Air Canada is now flying directly to St. Vincent, so if you're near BC that may be an option for you.
I've done maybe 9 Grenadines charters Dec & Jan, you will definitely encounter the Christmas winds, it's not unusual to hit 30+, but rarely 40 we did however have a gust that hit 50 once.
[img]http://i894.photobucket.com/albums/ac144/sunsetsammy/sailing%20videos/th_toweather-1.mp4[/img]In this video we are sailing from Chatum Bay to Cumberland Bay on St. Vincent and have just cleared the lee of Union Island.
[img]http://i894.photobucket.com/al...ling%20videos/th_30knotsofwind.mp4[/img]This video is beating to weather south of Bequia on our way for a lunch stop at Petit Nevis, notice how the motion improves once the skipper eases the traveler.
[img]http://i894.photobucket.com/al...20videos/th_approachingthecays.mp4[/img]And here we are entering the Tobago Cays.
As for crowds, we've never had a problem anchoring, Bequia is popular with the Scandinavian yachts for Christmas but we've always been able to get a nice mooring.
In the Cays, Mr. Fabulous (Jean Claude) does a fabulous grilled lobster dinner on the beach.
You'll be missing some of the best landside nature by skipping St. Vincent; it also has the best farmers market and fish market of the 3 islands (SVG, SLU & GND). We prefer Cumberland Bay to Wallilabou (sp), more restaurant and rum shacks, no cruise ship buses and it's much more laid back.
I didn't do a blog on last years trip, but Sharon, one of the guests from Australia did, here's a link to it.
https://sharontickle.wordpress.com/?s=skyelark&submit=SearchShe has a lot of great pictures.
We'll be sailing through there next March on the final leg of the World ARC.
The Grenadines are a great place to visit, a world apart from the BVI's. You'll have a fantastic time.
