We’re currently staying at Soufriere Bay in the southern part of St. Lucia. I’m sure there will be many pics later of the beautiful scenery, so I’ll just tell a quick story instead.

I was sitting at the inside table last night watching a movie on my laptop with the sliding glass door to the back open, so the breeze would flow through. It was after dark, which means that you can’t really see anything beyond the confines of the boat.

About 8pm, I hear a little noise right off the back of the boat and then someone says something like “excuse me.” I’m really not a fan of having someone (or something) sneak up on me in the dark in a new location that I’m unfamiliar with, so I hesitantly stand up and walk to the rear. I see the outline of a dinghy and the faint whir of an electric outboard engine and then I see a guy. I tentatively say “hi”, he says “hi”, and I say something like “how are you”?

He says fine and would I be able to trade a package of cigarettes for a bottle of wine. A million thoughts go through my head, like, what type of wine? Is this a fair trade? And, what the hell are you doing sneaking up on someone in the still of the night and assuming bartering is an acceptable activity?

Anyways, I mumble that I don’t have either cigarettes or wine (not really true, but I wasn’t going to part with my prized 3 liter box of wine that easily).

He kind of mumbled something in response and then closed with “OK, have a good sober evening!” Classic.

Oh, yea, star fruit. Fantastically delicious. Like a cross between an orange and a mango.

After a 12 hour sail, we decided to anchor in Rodney Bay, outside of the marina. We planned to enter the marina the next morning when we were not so tired. That enabled us to leisurely prepare the boat to dock. (We need to prepare the ropes and put out the fenders before tying up to a dock.)

We have anchored in Rodney Bay before. Our favorite place to anchor is near the Sandals Resort. It is a relatively safe anchorage and we are usually lucky enough to hear steel drum music throughout the day.

After Bequia, we sailed to St. Lucia. It was a 12-hour sail, much with the motor and sails up. We were lucky enough to see dolphins frolicking about the boat between Bequia and St. Vincent.

As we were sailing north along the coast of St. Lucia, we passed Castries, which is where the freights unload their goods. It is also where cruise ships dock. We encountered two freighters and two cruise ships. We were watching vigilantly, as we needed to give these large ships a wide berth as we passed.

The cruise ship in the picture is the Norwegian Cruise Line’s ship called “Epic.” It was huge! You can also see one of the freighters in the picture. Another cruise ship was still in at the dock when we passed.

After Chatham Bay on Union Island, it was time for us to head to Bequia. We had heard a lot of great things about Bequia and were looking forward to exploring the island. We ended up anchoring off of Princess Margaret Beach in Admiralty Bay, and it turned out to be a lovely anchorage.

Bequia has a main town at the head of Admiralty Bay which is lined with restaurants, food stands, and souvenir stalls/shops. There were a couple of grocery stores as well as other yacht services such as chandleries (boat supply stores), propane refill services, garbage disposal, etc. Boats also drive around the bay asking if yachters need services like laundry (free pick up and delivery), water, diesel, banana bread, and lobsters. This town was set up to welcome yachters and made the anchorage quite pleasant.

The water where we anchored in Admiralty Bay was fairly calm and clear. And, the water along the shore was even calmer and clearer. One day I took the stand up paddleboard to Princess Margaret Beach and simply luxuriated in the calming water.

There was also some good snorkeling on the side of Princess Margaret Beach. I believe Steve posted a video from that adventure.

Town of Admiralty Bay, Bequia

Fishermen are seen throughout Chatham Bay during the evenings. They work in groups of two boats, where men throw out the nets. They also have at least one person in the water “spotting” for the fish. It was interesting to watch.

We decided to double back and sail to Union Island again. A couple of different people told us about Chatham Bay and how nice it was. We thought that Clifton Harbour was too crowded the night we stayed there so we left Union Island without exploring it further.

We are definitely glad that we decided to stay in this sleepy bay. There were three or four beach bars sprinkled along the side of the bay. And, a bungalow hotel capped the lower end of the bay. There was snorkeling all throughout the bay as well as a reef to the northeastern side. And, the water was calm enough that I was able to take the standup paddleboard out for rides each day. We ate at the hotel restaurant under a palapa-style roof. We also went to a restaurant at the pink beach bar (I don’t know its name).

In this bay locals come by the boat to sell fish and lobster. I actually bought some red snapper, which was delicious!

There were many flowers like this on Canouan. I thought they looked unique, as I haven’t seen them before.

We took a walk on Canouan to see a little bit of life outside of the Sandy Lane Yacht Club. Canouan is an interesting island in that it is divided into three section. The northern part of the island is gated and hosts Canouan Resort Development, which includes a Mandarin Oriental 5-star hotel and golf course. The center of the island is town and is open to everyone. And, the southern part of the island is where we stayed, at the Sandy Lane Yacht club (also gated). Here are some pictures I took on our walk.

After the Tobago Cays, we motored north to the next island, Canouan. (We are still not sure how to pronounce the name of this beautiful island.) We were excited to hook up to power and water, as we hadn’t tied up in a marina since Christmas. The Sandy Lane Yacht Club is probably the nicest marina that we have visited to date. The marina itself seemed relatively new and welcomed super yachts as well as smaller ones. It was huge, as you can see in one of the pictures. It had three different restaurants onsite, a grocery store, and other typical yacht marina amenities such as laundry and garbage services.

Bequia has a nice walkway along the bay. It is easy to tie up our dingy and walk along the water’s edge. I partuculary like this photo because of all the different angles.