St Vincent and the Grenadines

We left Tyrell bay for Union Island and had an easy sail for a couple of hours to Frigate Island where we dropped the hook. It is a lovely spot behind a long breakwater so the anchorage is very calm, so much so it's a hot spot for water sports like windsurfing and kite boarding. The disadvantage is the walk to clear in it Clifton is about 40 minutes by road, but it is fairly flat and the views are good when you do climb the last hill. We had a little shop in Clifton for a few veggies and even found some ice cream before walking back.

Liz buying veggies locally in Clifton

We got pretty adventurous sitting at anchor under the towering hills and decided to attempt the peaks around us. We packed lunch and lots of water and set off for the small settlement of Ashton where we found the trail to mount Taboi with little difficulty. The trail was pretty easy for the first 30 minutes but then seemed to diminish and branch off. We took a few dead ends but managed to get to the saddle between the peaks relatively easily. We wanted to get to the higher peak so took off again into the trees, the trail died pretty quickly though and after an hour of various dead ends and no real path to the summit we back tracked to the saddle. We did get to the lower peak easily and were rewarded with great views all around.

Starting the climb

Resting on the trail

view to Clifton

The view of the abandoned marina project 

Moosetracks by Frigate island

The view of the peak we climbed 

We then moved around to Chatham bay on the west of Union Island, we had sailed by many times but never went in so we decided this was the time as it was such an easy gyb sail around. It is a lovely bay with long sandy beaches and a few nice local restaurants on the beach, but no town or dock. Still we swam from the boat to shore and saw turtles and small lobsters on the way to the beach. We spent a couple of nights here and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the place.
The next stop was Mayreau and we stopped at Saline bay on the south west end. It is quite popular here and a small cruise ship stopped while we were in the bay. It surprised us as the island is very small and we didn't think there would be much to see, but surprise another cruise ship showed up a day later. The beach is a lovely curve of sand and has a bar on it for the cruise ship passengers but they ship brings out kayaks and dinghies for entertainment. We walked the length of the island to Saltwhistle bay and enjoyed the beach there before returning to town for a beer and Internet fix.

Visiting cruise ship

Saline bay beach 

Saline bay 

Saltwhistle bay

The next stop was Bequia and the harbor at Port Elizabeth, we anchored almost directly in our spot from our last visit and found lots of friends around as usual. Pipe muh Bligh were just in front of us along with Slowdown. Rene and Stacey were having some canvas work done here as the dinghy chaps are possibly the best price we have seen anywhere so they just couldn't resist getting their dinghy all spruced up! They stopped over for drinks on Moosetracks and we caught up on the last few weeks adventures while watching the sun go down. They were on a tight schedule however so the following day they had to leave.
We were ready for another hike so after arranging with Ed and Cheryl to join us we headed off to Peggie's rock which overlooks the anchorage. It is a fairly long walk of 4 hours but we were rewarded with great views again. The path down was a little tricky to follow but we managed to follow a property boundary which got us down without too much trouble.

Suddenly before you know it Thanksgiving is upon you! We love to have company for the holidays so we were very happy Ed and Cheryl accepted the invitation to stay for another day and have Thanksgiving together. It was a lovely day and a great meal aboard Moosetracks.

View from Peggies rock 

At the top 

A little tired but happy

Thanksgiving with Ed & Cheryl 

We quite like day sailing between islands but since St Lucia is a long 12-14 hours away we opted for our previous strategy of stopping at Chateaubelair on St Vincent before going on to St Lucia. The crossing from Bequia to St Vincent was a little lumpy but the wind kept around 15-20 knots and we had a nice fast passage. We had a bite on the fishing line but it was lost before getting sight of what it was, oh well no fish for dinner. Chateaubelair is just a clearance stop for us as there is really nothing there. The town is pretty run down and the bars on the beach look very bleak, they are open and managed to keep us late with the music though. There is no dinghy dock to get to the beach and Devin got dunked when getting out of the dinghy. Oh well, a walk around town dried him enough to look respectable for Customs and immigration.

Chateaubelair coast line

We were all ready for our day sail to Rodney Bay, St Lucia and with a perfect weather window of 15-20 knots just south of east we set off at first light.