had wonderfully calm seas and light winds.
At the southern end of St. Lucia, are these two distinctive geological features, known locally as "The Pitons". They're enormous cones jutting up, and between the two are two lovely bays. As you can imagine, the resorts there are fabulous.
View of the approach to The Pitons
Not sure if you can see the mast of the sailboat in this picture, but if so, it affords a little perspective of the size of these things....
View of The Pitons looking back as we depart St. Lucia, southward towards St. Vincent
We dropped anchor at 4:30pm, in the lovely little deep-water anchorage of Wallilabou (pronounced wally-la-bow), on the island of St. Vincent. This harbour was the site of much of the outdoor action in the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie, with Johnny Depp as the pirate captain. A lot of the sets remain intact.
If you look closely, you can see the wooden coffins leaning against the front of the building. In one scene, Johnny Depp steps out of one of them. They're made of plywood, covered with fiberglass, and painted to look like old wood. Seems to me like a lot of trouble. There are plenty of old weathered buildings on the islands that they could have used as sources of real aged wood.
Pirates of the Caribbean film buffs will recognize these as the gallows where Johnny Depp was to be hanged. They built two. One was for the beginning of the hanging scene, and is upright, and the other was for the end of the scene, where the gallows collapses, saving our hero.
The harbour has a very steep slope to the bottom. We anchored the front of the boat in 35 feet of water. Our friendly neighborhood boatman, Alex, took a line ashore from our stern, and tied it to a firm structure, thus aligning us perpendicular to the shore, and to the inbound surf. It worked quite well.
Alex also ferried me to the local harbourside restaurant, where I was inquiring about the whereabouts of the Customs and Immigration officals that are supposed to be there. They were AWOL - attending the Carnival festival in the capitol. So, we had a beer and went back to the boat.
Alex and me, returning to KINGDOM
Sunset at Wallilabou harbour, St. Vincent - We had a lovely evening getting acquainted with the owners of this catamaran, Ron and Debbie. It was the only other boat in the harbour. We learned that they are friends of Mike and Beth Smith, whom we met in St. Kitts. Ron is another semi-retired MD who teaches part-time at the various medical schools around the Caribbean!
Another wonderful geologic feature, also used in the movie as backdrop. We think there were skeletons hanging between the pillars of the rock in one scene.
Typical fishing village on the western coast of St. Vincent.
We left Wallilabou at 7:15am on Tuesday, July 8, for the 50-mile run to Carriacou. We arrived at the port of Hillsbourough around 2:30pm. We took the dinghy ashore to clear customs and immigration. It was really hot there! When we got back aboard, we decided that the harbour was too rolly for us, so we pulled the anchor, and motored south a couple of miles to the harbour in Tyrell Bay. It was much more protected from the ocean surge, and we were more comfortable there.
As soon as we anchored, our friends Dustin and Courtney, Captain and Mate of the charter catamaran "Frangine", motored over to say hello. We had a great time when we met them in St. Kitts. It was good to see them again, but since they had guests aboard their boat, they couldn't stay and visit long. They did suggest a couple of good anchorages we could use in Grenada.
We departed Tyrell Bay, Carriacou very early (6:15am) on Wednesday, July 9, because we were asked to move our boat out of the path of an incoming freighter. This was only a 35-mile run in good conditions down to the extreme south end of Grenada. We arrived there about 12:45pm, and anchored in a small protected harbour formed between Hog Island and the mainland of Grenada. There were at least 30 boats in this small harbour. Since we had cleared customs and immigration in Carriacou, we did not need to do it again in Grenada, as both islands are under the same government.
The next day, July 10, we made the last long (82 mile) leg of our journey to Trinidad. We left at 6:00am, since we knew this would be at least a 10 hour day. As it turned out, it was a 14-hour run, against the strong equatorial current, which cut our speed by as much as 3 knots at times. In addition, the seas were kicking up and we dealt with 6' to 8' swells on the beam nearly all day. We also ran in and out of rain squalls throughout the day. It was NOT what we consider ideal conditions, but it was still do-able for us. We took only a few pictures on this passage. One was of this gigantic rainbow, which we encountered early in the day.
Volcanic rock formations of the southern coast of Grenada.
We arrived in Chaguaramas Bay, Trinidad after dark, about 7:45pm. We picked our way into the anchorage and dropped the hook. We were exhausted from this passage. Next morning, we went ashore to clear customs and immigration. Then we made arrangements to bring the boat into Coral Cove Marina, where it will remain during our three-week trip to Phoenix. We leave on July 17, and return August 12.
While we are in port here, we will have some time for maintenance. The boat's 24-volt battery bank needs to be replaced, and our Single Sideband radio needs adjustment or repair. I will also change the oil and filters on the main engines and the large generator, check the condition of fuel filters, etc.
We will be taking more photos and updating the blog again in a few days, once we get rested up again..
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