10 April 2011
Named the island of clouds by the Caribs, (pronounced Bek-wee) this is the largest of the St. Vincent dependencies and sure enough we are sitting here in the pouring rain which has lasted almost the entire day. Every night too we have had frequent rain showers, which is why I am puzzled when the locals in the market say that there is not enough rain to grow fruits and vegetables, it is all needed for local consumption. Ah, smacks of over development to me! The morning was spent in frustration. Trying now to use up my precious stores I decided to make a batch of chocolate crunch. The crushed digestive biscuits were fine, the cocoa powder fine, the honey fine, but oh dear, when it came to the dried raisins they were moulded so a second bag was opened. Although in a sealed container they too were moulded. They were soaked in rum so that made the upset all the more. I found a pack of dates that were ok. I prepared a 'bain marie' to melt the cooking chocolate. Aaargh! There was a tiny grub like creature inside the silver foil. The culprit of all this is the moth. Even after all this time we are still troubled with them, and we are not the only ones. Tzigane too, and we have noticed the odd one flitting about A Lady's cabin......
What a really lovely way it has been for us to complete this circumnavigation, island hopping through the Caribbean chain of Grenada and its dependencies of Petit Martinique and Carriacou, and then the gorgeous Grenadines. Being south of the busier and more commercial islands of the French West Indies, these islands will always be a favourite for us. We did miss out the idyllic Tobago Cays. This we will leave for our southerly return route to Grenada for the hurricane season. St. Vincent sadly we will leave off our itinerary. It is a very poor place indeed and does not get good reports of safety regarding yachts. It is such a shame. For the best part of 26,000nm we have sailed without the slightest incident and absolute safety and now all we wish for, all we desire, is our last landfall in St. Lucia. I can see why Mayreau is a personal favourite of Jutta and Jochem's. My 1994 guide book describes a sleepy backwater, 'there are no roads or cars and there is not even a jetty big enough to take the mail boat, so the week's supplies are offloaded into smaller boats'. Electricity had not reached the island except in the two hotels but telephones had recently made appearance but the great appeal is of course that unlike many of the other islands there is no airport, it can only be reached by boat. Cows making a journey from Mayreau are winched up onto deck, and if alighting here they are simply herded off into the bay and left to swim for it. Reading that immediately reminded me of the cattle drove that used to take place once upon a time. This same method of animal transportation was made by cattle crossing the Sound of Sleat, between the island of Skye to Glenelg on the Scottish mainland. There however the poor beasties had to deal with very dangerous currents. On the many occasions that David and I negotiated our way through this narrow stretch of water aboard Stella, we would watch as the ferry boat crawled crabwise across to the other side. The towering craggy mountains on either side added to the drama. It gave us such an adrenaline rush. Oh, that I could be back there..... Now today, there is a road, there are cars, there is a pier, there is electricity but there is still no airport and we see no cows swimming ashore!
Susan Mackay