St. Vincent – a pleasant surprise!

St. Vincent, the master of the Grenadines, has gotten a bad reputation in recent years – sadly, most of it deserved. Glenn and I honeymooned on Young Island, just off the coast of St. Vincent, more than 32 years ago. We have returned to visit Young Island by sailboat once before – introducing the kids to our favorite memories. But, since our last visit – St. Vincent has had increasing trouble protecting its visitors from island crime. Therefore, on our way north from Bequia to St. Lucia, we decided to stop for only one night along the west coast of St. Vincent – mostly to break up the long sail. We were surprised and delighted at all that Cumberland Bay had to offer!

We left our anchorage on St. Vincent at 5:00 am the next morning – pitch black and blinding fog – another first for Pam and Glenn on Mira. The trickiest step was not – leaving the anchorage without scraping the steep cliffs but rather – untying our stern line from the palm tree while raising the anchor – all without bumping our very close boat neighbor – in the pitch dark!! Luckily, we had almost no wind, and Glenn was able to pull himself along the line in the dinghy, untie and then we were able to slink out slowly and carefully.

We were a little nervous about this next sail – which could take us anywhere from 8-12 hours. The channel of open ocean between St. Vincent and St. Lucia is notorious for crazy gusty winds and seas like a washing machine. It did not disappoint! Winds were predicted to be up to 15 knots, and we had gusts of 25 knots with off/on wind shifts and rain squalls and therefore, sail changes. We were so happy to spot the Pitons looming in the south of St. Lucia!