St Vincent is definitely not a touristy place...people ask you if you want a cab but are not trying to sell you anything or beg... St Vincent has lots of hardware stores and food stores...good for provisionning of all kinds. Besides its greatest assets, the "Vincys" themselves, we like the intricate architecture of the catholic church ...and the botanical garden! This is the oldest botanical garden of the western hemisphere...with a fruit bread tree which is the direct "descendant" of the tree brought by Captain Bligh in the 1790's...In addition to some beautiful trees, there was also an aviary with some St Vincent parrots, beautiful birds and of course endangered species...Only 500 or so are left in St Vincent. This bird is their pride and joy!

Together with Pam and Bill, we took the Bequia Express to cross over to St Vincent's capital Kingstown. While we were waiting for the boat to depart, we caught a glimpse of a fisherman who was cleaning and cutting up a barracuda...they are tasty fishes...if not caught in a coral environment which would made them unfit for consumption due to the ciguatera.

Bequians are skilled boatbilders...of all sizes! These woooden skiffs are beautifully crafted and their finish is like a mirror

From the top of Fort Hamilton, one can admire Admiralty Bay or the Caribbean sea and some of the Grenadines close to Bequia!

What cruisers like here is also the fact to live in a "real" place among the Bequians. From our boat, we can see them bathing in the bay, welcoming the fishermen back, playing dominoes or just liming...

There are many hiking paths on the island and this one leading to Fort Hamilton first meanders through the village, along the black sand beach and then up the hill! Some people do not have very much in terms of living comfort and material goods, as can be seen here. However, the social network seems very tight and they live in a little paradise where they still can fish and collect fruits and vegetable in their surroundings...

A Bequia, il y a les trucs touristiques mais il y a aussi la vie de tous les jours...il y a de la pauvrete materielle ici mais il semble y avoir un tissu social tres fort et les gens se nourrissent encore a meme de la mer et des arbres et des jardins qui les entourent...

Scenes of Bequia..its streets, shops, pathways along the shorelines..it's all so tropically pretty!

Alexis is selling at the local market..he's very kind, sweet and as soon as I approach him all the other vendors came out and attempted to pull me to their kiosk so that I buy stuff from them!

Mangoes were just wonderful! and passion fruits..intriguing!

Bequia belongs to StVincent and the Grenadines...The easiest way to find it on this map is to first spot Venezuela, then going northeast following the caribbean arch, you see Trinidad and Tobago, then Grenada and ...StVincent and the Grenadines. We cannot believe how far south we currently are...almost South America!

Bequia is a lovely, lovely island..with great people, beaches, surroundings..one of the most popular destinations for cruisers of all countries.

Here are photos of the Admiralty Bay where we are currently anchored...with views of Port Elizabeth.

Another passag between St Vincent and Bequia...same story, lots of wind, up to 31 that day. As the passage is rather short, it is quite exhilarating ! even if it gets a little bumpy!

As soon as we get closer to Bequia, there is a professional photograph who, steering his fast dinghy with one hand and taking pictures with the other, takes great shots of sailboats! Kenmore Henville is a pro!

As soon as one sails past the Pitons, the currents and winds begin to make the waters turbulent. The St Vincent passage between St Lucia and St Vincent is about 20 miles and winds are usually between 18-25 knots...in gusts, more. We have therefore taken the habit of sailing these between islands passage with a third reef in our so very large mainsail...plus the storm jib and the furler, which we can easily adjust, depending on seas and winds.

We find that the sun gets hotter as spring arrives and it is nice to have a strong breeze! The skies were very hazy that day, as usual, and we caught the first glimpse of St Vincent when we were about 6 miles away...

As we sailed past the island, the wind dropped...and we had to motorsail, which enabled us to admire the coastline. St Vincent, although very beautiful and rugged, is not so popular among cruisers because of recent "pirates" attacks on cruisers.

We mean, real pirates, not those of the movies, although it is here, in Wallilabou that the some shots of Pirates of the Caribbean have been made!

In reality, most of the attacks have taken plce in one anchorage of Chateau Belair, which is close to an area with large marijuana plantations. The island is so rugged and wild that controlling drug trafficking must be a challenge....and corruption is probably also a factor..as St Vincent is not very affluent. Anyhow, we passed the island, admired the landscapes, caught a glimpse of the boat yard where we will probably put the boat during the hurricane season and sailed right through to the northernmost island of the Grenadines, Bequia.

One just wonders about the landscapes with tall palms nested in the mountains...

At about 4am, we got up and left for The Grenadines...a 60+ miles run. It was a wonderful night sailing or rather motoring as there was no wind until about 8am...

As the sun was rising, we past by the St Lucia Pitons, admiting their silhouette in an overcast sky.

Time to leave Rodney Bay...after enjoying some of the Jazz Festival music - unfortunately under torrential rain, at times, - together with our buddy boat, Songbird, - we first anchored at Anse la Raye, just south of Marigot Bay.

Whenever we are in StLucia, we love taking the minibus to Castries...StLucia's capital. Pam and Bill of Songbird joined us for this visit. Castries is a colourful town, with kind people, lots of bakeries, rotis stalls and vendors lining up all along Jeremy street in addition to the large market square. As we were passing on that street, we noticed that a lady was pouring white liquid into large liquor bottles...wine? no...the smell !!!Kerosene! Yes! We were looking for that stuff..this is namely our cooking fuel! We purchased 5 liters. And then, I noticed that she was also selling black tobacco...to chew, or for your pipe, or even to be mixed with your marijuana. Here you go...Heiner bought some for his pipe. The tobacco smelled slightly smoked, was black and in big chunks. What else was she selling??? Oh yes, little mini plums...why not? Every person on that street specializes in everything!!! At noon, we choose the newly opened Chinese Restaurant "Cheerful together" for lunch...after all, this restaurant's name fitted perfectly our being together with Pam and Bill. We had spring rolls (too greasy but tasty), and vegetable chow mein as well as vegetable and cashews fried rice...all very tasty.





We strolled along the busy streets, catching some unusual sites such as 2 x 4 bamboos supporting a structure, admired the huge 400+ year old samaan tree in Derek Walcott Square and talked briefly with the gardener Aruba who told us to be in love with this tree which he climbed numerous times! Aruba was pretty busy when we were there as the square's garden was taken over by technicians setting their equipment up for the jazz festival concerts.




There are many quaint streets in Castries and despite the mass of tourists arriving by cruiseships, the town has not lost its authentic caribbean character!

Spring in the tropics?
Looking at the surrounding hills, it was kind of sad to see so many “dead” trees…until we realize that they were not dead but dormant! There are seasons here too! Although bougainvilleas seem to always bloom, these dead trees are now coming to life! Our beloved shack shack tree has the wonderful red flowers, mimosas are showing cute little hairy yellow and red flowers…and bird life is more active!

Y-a-t-il un printemps ici? Et moi qui était attristee par ces arbres morts…un peu naïve la canadienne et nordique que je suis ! Et oui, depuis quelques jours déjà, ces arbres morts renaissent et nous offrent leurs plus belles fleurs!

We are anchored near Pigeon Island Park and enjoy the concert of birds early in the morning and at dusk. Pigeon Island has a spicy history dating as far back as 1550 when French pirate Jambe de Bois (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francois_le_Clerc) used the island as a base for raiding passing Spanish vessels.

Today Jambe de Bois has a cute thatched roofed restaurant named after him...

Two centuries later, English Admiral reinforced the fortifications and used the premises to keep an eye on the French forces of the neighbouring island, Martinique (21 sea miles away). The view from the Fort is amazing, showing the artificially made causeway between Reduit Beach and the village of Gros-Islet and turning the island into a peninsula. . And, when that conflict was over, the USA used it as a post for their Signals Operation during WWII…

And yes, rust was building and lots of it!

Mermaids work hard! Even when the sun is hot and the wind so strong that it makes the paint lierally fly from the brush!!!

And when the wooden pieces seem to fit, black caulking will make it look "natural" again!

A time for work and a time for play...in every boater’s life! After each long passage at sea, there is a salt crust forms on all parts of the boat and our beloved La Buena Vida looks like a pretzel…and that would be ok with us because the first rain rinses it down! However, persistent rust streaks reminded us that underneath the wooden toe rail, there is rust build up! OK, the weather was sunny, there was wind (a times too much…paint flew away from the brush) and we had the stamina to start the job, which took about 5 days to be completed!
After assessing the problems, we gathered the right tools and went for it!

And now what??????