Arriving in St Vincent

I took over the watch from Rowan at 3am and St Vincent’s lights were twinkling in the distance which was very reassuring. It was dark until so late as the sky was heavy and dark with cloud, just a crack of light coming through. The wind had died down which was not a problem as we were a bit ahead of schedule and we were aiming for the far south of the island. It was a calm arrival for us, the scenery looks stunning, steep plunging mountains covered in dense lush green vegetation. St Vincent’s was one of the last island to be colonised by Europeans and has remained one of the most unspoilt. One of it’s main attractions is the volcano, Soufriere (3000 feet) that has a highly recommended walk to the edge of the crater (with warnings in the guide book to be careful as the edge is so vertical, 1000 feet drop and there is no way out!). You can imagine how much Rowan would enjoy this walk, but amazingly it erupted a couple of weeks ago, first time since 1979, so is out of bounds which is a bit of a relief for me. The last time Rowan and I planned to climb a volcano was in 1992 in Costa Rico, we arrived at a little camp at the base only to discover our guide book was way out of date, the volcano was erupting regularly, and the last few people attempting to climb it had been killed!

Sunrise

Southern tip of St Vincents and Bequia Island as the sun is rising

Rugged mountains

Very pleased to see Kingstown our port of entry to St Vincents and the Grenadines. We have to check in at Young Island Cut, it was good timing arriving at 8:30am, as we had to call the authorities for their boatman ‘Sparrow’ to direct us onto a buoy where we are tied up until we are cleared from quarantine. I was convinced his name was ‘Swallow’ much to the amusement of Phoebs and Rowan. There are quite a few boats here all flying the yellow quarantine flag, and some familiar boat names we’ve seen before.

When we entered the Cut, Rowan’s eyes lit up as there was an identical boat to ours, turns out it is an Argentinian couple who have sailed their boat over from France. Biggest coincidence is that Rowan had seen on the Nautitech Facebook site that an ex boyfriend of Lauren’s (Rowan’s sister) is friends with them. Lots of waving as we went by but we can’t go and meet them until we are out of quarantine.

We have our PCR test done tomorrow and then wait for our test result to set us free, up to 5 days. Until then we are restricted to the boat, we are allowed to swim around the boat. It’s a gorgeous setting, it a marine reserve so the water is lovely and clear. It is a cut between the mainland and Young Island, which has a tiny discreet little hotel on it. Behind it is a rock island which is the historic Fort Duvernette, just like Diamond Rock off Martinique. Soldiers carried cannons to the top, there is a staircase to the top which we will climb when we are out of quarantine, meant to be lovely views from the top.

Fort Duvernette from our mooring

More rain and rainbows

As we are pretty exhausted from our sail we had a very gentle day. We were at a bit of a loss as our phones won’t work so we have no internet! No papers for 2 days….. wondering if Trump has nuked the Whitehouse or something dramatic. We’re all glad of an early night.

Stunning sunset