South - and (nearly) Christmas

We left Rodney Bay, St Lucia on 16th Dec and sailed 20M south to Sugar Beach near Soufriere and anchored right below the legendary Pitons of St Lucia. What a magical setting! White sand, dense green jungle behind - and the two peaks towering above us.

A few days here just relaxing mostly, and also exploring Soufriere Town and, for the Skipper, a guided hike up Tete Paul - a big hill between the Pitons giving a great view of both - a very hot 1700 foot climb!

This is the view from the top - Blue Pepper is the speck bottom left.

From Sugar Beach we headed south to St Vincent and the Grenadines - SVG. we skipped St Vincent Island itself and first landfall was Admiralty Bay, Bequia. We followed some advice and took an open top jeep/taxi ride to get our bearings and explore the island (all 7 sq miles of it). This went fine, if slowly as the driver stopped every 2 mins to speak to a neighbour, and we weren’t expecting the police station and rubbish dump as trip highlights! But the island is beautiful…

After a couple of days on Bequia we headed another 25M South to Tobago Cays. This is a tiny archipelago (mostly) wrapped in the appropriately named Horseshoe Reef - and it is stunningly beautiful, We stayed here a couple of days (not enough) and managed to walk over/around several of the islands and swam and snorkelled in the turquoise sea.

The Iguanas we saw were extraordinary … and it was magical to swim with turtles. Our last night included a lobster/fish barbecue on the beach cooked by ‘Free Willy’ and his wife. Apparently they make the best rum punch in the Caribbean, but I’ve heard this a lot recently!

And so, today, back to Bequia for Christmas. It feels nothing like the Christmas we are used to - swimming in warm sea, flip flops and tonight (Christmas eve) a beach bbq and party, swapping stories with other sailors and then dragging our dinghy off the sand to head back to Blue Pepper and wait for Santa!