Great trip and I’ll try to be brief and save you all the details. We took 10 days for a 7 day charter with Barefoot at Blue Lagoon on St Vincent. Our 1st time to SVG but not our 1st charter. Been going to the BVI since 1985 mostly on power boats until the last few years when we switched to sail. SVG turned out to be a fairly large step up for us in the degree of difficulty. The sailing was more challenging as was the navigating. Glad we went but we were not experienced with 10’s seas and 35 kt winds – although by mid-week we were getting into it (or used to it – not sure which)! BTW we had a 41’ Hunter sloop with roller furling main. Read bad things about the roller furling main jamming up but we had no problem with it. I never figured out how to reef it as every time I tried, the whole sail slipped out anyway. We just compensated by reefing the jib or letting out the main sheet.

We arrived on a Thursday for a Saturday departure. Worked out very well as we had a whole day to look around and see a bit of SV. Did our original provisioning at the store by the airport but found they were out of some pretty basic stuff so we went into Kingstown later in the day and found the store there to be much nicer and better stocked.

Sleep aboard was not at the dock which came as a surprise. The BF crew was very helpful in ferrying groceries and gear out to the boat but I would rather have been at the dock as we had to make numerous trips back and forth.

We opted for the express check out with a captain to go as far as Mustique – thank God we did. Imightr have lowered the sails and headed home had we not done that. The seas were the roughest I have ever been in and the wind the strongest. Captain Aaron had us under full sail and close hauled. We heeled a good 35 degrees the whole way. My wife and I hanging on for dear life while Capt Aaron quietly ate a club sandwich and told stories. I tried to look cool but I’m pretty sure I didn’t fool anyone. Needless to say we learned more in those 3 hours than we have in previous 30 years of boating.

Mustique the 1st night and dinner aboard. Beautiful beaches and nice roads to hike on. Didn’t see Mick or Shania but everyone else seemed very friendly.

Next day by ourselves we headed to the Tobago Cays. The seas were down in the 5’ range and the wind backed off to the mid 20’s. The Tobago Cays are post card perfect. I have enough screen savers for the next 5 years. Boat boys were great – not really boys though. One of them grilled and delivered a 6 lb lobster to our boat and we had the best meal of the trip.

Next day we sailed to Petite St Vincent. The wind was howling between PSV and Petite Martinique so I let out 150’ of chain. It held very well but during the night the wind shifted just enough to put another boat right over our rode. We chatted on the radio so he would know we were under him and got everything undone without incident. Maybe not so much rode next time! PSV is another great place to walk the beach.

Next morning we stopped at Petite Martinique to take on water and look around. Not much to see. Off to Canouan. Several sources said to skip this island. For us it was a delightful stop. Having partied too hard for too long we now look for quieter places and not so much night life. We think our friend Bill W would like this island. Again, a great place to hike and get some nice pictures. The Moorings has a base here and there is a nice resort on the water called Tradewinds. Don’t moor on the Moorings moorings. They’re not so friendly about it. We tried and got shooed off. A boat boy set us up on one of his. I dove it and it looked to be fine – and turned out it was.

Next day was a long sail to Bequia – by far our favorite island. Fortunately we had planned to stay 2 nights and glad we did. Bequia has it all. Good food, friendly people, shopping and good holding. A word about the holding. We anchored off Tony Gibbons beach which is listed as good holding. We thought we had a good set but when I dived the anchor I found one side of the plow had only hooked on some coral. A good wind gust would have easily dislodged us. There was a patch of sand 50 yds ahead so we reset there. I have never regretted diving the anchor (or mooring) for that reason.

We had a great trip and met many very nice people. Any problems we had were minor and easily dealt with. LIAT was true to form. Winds on the day we left were 25-30 knts straight down the runway. Don wind take off only so the capt decided (rightfully so) to leave everyone’s bags behind. “They will be delivered to your home by Monday morning”. My advice, find out who they are going to give them to in San Juan, get the tracking number and stay on top of it. After enough detective work for an complete CSI episode we finally located our bags which were being held for pickup by Delta at JFK – a mere 300 mile from home! Delta finally got them to the Syracuse airport – no thanks to LIAT. I just wouldn't feel right if we hadn't had trouble with LIAT. Like I said, it was a great trip and better to lose a bag full of dirty clothes coming home than all the stuff you need for the trip!!!

Jeff

Tug William B
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