Bequia and Carriacou

Secured safely to our mooring between the Pitons on St. Lucia, after a good dinner and "Happy Feet" on our DVD player, we had a rolly night. Heather was up early at 5:30 restless and got the coffee and the boat ready for an early departure. It was dead calm at first but storm cells were visable around us. Big ships cross this passage regularly so we turned on our radar. Once in the dense rain we can't see far away. St. Vincent was cloud draped and misty. It's steep green hills have few houses but lots of fields clinging impossibly to the slopes. Word is a lot of ganja is produced in this northern section. We passed by and continued on to the big harbor of Admiralty Bay, Bequia. Rain storms continued all day and that night we were treated to several beautiful rainbows (sorry this picture doesn't begin to do it justice).
It was great to swim and relax in the water when the sun came out late in the afternoon and when it went down we saluted it with sundowners in the cockpit. Early again the next morning we were on our way to Carriacou. We were Q flagging it. We checked out of St. Lucia for Carriacou and didn't check into St. Vincent and the Grenadines, another country. We flew the yellow quarantee flag meanwhile. Once in Carriacou we anchored off the main town, Hillsborough, and Scott went into town to check in with Customs and Immigration. This is necessary in every country you visit, unless you're just passing through. Once that process was complete we sailed around the island to a cruiser favorite harbor - Tyrell Bay. There three other boats awaited us: "Sutton Hoo" and "M'Lady Kathleen" and "Gypsy Palace". Jo and Geoff on "Sutton Hoo" have been friends since the Annapolis GAM two and one half years ago. Winter before last they came and visited us in Vermont for a ski vacation. We then saw them in Trinidad and it was great catching up with them here. We had drinks with them on "M"Lady Kathleen" that night. We also met Roland and Kathleen at an Annapolis GAM, but October 2005 instead. They met up with "Nereia and "Casa del Mar" in the Turks and Caicos and traveled together till we saw them all again in Dominica. They were with us in Trinidad. One day we walked over to Paradise Beach and had lunch there and another day the three ladies went into Hillsborough to shop and have lunch (photo of Kathleen and Jo). Another picture here shows the narrow walkways between the buildings that lead down to the beach.

Our friends Lorie and Dale aboard "Gypsy Palace" are also old friends. We met in St. Augustine and sailed with them to Ft. Pierce. Later we saw them several times in Prickley Bay and in Trinidad. Now we hope to join them and their friends "Orpalleur" on the trip west to Los Testigos. We start out ahead of them by leaving for Grenada tonight but they'll catch up with us there in a few days. Orpalleur is up on the hard having their bottom painted. Or at least it was supposed to be done for them - the yard wasn't doing their end of the process in any timely fashion and when we saw Jerry today, he was blue from painting the bottom himself.