UNION ISLAND

16^th February 2011

Well we are certainly having our fair share of reefs lately and the anchorage of Clifton was yet another one. We spent one night here and our main reason for stopping was to obtain our outward clearance from customs.

Our friends Bridget and Peter from White Rose had spent some time here a few weeks before and had told us of a nice beach restaurant over on the north side of the island. As we’d arrived at Clifton late morning we decided to stretch the legs and walk over to the restaurant for a spot of lunch.

The walk which took a little over 30 mins was an easy stroll. We  passed fields with goats, sheep, cows and the odd chicken, something we haven’t seen for a while.

Arriving at the beach where Gordon’s restaurant was located was as delightful as Peter and Bridget had described, a beautiful bay with a white sand beach.  Rather than the usual type of table arrangement, this little restaurant had a couple of raised side - less  huts that would seat  maybe  four or six  people around  one  table.So it was essentially, intimate outdoor dining, right on the sand.

We spent a couple of hours here enjoying the scenery and  watching the sea birds plumet like rockets into the water trying to catch their lunch.A`while later we toddled back to the small town to have a quick look around.

        The  views from Gordon's restaurant

Clifton was one of those blink and you’ll miss it type towns. From what we saw it was fairly sleepy with a couple veggie stalls and a few small shops and boutiques. The anchorage yacht club looked quite inviting and had a very nice looking dining and bar area and a fairly user friendly dinghy dock. We didn’t stay long in town and headed back out to GWTW after we’d finished our paperwork with customs.

The following morning we departed with the intention of making a brief stop at Petite St Vincent and then heading down to Grenada.

                                                  ****************

CRUISER INFO

  

Formalities: Customs / Immigration are available at the airport, roughly 3 mins walk from the yacht club dinghy dock or you can also visit their offices in town near the waterfront. 

TOBAGO CAYS

The Jewel of the Caribbean

14^th – 16^th February 2011

Everyone keeps telling us that the weather this year is “unseasonal”. This is the dry season and so far nearly every day it has rained. The day that we left Bequia for the 30 mile sail south to Tobago Cays was no exception. Rain squalls came blasting through fairly regularly and, along with the strong wind, we had our doubts about going out to the cays.

Still, we decided to go take a look anyway and we are glad that we did.

The cays are made up of five small islands surrounded by an extensive mass of coral named Horseshoe Reef.  There are many other reefs close by including Egg Reef and World’s End Reef.  The last time that we had navigated in reefs was coming up the Red Sea back in 2008, so we had to have our wits about us. As we approached the reefs the depths started to drop quickly from 83ft to 30 and continued to drop to around 10 ft. It didn’t take long before the water colour changed from deep blue to beautiful hues of aqua and the sandy bottom below became clearly visible.

After following a compass course to miss a couple of isolated reef patches on the way in as per our pilot book, we motored through the pass between two of the islands where a lot of boats were sheltering from the wind, and continued further on ‘till we found a nice spot just to the south of Baradal Island. This part of the cays is a little more open but a lot closer to the reef where the best snorkeling is to be found.

We anchored in 11 feet of beautiful aqua water over sand and the anchor took first time, it’s always so nice to anchor in sand. The cays are absolutely beautiful, not a building within cooee and they are only accessible by boat, no resorts, no jet skis, just peace and quiet.

Our Kiwi friends Maurice and Heather from Baracca were also in the anchorage along with Aussies Steve and Gail (Gone Troppo), and Ross and Susie from Impulsive (B 1) whom we last saw in an anchorage in Sudan back in 2008. “Impulsive” is an Australian designed Buizen and as she was traveling at that time in company with another Buizen so we nick named them B 1 and B 2. We always find it novel when people turn up in the same anchorage as us after so many years and so many miles.

Impulsive with Ross and Susie

There certainly was plenty of wild life around the cays, and while snorkeling not far from GWTW we saw some really big turtles and stingrays as well as lots of fish. Being a marine park and wanting to protect the coral there are many mooring balls for the yachts to pick up, as well as smaller ones to tie your dinghy to whilst snorkeling or diving on the reef.

A small fee is charged per day to stay in the park but strangely, the ranger only seemed to target the charter boats and neglected us. We figured they make a lot more revenue from the charterers than from cruising boats that normally only have two persons aboard.

As` it was such a lovely place we stayed for an extra day swimming, snorkeling and relaxing. The second day was clear and sunny and the sunset that evening was gorgeous, turning everything including the water a soft shade of dusky pink.

The majority of people rave about Tobago Cays as a must see destination and it will most definitely be a return stop as we travel north from Trinidad in mid March.

                                        

                                  *************************  

CRUISER INFO:      

Park Fees: A fee of $10EC per person per day is payable either to the ranger in the park or the at customs office in Bequia.

Supplies:   Boat boys can supply bread, fish and souvenir tee-shirts. 

BEQUIA

Anyone for Lobster?

10^th – 14^th February 2011

Sailing south from St Lucia across the passage to St Vincent was yet another hard slog. The wind was on the beam and the large swells banging into the hulls made for an uncomfortable and very wet ride. Whenever one of these big swells slammed into the side of the boat the wave would roll up and over our cockpit roof cascading off the back like a huge waterfall, turning our cockpit floor into a giant saltwater swimming pool.Our boat speeds were very good and  for a while we sat on  speeds  between14 to 18 knots so although the conditions were not great  we were certainly  chewed up the miles fast.

 By the time we got into the lee of St Vincent Liam looked like a salt encrusted drowned rat.

Our GPS showing our speed of 18.27 kts !

The island of St Vincent, from what we could see of it through the rain squalls, looked very mountainous and lush.

 We had already decided not to stop here but to push on to Bequia and complete our entrance formalities there. It was a bit of a race against the clock as we didn’t want to get stung with overtime charges that kick in at 4 o’clock.

Arriving just after 3pm we anchored and then had to re - anchor as the first time did not hold. We had already been warned of the poor holding in Port Elizabeth, Adrimilty Bay so we were very pleased with our second attempt when the anchor dug in well.

A quick dinghy ride into town saw all our paper work completed in about 15 mins thus allowing us the freedom to cruise the area known as St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG’s).

As we came into the bay the boat boys had been out offering any new arrivals the usual services and when we returned from town one of them came over to GWTW selling fresh lobsters.  We’d already heard the cruising legend of the availability and low cost of these sumptuous crustaceans so how could we refuse such an offer? After negotiating a good deal with Simeon the boat boy, he dispatched the creature to King Neptune and then explained the best way to cook it. Liam was so impressed with his service that we ended up buying two.

                                                                                                                                         

Later that night the BBQ was fired up and the master chef did a fantastic job of cooking them.

As darkness fell the wind picked up and it continued to howl all night. GWTW pulled back hard on her anchor many times that night and at 0430 a huge tug jolted Annie awake. A quick scramble out to the cockpit revealed the worst, the anchor had let go and we were starting to slide backwards. Luckily the mooring ball a few meters behind us was still not occupied and earlier during dinner we’d joked that if the anchor was to let go we could always pick the ball up as we slid by. The moral there is one should NEVER joke about such things. The other good thing was that during our anchor swim the previous afternoon we’d checked out the ground tackle of the aforementioned ball and deemed that it would be strong enough to hold us.

With the strong gusts pushing us we quickly lowed the dinghy and Liam set out, ropes in hand, to find the ball which was no longer behind us. After a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing with the engines we attached ourselves with a makeshift bridle to the ball which was now about a boat length in front of us. After a nice cup of tea we retired back to bed knowing that we were now safe from the nasty wind that was still howling outside. Quite a few boats around us also dragged and we considered ourselves very lucky to not have had to re - anchor in the dark on such a windy night.

The weather was quite unkind during our stay in Bequia, with strong winds and heavy rain squalls making our time here not at all condusive for island sightseeing. We did however catch up with friends Val and Gerry (West by North ) and Sue and John (Salt Scar 3).

Being boat bound for a few days we must have looked a bit like a captive audience, as our lobster seller returned and we bought a couple more which we froze to have as a special treat another day

The town of Port Elizabeth is rather small, more like a village really. Belmont walkway follows the shoreline around a large part of the bay and this is where most of the bars and restaurants are located. Max’s pizza bar is a popular venue with one of their culinary delights being lobster pizza. We couldn’t resist giving it a try, after all we’d never seen that on a menu before. The size of the pizza was huge with plenty to take home and it was very tasty.  The Gingerbread house and the Whalebone bar, yes the furniture is made from whalebone, are just a couple of other bars along this shady pathway that eventually leads back to town.

 

Gingerbread House & the Whalebone Bar on the edge of the clear waters of Admiralty Bay 

A short dinghy ride over to the western shore of the bay brings you to the trendy “Jack’s Bar” fronting the long stretch of sand on Princess Margaret Beach. We spent a relaxing couple of hours here enjoying the surrounds and listening to some laid back music while catching up with friends, Sue and John.

   "Jack's Bar " on Princess Margaret Beach

As with all of our short stays on the islands, next time we visit we’ll explore it much more thoroughly. 

The fruit market (R)
and an interesting sign on the wall below.

                                                                   ***************

CRUISER INFO :
Formalities. Check-in at the Revenue building across the road from the main ferry wharf. Dinghy dock to the right of ferry wharf.
Cost was $ 70EC total.
Hours: M-F 0830 - 1600 ( O/T 1600 - 1800, $35 EC), Sat 0830 - 1200 (O/T 1500 -1800, $35 EC)
                                                                        Sun 0900 -1200 (O/T 1500-1800, $50EC)
General Info : "Holiday Bequia" available from tourist office near customs.
Supermarkets: A few with Daisy's selling New Zealand lamb.