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19th December 2004 – 5th January 2005
one more special to share it with than your family. With that in mind we had arranged to
celebrate the Christmas holidays with both our families on board Skardu.
Our first challenge was how to turn a shorthanded ocean cruiser into a comfortable charter yacht
that could comfortably sleep 7. Between all the ARC arrival parties, and the maintenance and
repair work we had to do, we just barely got the boat ready to leave on time. However, for once
we were not short handed, and with the addition of Molly and Martin on board, we numbered 8
as we left the dock, a new Skardu record. After a send-off by a few of the other ARC yachts, we
sadly had to shed one of our crew as Martin bid us farewell and left in style by jumping off the
transom and swimming back to shore with his mask and snorkel.
In the one week we had been in St.Lucia we had actually seen surprisingly little of the island, so
on our way south to St.Vincent, we made a couple of notable stops. The first was to Marigot
Bay, celebrated for being a favourite hiding place of the British, who once hid the entire fleet from
the French among the palm trees of its inner bay. However, more recently it will be
remembered as the backdrop for the original Dr. Dolittle film with Rex Harrison. Nowadays,
rather than being greeted by push-you-pull-me’s, we were immediately welcomed by the
ubiquitous Caribbean boatboys. Cruising the bay in brightly coloured boats, they plied their
services and wares, from selling bananas and mangoes to collecting fresh baked bread in the
morning.
Our second stop was to anchor at the feet of St.Lucia’s most famous landmark, “The Pitons”.
These two volcanic basalt towers rise 2,600ft into the air from the sea and act as sentinel to the
island. To give you an idea of how proud St.Lucia is of its pitons, they feature prominently on the
national flag. We were fortunate enough to see them framed in a perfect rainbow the day we
sailed by, almost as if they were inviting us to return soon.
We had a great downwind day-sail from St Lucia to St Vincent, and as we approached the
volcanic St. Vincent, it looked almost as tropical as St.Lucia. However, our abiding memories of
the island would have nothing to do with its nature. Our first impression of the island was when
we entered Wallilabou Bay. This bay had been used as the backdrop for the film 'Pirates of the
Caribbean', and most of the set still remained. To check in with customs and immigration you
would have to walk down a cobbled lane in front of plasterboard facades of an 18th century
Caribbean village. The magic of Hollywood had spliced in a few more buildings, but for all intents
and purposes the set was fairly intact.
Our second strongest memory was of the crazy bus drivers in and around the capital of
Kingstown. We’ve all seen our fair share of crazy drivers on our travels, but the “Vincies” now
hold a special place in our hearts; their oversized speakers would blast the latest Soca and
Reggae hits while the passengers all mouthed the lyrics. Meanwhile the drivers were busy
perfecting their rolling pickups - bus slows down marginally, door slides open on the move,
person jumps in, all without losing any momentum. They were always trying to squeeze in as
many fare-paying passengers as possible: there always seemed room for one more, and once
we counted 21 people in a minibus built for 12.
Sadly our exploration of St.Vincent itself was somewhat limited to bus runs to Kingstown and the
airport, first to pick up Lisa (Mark’s sister), and then to track down her suitcases which arrived
two days later. We were finally able to leave on Christmas Eve and headed south to the
Grenadines islands, just a few hours sail away.
We had heard a lot about Bequia among the sailing community, so we thought it might be a nice
place to spend Christmas. We were clearly not the only ones with the same idea, and as we
rounded the corner into Admiralty Bay there must have been at least 100 yachts at anchor,
many of them familiar names from the ARC. With Christmas only hours away, we all pitched in
to help decorate the boat with all the trimmings our parents had lovingly brought over from home;
with fairy lights twinkling and Christmas carols playing, it wasn’t long before we were in the
Christmas spirit.
Late that evening Mark, Quintin and Tristan decided to head in to explore the town a little more,
and it wasn’t long before we stumbled upon another Caribbean “jump up”. The banks of
speakers on the street were almost bigger than the tiny bar itself, and the whole town was “winin’”
away to hip wriggling, toe-touching, skirt-swaying, arm-raising music. In the Caribbean it seems
like the women do most of the dancing while the men lean back, shuffle their feet and survey the
scene; often with the largest women dancing with the skinniest men. Quite the scene, and no
white-man’s overbite to be seen for miles (present company excluded).
The following morning, despite the bright sunshine and the warm turquoise water gently lapping
against the hull, we did our best to simulate a typical northern hemisphere Christmas day. The
only challenge was cooking an entire meal for seven (roast beef, roasted potatoes and carrots,
mashed yams, bok choy) with salt water when we ran out of fresh! However, home-made
Christmas pudding from Q’s mother and a bottle of port helped to round off a wonderful day.
We used Bequia as a base to explore much of the rest of the Grenadines. Our first stop was
Petit Nevis, a small uninhabited island which is occasionally used as a whaling station. We had
the whole island practically to ourselves, and were soon playing Robinson Crusoe. After
snorkeling with a large barracuda, we landed ashore and after much deliberation managed to
coax some coconuts off the palm trees. In celebration, it seemed only fitting to drink our Rum
sun-downers out of our hard-earned coconuts.
We then headed back to St.Vincent to drop Tristan off at the airport and celebrate Q’s birthday,
before we returned to Friendship Bay on the backside of Bequia. After over 10 days on board,
our parents decided to go ashore for a couple of days to get their land legs back. This also gave
us a chance to relax for a few days. Having 7 people on board is a lot of fun, but it’s also an
awful lot of work playing host and boat-boy to all. One thing is for certain, it quickly quelled any
desire we may once have held to drop out of “real life” and become charter skippers.
One funny thing did happen to us there: one afternoon we heard some frantic shouting from the
families on a nearby yacht. We went over to find out what was wrong, only to discover that they
had broken one of their stop-cocks (a valve on a drain-hole through the hull) in their bathroom.
Despite their efforts to plug the hole up with a rag, water was pouring in, and the floorboards were
already awash. Meanwhile their children were running around optimistically shouting “We’re
sinking! We’re sinking!” We went back to Skardu to collect the right tools, and within 20 minutes
we had stopped the leak with a bit of elbow grease, a wooden plug, and a heavy mallet.
Needless to say they were very grateful, and kindly rewarded our efforts with a bottle of
champagne. Now if only we could do that every day.
Once both of our families were well rested it was time to take to the water again, this time to the
beautiful Tobago Cays: 3 deserted islands surrounded by large reefs with little between them and
the African coast 3000 miles to the East. This is a popular destination for charter cruisers, and
being New Year’s Eve it was heaving with yachts. Beautiful beaches, shallow reefs that felt like
you were diving in a swimming pool, and attentive boat boys make this an ideal sailing
destination. We spent a quiet New Years on anchor, looking at the firework displays from the
nearby islands, and the red parachute flares that were being set off by some of the other yachts.
After visiting some of the other Grenadine islands, it was at last time to return to St. Lucia. After
one more obligatory stop to check out of customs and play on the set at Wallilabou we had a
tough sail to windward to get back north. The waves and spray were reaching the cockpit and
dousing everyone, and although it certainly wasn’t a comfortable ride, at least it gave our families
an idea of what it was like to sail in less than perfect conditions. We arrived in Rodney Bay at
dusk, and sadly soon had to bid farewell to Mark’s family.
After a fantastic few weeks with our families, the one letdown of the whole trip was our inability to
catch any fish. After being regaled with tales of our fishing prowess for months on end, our
parents were expecting to live off the bounty of our fishing lines. In fact, they went as far as not
ordering fish in restaurants because they expected us to provide them. For once we were
completely skunked. Not a single fish landed in 3 weeks, and nary a bite. Funny thing is, as
soon as they left, we caught a tuna in our first hour of sailing. Honest. To add insult to injury, it
was caught with a lure that we had bought with Lisa in Bequia. Hopefully, our luck would be
changing.
