This is part of the ninth section of our around the world trip.
Complete Trip Overview & Map

Coming from  Grenada
 

15/2/03 After the walk around Petite Martinique in the morning we motored less than a kilometre to the waters of St Vincent, a separate country, a stone's throw away. The island of Petite St Vincent is privately owned, where stone huts cost $US 400.00 a night, but the unwashed can snorkel in its waters and walk its beaches, at least to the high tide line. We anchored with other yachts in the bay and went ashore to sun bake and snorkel. We really feel we have arrived in the brochure Caribbean.

16/2/03 It was Kay's birthday and I guess you could say I took her to this secluded private island in the Caribbean and had dinner on a luxury private yacht just to ourselves. But in reality we took a stroll around the small island, watched the rough seas crash onto its reefs on the windward side and relaxed on the boat having leftovers for dinner. It was the same day, the difference being who you want to impress with what version.

17/2/03 Five miles to Union Island and after a morning snorkel, where we saw a small turtle, we motor sailed to the harbour. The 25 knot winds have not changed since we started in Trinidad. The locals tell us this often happens around a full moon, three or four days either side. Being one day past the full moon hopefully the wind will drop in a couple of days as probably the most difficult leg, to Barbados, straight into the wind, is our next planned stop. Cleared customs and immigration for St Vincent, abrupt but without problems and were given official permission to ride the motorcycle on this 5x2 km island. With the wharf busy and the wind gusting to 30 knots we will wait till tomorrow to unload. This small island is a hub for charter yachts in the area. Internet, food supplies, a few pubs is all the locals seem to supply along with boat trips to surrounding reefs for fly in visitors or small cruise ships. Touristy near the wharf, more natural two streets away.

18/2/03 The winds still up with gusts to 40 knots. Not the idyllic Caribbean glossy brochure picture. With little chance of the wind dying the motorcycle remained aboard and we walked the dry not too interesting island. A bit depressed with our predicament it is not nearly as bad as others who have flown here to charter a boat for two weeks only to find the weather almost unsailable.

19/2/03 The wind had dropped slightly and with a vacant spot on the wharf at about 12 o'clock we manoeuvred to drop anchor, and using the inflatable dingy pushed the  "Monsoon"  towards the wharf. Not wanting to perform the exercise a second time we had just over an hour to ride around the small island while the captain waited at the public wharf. The roads were more extensive than we thought and we ended up riding 25 km's to secluded bays and rocky headlands, every road in and out. Loading and unloading now down to  a fine art with docking in the strong winds the only problem.

20/2/03 We were signed onto the "Monsoon" as paying crew which means we help with the sails, anchor and washing down of the decks after a salty sail. It also means hoisting the dingy, scraping barnacles and weed off the hull. This we did, the captain and myself, snorkelling down and removing the worst areas, in preparation to go to Barbados. Leaving at 12 noon we had hoped to sail north a bit through some more islands before motoring east. However the wind had swung around more northerly which meant motoring all the way, 20 hours into 3-4 metre seas into the wind. We reduced our speed to arrive at 8 am and to make the ride a little smoother.
 
 

Move with us to Barbados
 
 

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