On to Grenada and Carriacou

We have a fantastic fast sail down to Hillsborough, Carriacou yesterday and are now anchored in Tyrell Bay. It's full, full, full of yachts. St Georges, Grenada next stop for Carnival on Monday and Tuesday.

Great Snorkelling in Bequia

On to Bequia

We left St Lucia early Tuesday morning and sailed south, arriving in Bequia late that night. It was a great sail and we had a large pod of dolphins accompany us on our approach to St Vincent. Bequia is under the flag of St Vincent and the Grenadines. It's very picturesque, overgrown with lush tropical trees, vines and flowers and speckled with multi-coloured wooden gingerbread houses. We had a great snorkel this evening – dozens of schools of small fish, at least 100 strong, hanging out around the rocks near the shoreline. We've never seen so many in one place, there must have been thousands. The rocks were covered in Christmas tree worms of all colours. Sadly we didn't have the underwater camera with us.

Carnival

We are back in Rodney Bay (to let our eardrums recover) after sailing down to Castries, the capital of St Lucia for Carnival. Not one of the major Caribbean Carnivals but a spectacle nevertheless. A bit of history...Carnival originates from early Roman Catholic Italy...it was the last bash before Lent when they stopped eating meat and was literally carne vale or "farewell to flesh". So it’s very much a colonial heritage.

Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate - a tropical wave was passing through and brought torrential rain with it which dampened the parade a bit. But what a parade it was - skimpy costumes and some incredibly raunchy dancing - there's no touching with hands but a lot of bumping and grinding! Sadly, apart from some superb traditional bands from Martinique, the music all seems to come straight from the ghettos in New York - relentless and manic. Strange they have adopted that instead of building on their African, Caribbean heritage. There were no steel bands, no reggae, no calypso, no Senegalese music. We are really hoping that the Carnival in Grenada (in August and we’re hoping to visit) hasn’t changed since we were last there 10 years ago, it was brilliant. For more pics go to http://picasaweb.google.com/Ironylondon/StLuciaCarnival

Our other boat is in the background!!!!!!!

Back in St Lucia

We sailed south to Martinique and stocked up on French wines and cheeses in Le Marin. It is still filled with hundreds of boats at anchor. On Bastille Day the local boats came out for a race and made a colourful scene with their huge sails. We're now in St Lucia and anchored off Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay. It's looking tropically lush with all the flame trees in full bloom. Carnival here on Monday and Tuesday so we are going to sail down to Castries to check it out.

Marigot Bay

We FINALLY left the lagoon and went through the French bridge this morning. We are anchored in Marigot Bay. It's a day for scraping the bottom of the boat so we've had the dive compressor and bottles out. There are some very surprised crabs and mussels trying to find a new home! Check out tomorrow and then southwards.

End in sight!

Nic finally got the generator going on Sunday afternoon. We also installed the 2 wind generators on the mizzen mast so Irony has gone green. Now we're putting the boat back together and will head south to St Lucia once the latest tropical wave moves through this weekend.