St. Vincent

 

The weather forecast was not cooperating with our plans, and it looked like conditions would deteriorate over the next 10 days, so we decided to suck it up and leave in ‘less than ideal’ conditions. On May 20, we left Martinique for St. Lucia, however, we only spent one night anchored at the southern tip. On May 21 we traveled to St. Vincent.  This is where we needed to be for the arrival of family on May 30. During our transit we experienced waves 6-8 feet, at times, but overall it was a fairly comfortable trip…now we had time to relax and enjoy the country!

Between the islands, conditions were very sporty, but behind each island it was smooth sailing (actually motoring).

St. Vincent is an active volcano that had a major eruption in 2021.We anchored, and checked into the country, in Chateaubelair. This was a wonderful village with very friendly people!

As we traveled down the coast, it was easy to see the results of the recent eruption. It looked like part of the rim was blown away, and scarring showed the remnants of an ash river.

There were also several outflow fields at the water’s edge.

Residents told us this village was buried in 5-6 ft of ash, after the eruption.

This is a very deep bay, with a narrow strip where anchoring is possible. If you plan to visit this island, in your own boat, I strongly suggest you contact Kemroy. He will paddle out to meet you, and show you exactly where to drop the hook.

Check in was easy, but a little unconventional. 

Ezekiel came out every day to ask if we had trash. He is eager to make a little money, and possibly get a treat😁

Children visited the boat daily, and usually asked for biscuits. It took me a minute to realize they were asking for cookies🤣 I was quickly running out of cookies, so I made a batch of caramels to hand out…they were a hit!

We love places where we can snorkel right from the boat.

There was some healthy coral.

Kids aren’t the only people who visit the boat! This is John…he was our go-to fruit guy. This is the first place we have been where we could easily stay for months and never get off the boat. The locals come out, on anything that floats, to sell fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafood.

Yes, we could use a lobster today😋

If you have never seen a spiney lobster close up, let this be your warning…they don’t play!

Would you like fresh coconut water?

This is Naieem, he became our official liaison for all things Chateaubelair! He explained customs and rituals, and taught us how to eat several fruits we had never seen before. He was a ‘old soul’, and really seemed to enjoy hanging out with us!

This was the place that registered as a perfect match with the visual image I have always had of what cruising the Caribbean might be like.  The scenery was beautiful, and the people were truly happy we were there. Yes, they did want money from us, and I can see how the fairly constant line of visitors might annoy some people. However, if we told them you didn’t need any x,y,z…at the moment, they were still very pleasant and always wished us a wonderful day. 

But we did buy a LOT of fruit, and it was AMAZING!! Can you name each of the fruits pictured?

One evening, we noticed a lot of activity with many small boats, packed with men, leaving the village. Later that night we heard a lot of commotion on the beach, with frequent conch horn blowing. The next day, Naieem explained to us that the village relies heavily on fish for protein, and at least once a week the men in the village go out with big purse seine nets. We also learned that the conch shell blowing was the signal to announce to the villagers that fish was available on the beach.

We absolutely loved Chateaubelair, but found we needed to move once the wind direction changed. The ocean swell wrapped around the island and created a very uncomfortable anchorage.  We moved only 3 miles south, to Cumberland, and again were enchanted with this small hamlet.

This is pretty much the whole town…beautiful, adorable, and very welcoming.

This bay is very deep, with a narrow strip of shallow water close to land. Here we dropped our anchor in 50 ft of water, and a local man took a stern line, rowed ashore, and tied us off to a palm tree.

This man came by one night trying to sell us something. We didn’t buy it, but when asked if we could give him something for a tooth ache I gave him some OTC pain pills.  He came back the next night to share a freshly roasted breadfruit (hot out of the fire) to thank us for helping him the day before. Everyone we met was fantastic.

There were still a few people who visited the boat here, but overall this was a very calm and peaceful anchorage.  We stayed as long as we could, and on May 29 headed south to the Blue Lagoon, to be as close as possible to the airport, for the arrival of Matt, Beth & Anna the next day.

My next post will highlight our time together, and Anna’s three week adventure cruising the Grenadines!