Wallilabou, St. Vincent

Well this 15 mile trip like others before had certain similarities. The wind was on the nose (getting used to it but not liking it), We did way more miles than the rhumb (see previous similarity), and our daughters social life and being responsible parents dictated we leave soon as possible. Much of Bequia’s young men lie in mourn.

Even sailing hard on the wind is great aside from the fact you are pointing everywhere but where you want to go just to get there. We hit a squall midway in Bequia channel and just like the cruising guide cautions; wind and wave have taken many from this channel. Winds were strong to 40 knots and mixed with rain is impossible to see. An hour later the wind dropped to about 5 knots and we motored for an hour. Then the wind returned at 25 knots on the nose and we’re back sailing again. And so it goes.

On our approach to Wallilabou, a "boat boy" was frantically waving to us and rowing his small craft to intercept despite some evasive maneuvers by me. Doing about 5 knots under sail we passed close buy and he said he was Shaun and worked for the restaurant. Did we want a mooring and shore line? We yelled back that we wanted to look around first and didn’t know what we were going to do. I fired up both engines and sped to about 7 knots to distance myself. The guide says they try to get you to tow them back to port to take a line ashore for you and if anything happens along the way you pay for it. Not wanting to be approached, I fled the scene. Over my shoulder, Shaun was frantically rowing his little boat in pursuit with little chance of catching me. Or so I thought. He stayed close enough astern we could make out his facial features. It was determination! As I approached the anchorage, my thoughts turned to where we could moor. This bay is extremely deep and we lacked enough anchor chain to anchor. The standard practice here is to pick up a mooring buoy and then take a line ashore to arrest swinging into the guy that is moored too close to you already. We didn’t have a long enough stern line to reach shore either but there was a buoy open near the wharf that was close enough. Before I was able to complete my turn to get the buoy, who should pop up over the bows to grab our line but a winded and sweaty Shaun. Incredible. This lad could row. He earned his sheckels this day. After the tie up ballet, we were approached by every vender on the water. They were on surf boards, in boats and kayaks. My favorite was "Crazy Man". The two Ronnie’s offered mechanical and restaurant services as well as guiding and line tending. Lots of fun.
The sets from Pirates of the Caribbean were fresh in our minds after just watching the movie. We were stern tied to the wharf that Johnny Depp stepped onto at the beginning of the movie as his boat sank from under.

Very early Saturday morning (about 0400) we will depart here for the 35 mile trip to View Fort, St. Lucia to pick up our friends the Fowler family. Another hard sail that could take a day to get there.