6 May 2011 Bequia to Cumberland Bay, Saint Vincent
I had a major mosquito attack last night – I woke at half past one with eight bites in my right shoulder and one in my left shoulder. I wouldn’t mind so much if they just bit me once and then buggered off. I had to get up and spray myself with insect repellent.
We cleared out of customs and found out that our mail still hasn’t arrived – we’ll pick it up on the way back in June. We set off for Cumberland Bay on St Vincent at half past ten. It was a lovely close reach in 10-15 knot winds and we made good time. As we were approaching the SW corner of St Vincent, we could see a huge squall coming down from the hills, so we hove-to and we sat there in the sunshine having lunch, watching the rain sweep past about three miles away.
The wind dropped in the lee of the island and we motored along the coast and into Cumberland Bay. The sea bed in Cumberland Bay shelves really quickly and you have to drop your anchor in deep water then tie the stern of the boat onto a tree on shore. There are lots of local “Boat Boys” who are willing to help tie your line ashore – a Boat Boy intercepted us in his RIB dinghy about ½ mile out and escorted us into the bay. The going rate is $10EC (£2.50) which is irritating, but does make life a little bit easier because they do know what they are doing - we were tied up with little effort.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take the Boat Boy’s advice on where to drop the anchor and dropped it a little too late. I only had 20 metres of chain out and we were about 50 metres from the beach - I sat there and worried for 40 minutes before deciding to re-anchor.
I put our small 3.5hp outboard onto the dinghy, went ashore, untied us and dragged myself back to the boat with the rope, flaking the rope into the dinghy. We lifted the anchor, motored forwards about 20 metres and redropped the anchor with 40 metres of chain. It was then a simple job of going ashore with the dinghy, tying the rope back on the tree and tightening the rope back on the boat. It was all done in 15 minutes and amazingly without being hassled by boat boys.
Cumberland Bay has greatly changed in the last 15 years. It used to be a very isolated place with palm trees all along the shore – I loved the place. A large number of the palm trees have now gone and there are now small restaurants along the beach. The government has even built a small welcome centre with showers and a dinghy dock. It’s still a very pretty place, but I preferred the isolated feeling.
We lifted the dinghy onto the front deck and lashed it in place ready for the 55 mile trip to Rodney Bay tomorrow and had an early night. There was no wind at all in the anchorage and we prepared for an onslaught of mosquitos by putting a mosquito net on the aft hatch and keeping the aft cabin door shut.
7 May 2011 Cumberland Bay to Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It was boiling last night and we both had a terrible, restless night. We got up at half past five and I nearly got away with undoing the rope myself. Unfortunately, a guy saw me walking about on deck and paddled over on an old surf board. I tried to say no, but he was so pathetic that I gave in and handed him $5EC to undo the rope. We left Cumberland Bay at six o’clock.
We motored along the island with just the main up and didn’t get any wind until we were about half a mile clear of the north of the island. The pilot book says that it can be quite nasty with strong gusts and big seas, but it was very calm and a nice 15 knot wind. We had a great sail for five hours with the wind slightly forward of the beam in lovely sunshine.
We arrived at the south end of St Lucia at midday and then had to motor as we lost the wind. The approach to St Lucia is dominated by the two impressive Pitons, which are 2500 foot high mountains rising straight out of the sea. These can be seen all the way from St Vincent.
We motored up the coast, going in close to have a look at the various places that we could visit on the way back down. Unfortunately, anchoring is now banned in most places south of Marigot and we will have to pay a daily fee for picking Marine Park moorings. However, I’m looking forward to doing a lot of snorkelling.
Rodney Bay is just as I remember it – a huge bay with a sandy beach and hotels dotted along it. We anchored off the yacht club and went into the marina to clear customs, which was quick and painless. The marina has expanded a lot – there are now huge concrete docks that can take up to 32 mega-yachts over 250 feet long. Most of the lagoon is now taken over by marina pontoons or moorings.
Being Saturday afternoon, the hardware and chandler stores were closed, so we bought a few provisions and retired back to the boat to chill out.
8 May 2011 Rodney Bay
There was a huge, loud rave going on somewhere on shore last night. The reggae continued pounding until seven o’clock this morning, just as I was getting up.
I caught the sun yesterday and I wanted to keep in the shade, so I had a very lazy day doing some administration. I looked through the various manuals that we have on board and found that we have over 70 manuals, in paper and electronic format. I catalogued them so that I’ll be able to find a manual when I need it.
Glenys was feeling more dynamic and spent the day washing some clothes and cleaning various parts of the boat including the hull near the waterline which was going green.
We tried to go snorkelling in the afternoon, but the water is very murky and we gave up.