We never got off the boat in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia and pulled the anchor the next morning at 0540 and headed for Bequia which was 41.5 nm away. We had 4′–5′ seas with ocean swells coming from the east and were cooking at 6 knots. About 0830 a fast storm was approaching us from the east and the seas and winds were picking up. The seas built to about 5′–6′ but none coming over the sides which is a good thing. We decided to put our life jackets on and fastened ourselves to the boat in case the storm hit us. John also put the hatch boards in the companionway just as a precaution, which was the first time since leaving Florida a year ago. John’s favorite remark “everday is a new adventure”. We were fortunate the storm finally went behind us and we didn’t get the full brunt of the storm. As we got to the lee of St. Vincent the swells decreased to 2′–3′ with no wind and now we were only doing 4 knots. We finally arrived safe & sound, totally dry, at 1540 in Admiralty Bay, Bequia and anchored in about 14′ of water and thought that was it for the night. We had happy hour at 1700 out in the cockpit to celebrate another safe passage. After dinner went to bed and were out like a light when around 2400 we both awoke to the pounding on the hull hearing “Sweet Caroline, Sweet Caroline” in anxious voices. We thought now what is the matter. We stuck our heads out to see what the commotion was about. The people from the boat behind us were in their dinghy and yelling at us that we were dragging down on their boat and getting closer and closer by the minute. It was pitch black out with no moon to light up the area. John told me he was going to pull the anchor, move the boat, which is even hard sometimes in daylight. We don’t have one of those systems that all you do is push a button and up comes the anchor. Ours you have to hand crank the wench (manual windless) to get the anchor up. We probably had about 100′ of chain out and this takes awhile to get it in. I (Carol) was supposed to steer the boat to a new location in the pitch black and not hit any boats in the process. To make matters worse I didn’t have time to put my contact lens in so it was blind leading the blind. We thankfully made it by two sailboats and John started to drop the anchor and it caught inside the chain pipe and wouldn’t go down. “Not to worry he said” and proceded to lower the other anchor we had up on the rollers on the bow sprint. After he got that anchor set he worked on the other anchor with a long screw driver and hammer and finally after an hour got it worked loose so it would go down. We moved the boat up a little and put that anchor out also and I think we finally got them set good so we wouldn’t drag. It was now 0130 and neither one of us was ready to hit the sack. We stayed up a couple more hours just to see what the boat would do and then finally went to bed. When we awoke the next morning I started reading the Doyles Cruising Guide about Bequia and noticed that there were two sunken boats in the anchorage. When John set the anchor for the second time he noted our GPS coordinates and I had written them down. We were at 13?00.67 N, 61?14.47 W and the two wrecks were according to the guide book 13?00.6 N, 61?14.0 W. Pretty close I thought! We looked down but didn’t see anything and because we were holding good and had not hit anything yet we decided to do nothing. We went into customs around 1500 and had to pay overtime because it was Sunday. Total customs/immigration was $53.20 US. After clearing customs we walked around town for awhile but being Sunday not much was open. Bequia is an island of sailors and boats and linked to the outside world by sea. Boats are built here on the beach with everything from little two bow fishing boats to grand schooners, built by eye and using only simple hand tools.
We departed the next day at 0945 and headed for Carriacou. The sail was pretty uneventful with seas 4′-5′ with the Jib and Main Sail up. We arrived in Hillsborough, Carriacou at 1645 and saw only one other boat in the harbor. I got a little nervous but around 1730 more sailboats started arriving so I started feeling better about the anchorage. The next morning we took the dinghy and cleared customs/immigration as soon as they opened. To enter Granada which we would do later in the day, you either had to clear here in Hillsborough, Carriacou or St. Gerorges in Granada and this was due to the H1N1 virus. The customs/immigration fee was only $50EC or $20US and I thought this was pretty reasonable. We pulled the anchor as soon as we returned to the boat and were on our way at 0915 with 34.5 nm to Granada. We were moving right along with the Jib and Main Sail up and had the starboard rail almost in the water most of the way. We decided to pull into St. Georges lagoon in Granada instead of going to the south side of the island at this point in time. The approach to the lagoon was well marked with buoy markers so it was an easy entrance. We arrived in the lagoon at 1700 and a dinghy came by and asked us if we wanted to take a mooring. We asked the cost and figured for our size boat it would be $40EC or $16US. We said OK and he helped us pick up a mooring. This was a good decision because we wouldn’t have to worry about dragging, at least not that night. Tomorrow we would check with the local boaters around us and see if we could anchor and where the best place for us to do this.
Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.
We got a weather window, put the 18hp engine on deck, towing the dinghy behind and left Le Marin, Martinique at 0530, 6/17/09 and headed for St. Lucia. We had a beautiful sail with 5′ to 6′ seas, with the jib and main sail up and doing over 6 knots most of the way and a few times hitting 7.2 knots (hull speed). When we came into the anchorage at Rodney Bay (NW side of Saint Lucia), a hard dinghy motored by a native bearing all kinds of flags came over to us selling his wares of fruits and vegetables. It was a pretty sight to see with all the different colored flags and you couldn’t see him for all his flags.
St. Lucia is an island of tropical rain forests, waterfalls and is l27 miles long, 14 miles wide with a total area of 238 square miles. Local currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar (EC$) with a fixed exchange rate of EC$2.70 = US $1. Driving is done on the left side of the road and can be tricky at times for those not accustomed to this. English is spoken here with a French-based Creole Patois being commonly spoken by the natives. Bananas are the pricipal crop here with banana plantations dominating every flat section of land, and some not so flat. The predominantly African heritage can be seen in the strong family ties that St. Lucians hold and the survival of many traditional customs and superstitions. Obeah (Vodou) is still held in equal measures of respect and fear in places like Anse La Raye (which we didn’t go). There’s the Rastafarian influence within the culture and an increasing alliance with urban American ghetto-thug style culture.
The earliest settlers were the Amerindians with archeological evidence of Arawak settlements existing as early as 200 AD. Nearly 800 years later, the warlike Caribs arrived and effectively annihilated the Arawaks. Numerous artifacts and petroglyphs (rock carvings) serve to document this long period in the island’s history. The first known European settler was the pirate Francois Le Clerc, also known as Jambe de Bois (“Wooden Leg”). Ownership arose between the French and English some 14 times until 1814 when St. Lucia finally remained under British control. Emancipation of the island slaves finally came to the island August 1, 1838 and St. Lucia became an independent nation on February 22, 1979, but remains a member of the British Commonwealth.
Our anchorage Rodney Bay has a bit of a split personality. On one side there is the Rodney Bay Marina and then just down the way lies Reduit Beach. This is where we anchored so we could get free WiFi. It looked like from the boat that this would be a great place to bring the children. The marina is the stomping ground of sailors, the well heeled and the wannabes. The expansive floating parking lot sits adjacent to a series of shops, restaurants, banks and just about anything else a mariner might need. The sandy shores of Reduit Beach is a big draw, though the sunburn per square footage of beach and can get a bit much at times. The calm, turquoise waters are ideal for swimming and it’s the sort of beach to which you go to be seen. The voluptuous volleyball players, taxi drivers hustling for fares and children breaking the sound barrier set a distinctive tone. Among the sea of people are several hotels, enough restaurants to choose from and a few shops to liberate you from your savings.
After the rains stopped, John went over aned cleared customs/immigration and the fee was pretty reasonable $12 US. We like these kind of islands that don’t make a big hole in our pocketbook. Only the captain can go into customs here and all other crew must stay on the boat. It seems every island has different requirements. After clearing customs we went exploring and in the marina area we spotted “The Brig Unicorn”, which was used in the filming “Roots” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” 1 & 2. It didn’t take John long to scope out a Kentucky Fried Chicken. So far we have noticed they are on every island that we have visited. We went to a hugh Super J supermarket with almost anything you needed except John’s oyster crackers which we haven’t found since leaving Florida. He says he won’t eat his tomatoe soup or oyster stew without them.
The next day we hopped one of the cheap buses and went to Castries, the capital of St. Lucia. It is a fine example of a modern Caribbean city with an interesting Creole atmosphere, with gingerbread balconies, with old and new buildings. Unfortunately, little of the historical architecture survived the numerous fires suffered through it’s history but there are still many interesting sites to see with one being the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The church richly incorporates both Caribbean and African influences, including images of a Black Madonna and child, and the liberal use of bright red, green and yellow tones. As we walked in the church the mass was in progress and us being in shorts, something neither one of us has ever done and Carol with a camera and backpack slung over her shoulder. You could definitely tell we weren’t locals. About 85% of St. Lucians are Roman Catholics. On the way through town we visited the Derek Walcott Square, named in honour of St. Lucia’s Nobel Laureate for literature. The square also had some magnificent, ancient tress among it’s sights with a lofty saman (monkey pod) tree that’s estimated to be 400 years old.. We also visited the Central Market which was a couple of blocks long and contained all sorts of island fruits, vegetables, flowers and local craft.
We are now on a very fast track to Granada so when we have a weather window we leave. We will tour these islands in depth when we head north after hurricane season.
We left for Vieux Fort (southern tip of St Lucia), where the Caribbean meets the Atlantic, at 0635 Saturday 6-19-09. Along the way we went past the twin peaks of the Pitons which rise 2500ft from the sea and dominate the horizon. These extinct volcano cones are covered with lots of vegetation and have come to define St. Lucia with many posing for a thousand pictures and even adorns the national beer. We arrived at Vieux Fort at 1245, set the anchor and after we anchored a boater friend we knew was out snorkeling and went over and checked our anchor to make sure it was dug in good. He told us it was burried and we were thankful because we had read that the holding could be poor if the anchor was not dug in. We were there just overnight and never got off the boat.
Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.