Bequia and Mayreau--April 29-May 7

Arising early on the 27th, we slipped our mooring ball and headed to St. Vincent. I was a little anxious about St. Vincent as we’d heard some tales about it not being safe. As we bypassed a couple of anchorages with less than stellar reviews, we saw none of the activity of boat boys waiting three miles out for incoming boats. However, we sailed on until we spotted a beautiful cove where one catamaran was anchored. There was no town, just a long beach with beautiful palms lining it. After the noise of Soufirere, we thought it looked calmly inviting. And it was! Although the original catamaran had apparently just stopped for lunch, only two other boats came in for the night.
Next morning, on to Bequia--a favorite. It did not disappoint. We had been to Bequia on a chartering trip a few years ago and liked it then. There are nice restaurants, good shopping, a market with some pushy Rasta men, and most of all a great dinghy dock. Dinghy docks are of some consequence in that if they are difficult, we tend not to go into town much. If easy, we come and go often. The market turned out to be okay after all as the Rasta men, though pushy, abided by our wishes to look before we bought.
Some of our friends were there as well, and we had a dinner ashore one evening with some and invited some others to our boat for cocktails another evening. Most enjoyable.

From there we went to Canouan, another small island with little to offer.

St. Lucia, April 20-27

Still no mail! Frustrating! Fellow boaters have moved on but we are still waiting --and wondering. Since we learned that the fellow who brings the mail is taking a couple of days off and the weekend will be here, we decided to go to Marigot Bay just a couple of sailing hours south. Indeed it was a beautiful location. Anchoring was no treat as we had to squeeze into a small area where there were mostly mooring balls. Jean-Jacques, the fellow in charge of the mooring ball near where we parked, was not happy that we hadn’t picked up his mooring for $25 per night--Oh, well…. We enjoyed the location for a couple of days although there wasn’t much to do. Went back to Rodney Bay on Monday hoping to find our mail. No mail, but we did make a breakthrough. The marina manager was in the office and introduced us to the mail fellow, Eddie, who assured us he would look extra hard for it in the Castries post office. On Thursday, we learned it had gotten to the post office and Eddie would pick it up. To make a long story somewhat shorter, Mike and I hopped a bus for the umpteenth time and managed to meet with success. The mail took three weeks! I think in the future we’ll pay for faster service, USPS Express International instead of USPS Priority.
On Sunday, we sailed south to the Pitons, a pair of mountains that are famous for their beauty. Because we needed to clear out of St. Lucia in nearby Soufriere, we picked up a mooring ball there. The bay is very deep so it’s hard to anchor. Sundays seem to be a big party day for islanders. There was a lot of loud West Indies music resounding from the dock. People were dancing and partying all over the beach in town. After clearing out, we looked around the town a bit but almost everything was closed. Back to the boat. We were entertained for the rest of the evening by the activity on the nearby shore: pigs foraging along the shoreline; goats chomping on the grass; and lots of fishermen and boat boys coming and going.
We left in the morning at sunrise for St. Vincent. As the residents of Soufriere--primarily the fishermen--arise at first light with TVS and radios turned on at high volume, awaking at dawn was no problem.

Above is a picture of one of the Pitons. The other is a view of the beautiful Marigot Bay.