See the new album, St Vincent & the Grenadines, in the Photo Gallery.

The sail today, June 21st, was about 20 miles from Friendship Bay on Bequia to the Tobago Cays, a small group of islands in the Grenadines. Nice points of sail, beam and broad reach. We sailed most of the way. No motor! We're getting the hang of this sailing stuff! Not bad after having "sailed" 3,800 miles. ;^)

But back to where I left off in my last update, St Lucia. No, we didn't go to the zip-line park. It would have cost us over $200 for an hour and a half activity along with a 30-minute drive over and another 30 minutes back. So we opted for the island tour which would take most of the day and not hit the pocket book so hard. The tour was not as thrilling as zip-lining, but it was enjoyable. St Lucia, like Dominica is an island formed by volcanoes. We saw the "drive-in" volcano. Sounds grand, but it wasn't a volcano, just some fumaroles and visible geothermal activity in the form of steam being released. And the smell of rotten eggs in the air. Reminded me of Yellowstone's mud pots.

In addition to the "volcano," we saw another beautiful garden. This one was located on an old sugar plantation and was planted by the daughter of the most recent owners in memory of her parents. Like the garden on Dominica, it was full of eye-catching tropical flowers. In addition to amazing flowers, this garden had a variety of edible plants and fruit-bearing trees, including nutmeg, cacao and cashew trees. I had never seen a cacao pod or the raw beans inside. The pods which don't hang from the end of branches, but grow along the trunk and thicker branches of the tree are yellow and the beans a light creamy color. Inside the pod the cacao beans are coated with a thick, milky white substance. Hard to believe that chocolate cake, Snickers bars and Toll House cookies wouldn't exist if it weren't for those slime-coated seeds. Nutmeg was interesting as well. I didn't know that the seed was found in a meaty, round fruit. And the red covering of the nutmeg seed is the source of the spice mace. Cashews were another eye-opener. Now I know why they are so expensive. Each nut grows in a small pod, one per fruit, on the cashew tree. A whole lot of cashew fruits have to be picked to collect enough nuts to fill one can of Planter's roasted cashews.

Lunch was a food adventure. We had breadfruit balls with banana ketchup at a roadside vendor. Breadfruit is a tropical fruit with dense, starchy meat. Although a fruit, the meat was not sweet. To make the balls, the breadfruit was cooked until soft and then mashed. I believe sautéed onions as well as spices were added to the mashed mix. Then the mash was formed into small balls, coated with dried breadcrumbs and deep-fried. We ate the breadfruit balls hot, dipping them in banana ketchup like one would dip fries in ketchup. Fun meal.

Our tour took us through several small fishing villages along the west coast of St Lucia. Even though St Lucia appeared to have more wealth and a better infrastructure than many Caribbean islands, the fishing villages were simple. Homes sometimes were no more than shacks. Not everyone had running water. As we crossed over a river, I saw a woman doing her laundry in the river.

Our stay at the Rodney Bay Marina was longer than anticipated, as we were waiting on the delivery of generator parts. The capacitors finally arrived. Ken installed them and we left. Waiting for packages to be delivered is part of the cruising life and something we have to accept, as is the cost for delivery and clearance. For each package we pay international delivery rates as well as broker fees to secure clearance through customs. Ken detailed this in his blog update, so I'll not write more about it.

However, I do have an anecdote to share about our Bequia package delivery. When I went to the RMS Internet Cafe to pick up our package (we had it delivered to RMS as they offered brokerage services and mail delivery), I met a young couple who were trying to get boat parts cleared through customs and delivered to Bequia. They had opted to have the parts delivered via ship, and not FedEx. The ship delivered the parts to St Vincent; they still needed to be brought by ferry to Bequia. I'm sure boat delivery is less expensive than FedEx, in fact I'm sure any other delivery service is less expensive. But in the end, it cost this young couple more in time and money to use the less expensive shipper. But, I'm jumping ahead of myself. When they saw me succeed in getting my package, they asked me, "How were you able to get your package delivered and cleared through customs on Bequia?" It must have looked like a miracle to them when I walked into the RMS office, asked for my package, was handed my paperwork and was told it could be picked-up at customs office down the block. I should mention that Ken had checked in earlier with our paperwork (passports, boat registration, FedEx info and immigration clearance) which had been photo copied for the broker and customs officer. The frazzled young cruisers were not having any success. Their parts, after almost two weeks, were still on St Vincent. They had paid at least 6 different people to help them clear the parts through customs and deliver them to Bequia. Still no boat parts, and it looked like they were not getting them soon. Of course they needed the parts to fix their boat so they could leave, a catch 22. They were frustrated. I understood their pain, having gone through something similar in the Dominican Republic. All I could tell them was that we had our parts delivered using FedEx, marked them boat-in-transit (so as not to have to pay duty) and paid a broker to manage the customs clearance. Although it looks more expensive do it the way we did, in the end we probably paid less than the young couple and had fewer frustrations. One learns quickly in the islands that you cannot do things yourself. Everyone wants a cut and they get it by making it impossible for you to not go through their process. Lessons learned.

Back to the update. From St Lucia we sailed on to Bequia. We didn't stop at St Vincent as we had heard several unpleasant stories about the boat boys and theft. Odd how some islands, like St Lucia, have been able to develop safe societies with sound infrastructures and others have not. Could make for an interesting economic study and thesis. (Probably has been done.)

We picked up a mooring ball in Admiralty Bay on Bequia. Again, we stayed until another package was delivered. This time parts for Ken's laptop, which died. Fortunately, he found the two parts needed online and was able to have them sent. It really is an amazing world we live in. Here we are on a boat in the Caribbean in some remote harbor and Ken gets online, finds the exact two parts he needs for his 2001 Mac Powerbook and orders them. They arrived a week later. Ken installed them into his computer and was up and running again. Yes, we had to wait a week and yes we had to have the parts sent to our Florida address and then shipped on to us at an international location and pay for international shipping and the broker fees, but it was doable. Amazing. Yet, it makes one think. Given that this is possible, why do so many people on the islands not have running water? Why do so many islanders live in shacks and not houses? Why is wealth, and thus access to services, so unevenly distributed? As you know, these are not new questions; many have asked and sought answers. Entire political systems have been conceived based on the redistribution of wealth. Still the questions are fresh for me as it has been my first exposure to the third world. It is thought provoking.

We hiked to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary on Bequia. A native of the island and a 6th generation Bequian, Bob King or Brother King as he likes to be called, built a sanctuary for the protection of the Hawksbill turtle. He collects newly-hatched turtles, nurtures them for 3 to 4 years (at which point they have far fewer predators) then releases them into the sea. We saw a tank of week old turtles. Might have been 100 turtles in the tank I understand about 50% of them will make it to 4 years of age while fewer than 1 in 3000 survive in the wild. Brother King is passionate about his endeavor. However, his passion was not embraced by all. He is actually a squatter on the beach where he built his turtle sanctuary and his refuge survives only because the government has not insisted he remove it. Although they have suggested to him that he relocate his sanctuary inland. This Brother King told us he could not do, as the turtles need to hear the ocean and feel its presence. Brother King's passions are powerful and well motivated, but it is not clear that his approach to saving the Hawksbill turtle is scientifically sound. There is controversy regarding his methods. Having said that, his sanctuary enables the turtles to mature to a point where they can survive their natural predators. Is this saving the hawksbill population from extinction? Don't know. But the turtle sanctuary was an interesting place to visit and Brother King was an impressive person.

From Admiralty Bay we motored around the island to Friendship Bay where we spent one night at anchor. We left this morning for Tobago Cays and are now at anchor in the cays.

We touched base with our friends Mike and Lori Haden in Admiralty Bay. They are on vacation, chartering a catamaran. Two families are on the cat, 10 people in all! And they were expecting another catamaran with 8 aboard to join them today. We only had time to say hello in Bequia. We're hoping to meet up with them here in Tobago Cays. I'll be interested in hearing how the ten or eighteen of them are doing!

Tobago Cays is known for its snorkeling and diving. We're looking to do some of each while we're here. I was hoping to go snorkeling today and maybe clean the dinghy bottom, but the wind was up and the water choppy. As we'll be here a few days, I'll wait for calmer conditions.

That's it for now.

Fair Winds,

Maryann

P.S.
As we didn't have internet access in the Tobabo Cays, I couldn't send out the June 21 update. It is now Monday, June 25th. The snorkeling in the cays was some of the best we've experienced. A large horseshoe-shaped reef (named Horseshoe Reef) lies to the east of the islands and is full of corals, fish and sea life. The reef is in shallow water, probably no deeper than ten feet, and the corals, at times, nearly touch the water's surface. Thus it was easy to snorkel around. Felt like we were swimming in an aquarium, the water clear and light blue, the fish brightly colored and abundant. And like an aquarium light, the sun shone on the corals bringing out beautiful magenta, lavender and orange colors.

The reef was not the only place we saw interesting sea life. We swam with several green turtles off one of the cays. First time we've been able to just hang out with these creatures. Usually turtles swim away. As these turtles live in a marine park and are protected, they must be used to snorkelers. They pretty much ignored us.

We also had a chance to visit with Mike and Lori and hear about their family vacation. The eighteen of them are having a great time. And we got to show Mike and Lori Aurora. They had lots of questions about boat life and living on a 46 foot sail boat.

The islands in the southern Grenadines are close together, about 2 to 3 miles apart. Yesterday, we left the Tobago Cays and sailed the 2.5 miles to Mayreau where we anchored for the night. We took advantage of the clean harbor to get in the water and clean our dinghy. It had long, green stuff growing off of the bottom! Yuck! We had planned to clean it in the Tobago Cays, but the Marine Park Rangers informed us, as we started cleaning our dinghy, that it was against park rules to clean boats in the park. Oops! This morning we motored from Mayreau to Union Island, only 3 miles or so. It is, as Pooh would say, a blustery day and so we are taking it easy.

Just a few more islands to visit and a 90 mile passage to make and we'll be in Trinidad, the end of this season's journey! Amazing.

That's it for the post script.