A nice short video of the entire island.

This picture was taken off the coast of very south coast of Carriacou.  We had decided to take a hike one day out of Tyrell Bay and ended up walking most of the way out on the southern-most point of Carriacou.  Down a dirt road, there were grazing farms, mostly for goats, and a couple of large waterfront properties that also had a large amount of land.  We got to one point where we made it to the shore and there were conch shells everywhere.  They were also piled up onshore as well.

We looked, but couldn’t find a perfect one.  Everything we found had at least some kind of flaw.

BTW, on our trip home through the airport, I saw a pile of conch shells that had been pulled from passenger’s luggage as they left the island. 

While we were anchored in Tyrell Bay on Carriacou, we decided one day to see how far we could walk and ended up at the Paradise Beach Club bar on Paradise Beach, around the corner from Tyrell Bay. 

We were, of course, the only people there (around noon), again, largely due to COVID restrictions.  There were half a dozen people or so working and when we got there we were met by a nice woman who chatted us up a little before she showed us a table.  I’m pretty sure the woman owned the place.  Turns out that she knew of New Hampshire because she had sent her son to college in Vermont.

I got a guava daiquiri – don’t know why, just felt like it.  Interestingly, they didn’t remove the seeds from the guava before they threw it in the blender – I think this is the normal way they’re served down there – but I thought it was terrible.  The taste was OK, but you couldn’t drink it.  You had to strain it with your teeth and the seed husks didn’t taste good if you ate them.

Anyway, beautiful beach.  We’ll have to go back if we get a chance.  And Sandy Island is right off the coast.

While in Tyrell Bay on Carriacou, a guy came by the boat one day selling stuff. Most of the stuff they sell was just trinkets, or wine and mostly grossly over-priced. They will also pick up your trash for a fee. Normally, I just politely say no. This guy asked if we wanted lobster, so I asked him how much it would cost. I think he said $10 ECD, which is about $3.75 USD per pound. I think it was a 5 pounder, so about $20 USD. I also had him take our trash away as part of the deal.

We stopped for the night at Anse Cachon on our trip down to St. Vincent/Carriacou from St. Lucia so that we could save a couple of hours enroute. Turns out it was a little rolly this night so we didn’t sleep as well as when we had visited the time before.

The next day, we got up at the crack of dawn to head to St. Vincent. We were going to stay the night in St. Vincent and then go on to Carriacou. As I recall, this was a fairly uneventful sailing day – very little wind in the lee of St. Lucia, but once we got out of her shadow, we found some wind.

We got into St. Vincent just before dusk and took a mooring ball between Young Island and the mainland. It was very crowded and fairly close to shore with lots of shore noise, but the water was calm and we were able to get some sleep before heading out the next day.

We were told that we had to go to this restaurant in one of the old English fort buildings at Pigeon Island National Park.  Apparently, this is a hangout for noon-drinking from yachties from Rodney Bay marina. 

When we went there, it had just opened and we were the first people.  We chatted with the owner/chef.  He sounded like he just wanted to talk to someone as I think it had been a slow year.

Again, at the French restaurant in the old English fort at Pigeon Point on St. Lucia. When we got there at noon, we were the only customers (not a lot of tourists because of COVID). The restaurant is really just a couple of tables in fairly narrow places with short ceilings. They even had some sofas with low tables that they said we could sit at. The owner and chef was very friendly, and glad to have paying customers. We chose probably the best table in the place with the best view and ordered a couple of drinks. For lunch, I had something with crabs. It was very good, with lots of garlic, but, unfortunately, unknown to me, the crabs were all the local, and small, type. Again, lots of garlic make anything taste good, but it took me forever to get the meat out of the tiny crabs. I felt like a newby who doesn’t know how to eat a lobster – experienced people can eat one without getting messing, where newbys revel in getting all messy. I didn’t revel.

This pic is from the top of the English fort on Pigeon Island. The fort is at the end of the peninsula, overlooking the entry to Rodney Bay (so they could blast the nasty French if they tried to come and bring their repugnant swill to St. Lucia).

All of the cannons had the British insignia cast right into the body. Branding.

Rodney Bay Marina is in an inlet straight ahead in this shot. You can see a little blue water behind the shoreline on the left of the picture. That is the marina.

Just a quick shot of Rodney Bay from the top of the old English fort at the end of Pigeon Point. I’m pretty sure that is our boat in the middle. The Sandals is to the left on the shoreline, while there are several other nice hotels along the rest of the shore. The marina entrance is to the right and out-of-frame.

We were told about this harbor about 2 hours south of Rodney Bay on the west coast of St. Lucia, so stopped down for a couple of days. While we were there, it was fairly well protected from swells, but another time we stayed it wasn’t.

It is a small bay with a nice hill-side resort. The beach is fairly small, but the resort does the best it can to keep it clean.

When we got there, we were met by “boat boys” (the yellow kayaker in the pic above) who come out and try to sell you trinkets. Usually they also want to shake you down for beer. They were fine. I may have bought some necklaces because he made me feel guilty – when will I ever learn?

Anyway, the bay is mostly a day-stop for snorkelers from paid patrons of organized tours or resorts. The charters pull in a couple of times a day, tie up at the couple of moorings, people hop off and go snorkeling, have some lunch, and then head out. Then someone else comes in. Pretty well coordinated and scheduled.

The snorkeling is pretty good, but you have to go when the charters aren’t there as it gets pretty crowded.

At night, it gets very quiet. There were only 1 or 2 other boats anchored when we were there.