After a few bareboat charters in the BVI (one Sunsail and two at BVI Yacht Charters) we decided to try something different and after much TTOL research settled on St. Vincent and the Grenadines and selected Barefoot Yacht Charters in St. Vincent.

St. Vincent & the Grenadines – 12/15 – 12/26/06

We left from San Francisco on Friday night December 15th on a red eye to Miami and onward to Barbados both legs on American Airlines (points). Picked up Liat in Barbados to St. Vincent arriving 6PM. Taxi met us in the dark (thank goodness) and took us to the Beachcomber Hotel. Good place to have dinner and crash – which we did. As background I had read the Windward Islands cruising guide to the area as well as the complete “Usual Suspects” web site guide (thank you Robert Charuk wherever you are!), both of which were invaluable. This is just a top line of our experiences, for the real deal, make sure you check out: http://www.usual-suspects-sailing.com/ before you go

Sunday

Arrived at Barefoot at 10:00, checked the boat (36’ Beneteau), staff loaded the luggage (big hill, nice service), got the briefing and all the boat equipment (very helpful and complete from Seth) and started out for Mustique at about 1:30 or so. Light winds and three foot waves. Then a quick squall, higher winds, rain and heavy waves off the northern coast of Bequia. No problem, but now my wife is seasick and miserable. Uh oh, trouble. Squall passed, low winds back, finished the sail to Mustique, wife now suspicious of the enterprise – but we are moored at 5 PM and ready for Firefly. After a drink at Basil’s on to the Firefly for a great meal, with a great staff (almost no one there), the day was saved.

Monday

Breakfast on board, set out at 10 for Mayreau (My-roe as it turns out). Fairly rolly sail, (no reading or relaxing on deck for my wife) couldn’t get out the mainsail (maybe not rolled up tight enough the night before?) and with no autopilot (the promised one had been removed for repairs) I could not spend time on deck to work at it with my wife sleeping below. Oh well, a 4 hour sail reaching with the genoa was fine – arrived at Salt Whistle bay. Made dinner reservations at the SW Bay Resort (including picking our menu over the radio), swam ashore, walked the beautiful unspoiled beach, swam back (things are looking good). Dinner was going well till the main fish dish was served very very cold.

Tuesday

Had a great breakfast at the Salt Whistle Bay Resort (almost redeemed for the cold fish the night before) and hiked up to the village. Interesting, great views. No stores open so no provisioning possible. Headed back down to the boat and on to the Tobago Cays. An hour and a half motor, no issue entering (following all the instructions). Set the anchor kicked back and enjoyed the beauty. Met the boat boys – a truly great group and a great service. Beautiful place. In the night, very high winds and some rain, no issue, heavy ground tackle and lots of chain out – but what a racket.

Wednesday

Dinghied around, hiked a couple of the islands, landed and walked on some of the scenic beaches tried the “easy snorkel” off the island by the entrance – it was rolly and murky (my advice go out to the reef, to the NW as the books say and skip the supposed easy island part). Had a Bar-b-que, did nothing. Perfect day, beautiful. Again strong winds and rain overnight, no issue (except for the getting up and closing the boat a few times part of course).

Thursday

Decided to spend the day at the Cays and then motor to Canuon in the late afternoon. Snorkeled the reef (nice, clear, very interesting) and headed out to Canuon. Decided to pick up a mooring ball; was “assisted” (involuntarily) by the local boat person and family (advised that $20 EC was the minimum for such “help” – paid up – beware). We went ashore for lunch at the beach bar, checked out the hotel and the (closed) Moorings office, slipped through the rear gate into REALITY of the village. Quite a different world outside the resort grounds as we went in search of a grocery store. Found one, found some of what we needed, back to the hotel grounds. Dinner at the resort restaurant, very nice.

Friday

Given the write ups regarding the trip from Canuon to Bequia I decide to get up early and start at 7:30 so my wife could sleep below (given the earlier seasickness) and we would be there by noon. Got up, made breakfast, had her help me cast off, sent her below, set the sails and WOW hit the winds and waves off the northern tip of Canuon and never stopped working. It was wild – and great fun for the non seasick among us. Had set up a reefed main and genoa while in the lee of the island so was prepared but the waves were running ten feet high plus and wind must have been 25+ knots. Glad I had taken a training trip to the farallones out of San Francisco last summer so was ready, it was quite a ride. Picked up a mooring in Bequia so we could be close to the action. Arrived in Bequia in time for a 1:00 lunch at the Gingerbread House.

Planned to spend 3 nights in Bequia, so began the adventure. Dinner the first night at Macs Pizza. Great place, great pizza. The music from the spot at the bottom of the harbor was unbelievably loud, even with earplugs in we could feel the bass from the speakers vibrating in the hull – it went on till 6 AM. Sorry I missed that party – it was rocking!

Saturday

Breakfast ashore, explored the shops, had a nice day in town, dinner at the Gingerbread House. Relaxed and read on board in between. Heavy rain and wind shut down the music but just as hard to sleep with all that racket outside – and of course the opening and shutting up the of boat for each storm.

Sunday

Christmas Eve. Breakfast on board, relaxed and watched the goings on and then an afternoon tour of the Island from the Fat Man (who is not fat, just bought the business, but what the heck). Great tour, great guy, $25US per hour; all the different villages/sections complete to see who can put up the best Christmas lights so it was fun to drive around all of them to see what they developed. Bequia is truly a Christmas Island this time of year. Christmas Eve dinner at L’Auberge des Grenadines, it was great. Walked on the beach and then headed back to the boat for the evening. Another wild night of winds and rain – go up at 2 and saw a catamaran heading out of the harbor sideways dark and with the mooring light on – as I tried to figure out how to wake them, I saw flashlights begin to move and watched them figure out their predicament get the boat started up and get back to safe mooring. Scary thought, but they seemed to have broken loose without hitting anything.

Monday

Christmas Day. Headed back to St Vincent. Tried the same strategy with my wife below for the 2 hour motor. This time the winds and waves got to her and she was seasick again. What was wrong with the BVI anyway she was wondering ;-). Got back to Blue Lagoon, relaxed on the boat in the afternoon. Made a bad tactical error by picking up a Barefoot mooring outside the Lagoon (they were closed for Christmas) – by the time I realized it was going to be very rolly (and my wife already seasick) it was too late to move the boat and so we were stuck there all night. My wife didn’t feel like going out to dinner. Oh well.

Tuesday

Got up early (who could sleep in the roll), went to breakfast at Sunsail (Barefoot restaurant was closed as it turned out). Meanwhile the Barefoot staff brought in the boat and unloaded all our stuff and hauled it up the hill (easiest unloading ever <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />), as we watched from Sunsail, and then took the boat away. Never got a chance for the final clean-up, hope we got everything off. Had a noon Liat flight back to Barbados, but had to stay overnight as the connecting AA flight was the next morning at 8AM.

Tuesday – Wednesday

Long travel home to San Francisco through Barbados (Grand Barbados Hotel was ok for the decompression). Missed the flight connection in Miami (27 minutes to go for baggage recheck after customs vs. the needed 30 – security rules you know) so spent an extra 5 hours in Miami; home at midnight.

Net

A very different experience vs. BVI as many have explained. I enjoyed it very much, the rough seas had a very different effect on my wife – who did not find it as much fun since she had never been sea sick before and the sails between islands were not enjoyable for her as a passenger. Provisioning was challenging, there are really nothing like grocery stores in SVG (that we could find anyway).

The boat boys are a great asset – if you are friendly so are they and at every turn there was a boat boy on hand to help if you needed it (we mostly did not). At one point as I was having trouble getting the dinghy off a beach in heavy waves I looked up to see a boat boy who had pulled in and cut his engine to see if I needed assistance.

Using moorings here is a different experience – we never approached a mooring where someone was not there (authorized or not) to help us hook up – weather we wanted/needed the help or not – I have never experienced anything like this before.

A great trip, hope we get to come back. My wife is looking forward to the BVIs next year <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />.