Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale…a tale of a wonderful trip. That started from a tropic port on a great big sailing ship. Well, you know the rest! Wow! What a trip. We left Seattle the night of May 9th, flew to Miami and then to Barbados. Our LIAT flight to St. Vincent went without a hitch. I was a little concerned because of some of the threads I had read but everything went fine. Phyllis met us at the airport and transported us to the Beachcombers Motel. What a great little facility. The staff was gracious and made us feel right at home. We got up Sunday morning (Mothers Day) and went through the chart briefing. As I had spent most of the winter memorizing the Cruising Guide to the Windward Islands, this went pretty fast. Next was the boat check-out which went even faster. I think that beings it was Mothers Day, no one really wanted to hang out. So about noon we were off to Mustique. I must tell you, Bequia Channel was a little wild! But around 3:00PM we were in Britannia Bay on a ball and relaxing with a great rum punch. We spent 2 nights here so we could take a tour of the island. So many times we arrive at an anchorage in the late afternoon and leave the next morning and we miss a lot of what there is. So we took a “taxi” around the island. It was well worth it. We saw Mick Jaggars place and Tommy Hilfigers. I wonder if they even remember they have a home there! Oh, we had dinner the first night at Basils Bar. The food and ambience was great. Monday night we had a BBQ on board and did a lot of star gazing on the tramps. Tuesday morning we took off for Mayreau and Salt Whistle Bay. It was a glorious day, bright sunshine and very steady winds. In fact our whole trip the winds were very consistent. Only 1 day did we experience some blasts at 27kts. Salt Whistle Bay is a beautiful little harbor. We hadn’t been anchored but 10 minutes and a very smiling and happy couple came up in the most brightly painted boat you can imagine. His name was Sekky(sp?) and they were from Chatham Bay at Union Island. They invited us for a dinner on the beach if we were going to be there. We were; so we did. But that’s later on in the story. To get your land legs back, take a walk to town! The road starts out steep and then gets steeper! The view from the top is spectacular. Make sure you go behind the church on your left and look at your next stop, the Tobago Cays. The color of the water from up there is incredible. So it was time for a Carib and cool down before we went back to the boat. That night was another BBQ, rum punches and Jimmy Buffett. We hauled up the anchor Wednesday morning and motored around to the Tobago Cays. The range finders are pretty difficult to pick up until you are quite close but there is sufficient depth so no worries. If you are going to have an anchoring faux pas, it will be when you around 25 or 30 boats. And that’s exactly what we did. We were sidled up near a Moorings cat that had 2 young couples being pampered by a crew when the chain decided to leave the windlass and make its way to the bottom. The noise that it makes as it’s leaving the locker is something that can’t be drowned out by any music! So we had a number of cheers and thumbs up from adjacent boats but we didn’t care. When everything came to a stop, we just put it back on the windlass and started again. But it’s always in the back of your mind when you start to anchor again. We spent 2 nights here and then left for Petit Martinique for some provisioning. After picking up some ice and water we motored over to Petit St. Vincent for the night. There were very few boats here. We took the dingy to shore and a few drinks at the hotel bar. It is well worth the visit. The bar and restaurant are very nice. Here is where the weather started getting rough. The next few days brought a system through with poor disability and rain squalls. We went to Mopion for a little snorkeling but the water had very little visibility. So we took the obligatory pictures under the umbrella and left for Clifton Harbor on Union Island. We had a great time here. First thing we did after anchoring was to take the dingy over to “Happy Island” for a rum punch or 2. There is a great story behind this little island. That night we had dinner at Lammy’s . I think that was the name. You can tie up the dingy right outside the restaurant. We had a great dinner and enjoyed a local steel band. They were fantastic! The next morning we sailed around the leeward side to Chatham Bay. I don’t know why, but this was one of my favorite stops. Maybe because there was no one there or the long sandy beach or the fantastic snorkeling with turtles. We spent 2 nights here and enjoyed every minute of it. Sekky came out to meet us after we anchored and took our “order” for dinner. There was just the 5 of us at a picnic table on the beach. The food was plentiful and delicious! After a swim the next morning, Dee and I hiked up the trail behind Sekky’s place. You eventually meet a paved road that runs around the island. The view of the bay from there is beautiful. We took a few pictures to prove that we were in fact the only boat anchored. Tuesday morning we left for a long uphill sail to Bequia. It was interesting to note the strength of the westerly current. We made Bequia in just 3 long tacks. We sailed on a starboard tack until we were well past the northern point of Canouan and then tacked until we were close to the northern end of Canouan and then had one final starboard tack to Bequia. We dropped the sails and motored slowly along the shore to get a close look at Moonhole. They are truly an astounding piece of architecture. We anchored in Admiralty Bay in about 10 ft. of water. We spent 2 nights here so we could take a day to tour the island. I highly recommend taking a taxi tour. The turtle farm was great as well as the ride getting there. There is a viewpoint where you can see down the chain of islands. What is kind of amazing is that from the viewpoint you can see the “American’s” home on the top of Mayreau. That was what the taxi driver told when we were there. Nobody knows the names, just their nationality. It is a white home that is absolutely huge. We had dinner onshore at Mac’s Pizzeria. Great food! Thursday morning we got up early and left around 8:30AM for our final sail across the Bequia Channel to Blue Lagoon. We actually made great time. If I remember right, we arrived at around 10:30AM. We hailed Barefoot on the VHF and they motored out to bring us home. The trip was everything we had hoped for. Phyllis arrived to take us to the airport for our flight to Barbados. Again, everything with LIAT went perfect. We spent 2 nights in Barbados at the Butterfly Beach hotel. Highly recommend it. Great beachside restaurant and bar. Dee and I went in to Bridgetown or “town” as the locals call it and shopped, ate and relaxed. Our trip home was long! We flew from Barbados to Miami to New York to Seattle then a 4 ½ hr. drive home! I’m sure glad it was Memorial Day week-end as we need the 2 days to re-cover. I know we’re going again next year. Anybody even thinking about going to SVG to sail………just DO IT! And finally, thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions during our planning process.