Jean & Dave's Website

St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Page 7

We motored out of the bay in no wind. It was hot.
As we rounded the corner and reached open water, the wind blew about 15 knots true. Finally.

We sailed strong for half an hour, then a squall hit and dampened the cockpit, but not the boys' spirit.

As the squall passed, it sucked all the wind with it. Oh well, back to the iron jenny. We would not see the sun today, a rare event in the Caribbean.

But that would not stop us from a great snorkel at Petit Nevis. Every place is different. Here the bolders are huge and the depth a bit deeper. Lots of barrel coral, saw a snake and a couple eel. Kyle pointed out a bat angel fish which cost $250 to buy in Fargo.

Friendship Bay, Bequia

We opted for a casual dinner (after the formal buffet the night before) at the beach bar called Herby & Spicy. Fresh tuna and au gratin potatoes with lots of garlic.

We then worked our way through the tropical drink menu while swinging in the chairs at the bar. Ho hum.

Sunday morning, nothing open. Politely asked the resort to sell us a loaf of bread. Finish the morning routine and we are off for St. Vincent. Another squall approaching and the winds are building. We beat for over an hour. The wind peaked at 27 knots true. The knot meter read 6.6. The GPS clocked us over 10 knots. Kyle sat on his perch, while the girls sat on the cabin sole, waves crashing up the net between them. The squall passed and BANG, dead calm.

We motored to Petit Byahaut, a deep, well protected bay on the lee shore of St. Vincent. SPLASH, splash, time for a snorkel, until Jean spotted the jelly fish, hundreds of them. Brian grabbed his snorkel gear and jumped in. After a few minutes, he proclaimed the waters safe, stating these were just harmless fish food, not the bad kind.

Petit Byahaut is also the name of the very secluded resort located here. This place held only 20 guests, was only accessible by boat, used solar power and collected its own fresh water. Brian radioed to ask about dinner. We were the only boat in the bay and there were no guests at the resort. In addition to dinner, we were offered BBQ lunch, so we changed the routine and opted for a big lunch over dinner. Not two words came out of host Tom's mouth before I figured him for a New Yorker. Ruth is from Racine, Wisconsin, which is just down the road from Kyle and Denise. Another woman rounded out this peculiar trio, but did not introduce herself. Timothy, an old school chum of Brian, cooked up a huge plate of ribs, chicken and mahi, while the trio made us smoothies, pain killers and rum punch.

Kyle and I managed to sneak in one more snorkel. That evening we ventured back to the resort for more fruit drinks and a light supper of shrimp and avocado salad. It rained at 0230. You can practically set your watch. We hoped the clouds and rain would burn off in the morning. It didn't. Plan A was to sail home the long way, if we had wind. Plan B was to take the power cat to Young Island Cut, St. Vincent's Coney Island and go on a death march. While motoring back, we passed 3 Sunsail boats heading for dry dock. Brian announced we needed to return to base, as Tropical Storm Jose was coming.

After returning to base, we dined on our remaining provisions and checked into the hotel for the night. Jose could bring 18-24 inches of rain, so we all called home, in case we got stuck. We passed the afternoon drinking Hairoun's while Brian and his colleagues stripped our Babe down to prepare for the storm.