St. Vincent is a beautiful island: green, lush, mountainous. There are, however, pirates here. Sailing with our friends on Alegria, we decided to brave the notorious pirate hideout of Wallilabou.
Do you recognize this arch? Imagine three pirates, strung up by the British, hanging from this arch. That's what greeted Captain Jack Sparrow when he sailed in to this port in the Pirates Of The Caribbean.
Steve and Dan trying to get out of cooking dinner.....
The next day we set out for a walk to a near by waterfall. It is a short walk. There is a road that leads directly to the falls. You cannot, however, take this walk by yourself. You will have a tour guide whether you like it or not. You cannot pick your own tour guide. The tour guide picks you. "no thank you, no thank you" will not get rid of your self appointed tour guide. We had three young boys as our "tour guide".
The water was cool and refreshing.
Our young tour guides lounged by the water's edge. They are planning on how to extort something... anything, from us.
St. Vincent is avoided by many boaters. The crime rate is higher here than on other islands and boaters have been victims of violent crimes in certain harbors. The poverty is extreme and the drug use is high. Marijuana is cultivated, sold and used by many islanders. It is easy to be afraid but we have pledged to not let fear stop us from seeing the places we want to see. We come in groups and stay together.
But we do not stay long. The next day we headed south to the Blue Lagoon and the following day we head for Bequia.
Bequia is a boaters paradise. Admiralty Bay is a good place to drop your hook.
The locals here are friendly and helpful. They come by your boat and sell supplies, just in case you do not want to go ashore. Many locals are sailors themselves and enjoy a good breeze in the bay.
Onshore there are small markets, fruit and vegetable vendors, and small quaint bars and restaurants.
We also visited Brother King at the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary.
Brother King nurtures baby Hawksbill Turtles and Green Turtles until they can fend for themselves.
Green Turtle
Hawksbill Turtle 
A week in Bequia went by quickly. We hiked around the island,
hung out with friends, sampled the local Roti (wrap with curry chicken, beef or fish) and washed all our dirty clothes. What a relief. We also bought a new lure. Good idea!
A few days later we were in the Tobago Cays. There are not many places on earth where the water is this clear and this beautiful.
It is a beautiful reef with lots of treasures.
Juvenile Surgeonfish and a Wrasse
Squirrelfish
Aqueous Homo Saphien
Stormy day. The reef protects from the swell but not the wind. This squall brought us alot of rain but the winds did not exceed 30 knots. 
Electricity was introduced to this island in 2003 (not a typo, it is true). The locals here are friendly and proud of their French-Catholic heritage
Equally famous is Robert Lewis "Righteous's" restaurant, Righteous & de Youths. It has Rastafarian written all over it, inside and out. You can get a mean rum drink here and if you come during high season, December-May, this place is happening.
For dinner we lounged around the pool at Dennis's Hideaway. Dennis is an ex-charter boat skipper and is quite the business man. Boaters gather around his small bar as Dennis entertains us with stories of past girlfriends and his many children scattered around the globe. He also has a great cook :)
One other small island we visited was Petite St. Vincent. It is a private island but the beach is public. Once you step past the beach, however, the security guards find you. I guess the guests who pay, starting at $900/night, want some privacy! Of course it is a game to see how far you can get.
We scored 10 seconds on a lounge chair.
But who needs a chair when you have this....
We are now in Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou. It is Regatta Week. Stay tuned and I will soon tell you all about it.
Anne and Steve
S/V Fine Line
2 comments:
Beautiful pictures. Be careful out there, we want you back safe and sound.
I just had 3 blogs to read to catch up on.....looks like a ton of fun!!!! Don't you love the "tour guides" that pick you we had those in Africa but just ignored them.
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