re: caribbean sailing..wow

[irishmark]

re: caribbean sailing..wow

just back from st lucia and the windward ils today..wow...what a fantastic sailing area...amazing weather...good sailing...cheap booze and fantastic places to visit, just spend two weeks from st lucia down to union island.....the ammount of people out there that have said, sod this working lark for a year or two and lets go sailing; and i'm not just talking about 50+, people of all ages from mid 20's to 70's...what a fantastic idea...


hmmmm

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[snowleopard]

agree entirely. spent a season out there and can't wait to go back. loved marigot bay, bequia and the tobago cays though the first inter-island passage came as a bit of a shock. f6 on the beam with big seas, more a case of hang on and grit your teeth than paradise sailing!

boat boys are a bit of a pain down there, it was a relief to get to the leewards where they leave you alone.

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[irishmark]

marigot bay was disappointing in fact..there was an oil slick in the inner bay.....the trip from st lucia to st vincent on day 2 was f6 on the beem too...fairly fast sailing but big enough swells...what did you do out there for the season??? i could have stayed on for 2 weeks for almost nothing..was v v tempted

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[paulineb]

I was packed, ready and waiting for you by the check-in desk and you went without me Mark /forums/images/icons/frown.gif

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[sailbadthesinner]

bloody sensible of him if you ask me
he would have spent all his time restocking the drinks cabinet and fetching ice for you

<hr width=100% size=1>My wife wanted tender treatment, so i stowed her whilst at sea

 

[paulineb]

Sorry Max darling, you're going to have to explain the problem with that ... I can't quite see it

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[sailbadthesinner]

quite
thats the problem

<hr width=100% size=1>My wife wanted tender treatment, so i stowed her whilst at sea

 

[paulineb]

ner ner nerner ner !..... isn't there something you should be getting on with upstairs ?

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[snowleopard]

people have mixed views on marigot bay. it's often billed as the most beautiful bay in the caribbean. i wouldn't go that far, nor would the friends whose boat was raided while they were at dinner but we enjoyed it.

we arrived with the arc and visited every major island from st lucia to anguilla plus a brief trip to the grenadines. i would go back to most places except perhaps st kitts/nevis and anguilla. our favourites were dominica, martinique, les saintes, antigua & montserrat.

i did a plan for the cruise which allowed for 6 weeks in the windward & leeward islands before heading on towards the usa. big joke - by the time we'd seen all the islands even briefly 5 months had passed and it was time to go home!

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[irishmark]

hmm pauline...next time maybe...and all you will need is your swimsuit

snow, di d you go down to becqui?? it was fantastic there and tobago keys wow...ever do it again??

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[snowleopard]

our schedule was governed by the fact that our kids came out for 3 weeks arriving & departing at martinique. we would have liked to spend more time in the grenadines. as it was we spent about 5 days total in bequia with 2 days at the tobago cays in between.

no particular desire to see mustiwue but would have liked to explore more, e.g. saltwhistle bay.

chris doyle's description of boat boy hassle over mooring put us off st vincent. but at bequia there was virtually none (on the water at least)

as for doing it again, next time we plan to go on through panama at the end of the season. would like to see the places we missed last time: cape verdes, barbados, tobago & grenada.

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[irishmark]

well too be honest the first day or two the boat boys were really anoying then we simply got used to them and simply said no we do not need help and it worked!! they just came said hi and went and work must have got around onc eon ewas refused. we visited some of the lessere know spots on the way down towards union and we found some amazing anchorages, with almost no one there. I couldn't believe our luck, and that was high season. One of the girl sthat was sailing with us was a total convert and i snow trying to get a two year plan together, whereby in two years she can set off for a year or so. She even answered an add from some guy looking for a woman to sail with him which i wasn't sure about....anyhows i digress...now to find my perfect boat and to see if i can follow your thoughts, carabbean, panama etc.....ohh on a intresting footnote, well semi intresting at least, we got no hastle in becqui either, that was until we got on land and oooh boy.....

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