St. Vincent to St. Lucia

The Wallilabou mooring was rather rolly so James and I were both awake before dawn. As the sky lightened, James went to adjust the stern line which had slipped down its pile, and I suggested we could just leave now. We did and chugged into the dawn, accompanied by a local fishing skiff towing a second.

Volcanos of St. Vincent

We had hoped to visit the Baleine Falls – a 60ft rainforest waterfall visited by day boats and just minutes from the beach there – so headed north. St. Vincent soon becomes extremely wild and remote as the bays and inlets are replaced by walls of precipitous volcanic ridges sheathed in tall palms which in turn are draped with tropical vines. The villages dry up and only a scattering of nomadic tents can be seen on the mountains. The ‘beach’ at Baleine Bay was nothing more than a few rocks on the shore next to a landing stage crammed between two rocky headlands. The swell from the tip of the island curved around and made the spot unsuitable for a yacht to stop, and the swell was too great to manoeuvre the outboard into the dinghy so we raised sail and set course for the Pitons of St. Lucia.

Wild jungle on St. Vincent

Soon, the light breeze and smooth seas developed into a light breeze and hideous swell with wave trains coming from the north and also the east. The boat plunged and shuddered, making painful progress. Matthew whined and Elizabeth became inconsolably seasick. I spent an hour in my bunk too as James battled the conditions. Soon he had rolled some of the jib and tied two reefs in the main, and the sea finally settled.

Large swell approaching St. Lucia

The rest of the run was pleasant enough as it could be, sailing hard on the wind. Matthew retired to my bunk where he wet himself and then asked “are we actually still sailing?” whilst Elizabeth kept her head in a bucket but failed to actually retch. We reached the shelter of St.Lucia and again lost the wind but not the swell so continued until we were abeam our destination of Soufriere before giving in and motoring towards shore.

At this point, Elizabeth rallied and spent the next two hours reciting a long and complex story telling the adventures of two sea snails on a Caribbean reef whilst Matthew discovered that his maths puzzles were, in fact, quite easy.

James makes adjustments to the sail at sea

We cleared in at Soufriere, in the pristine shelter next to the Piton mountains. As usual, we were beset with locals trying to eek a few dollars from us. By evening, everyone was laughing and cool, swimming round the boat in the clear, warm waters, as if we’d never moved. Even Matthew commented on how blue the water was, “It’s so blue that you can’t see the bottom. Even my legs turned blue. You have to swim, mum, it’s so blue!” We are next to a vertical cleft in the cliff known as the batcave and will watch for them as the sun sets.

Rich and poor rub shoulders in Soufriere, St.Lucia