17 April – 20 April

In true Caribbean style the dive that Mandy and kemlo had arranged went on from an 08.30am start to “later man”… at last check it was 19.30 and later still had not arrived. There was a tough morning of eating breakfast, deliberating what factor suncream to wear and then flying a kite. This involved a ride over to an almost pearl white beach where the sunshine was soaked up and the two hot girls were ogled at …. No names Andy (pictures to prove) It was today that several of the bigger airport novels got finished off and a few new ones started, it was tough in the Tropics. After a light lunch and several hundred pages later those who were up to it went off for a quick swim and snorkel. A few big fish were sighted and so on return to the boat the intrepid snorkels set out again with hooks line and sinker. And as a result both Staffords managed to get not one, but two fish (between them and illegally) We had fish for dinner but fortunately not the ones caught (a) as they were too small and (b) they were caught illegally amd so thrown back.

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15th and Monday 16th April

The costumes for the casino night were scrabbled together from the holiday outfits on board. What an effort, particular mentions to Chris “the geek” Stafford, Ian “Bond baddie” Baylis and Phil “gangsta” Quellyn-Roberts (I’ve never seen a gangster with a double-barrelled surname before but hey). Needless to say many bottles of the finest bubbles were sunk and the ‘fake’ chips were flittered away somewhat frivolously. Kemlo won the blackjack and Phil the roulette.

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14th – 15th April

Chris drove the boat off the dock with no hassle, like a pro, maintaining a calm demeanour with tricky cross winds on our way to setting sail to Bequia. On arrival, a few of the group went ashore to explore…the exploration lead them to a bar to sample the array of fruit daquiris…the rest of us soon followed. This enticed us to sample the night life further, whereby we stumbled across a bar with a random live band, needless to say we all enjoyed a wee sing song and dance.

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13th – 14th April

We had an amazing feast of a BBQ (although we ran out of gas due to leaky bottle for the last few hunks of meat) but it all tasted great! Somewhat wearily, we played Trivial Pursuit, which the boys won (although they did have 2 extra players so they should and they only ever answered sport questions!)… we attempted watching a DVD, but only Kemlo made it to the end without passing out (no fault of the DVD … blame the Very Strong Rum from previous night’s antics)!

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Blog – 12th April – 13th April

After a brief stop in Marigot bay for more dinghy fuel etc after a morning of ever decreasing circles with people being dragged around behind the dinghy we set sail late afternoon for Wallilabou Bay, St Vincent,- the setting for Pirates of the Caribbean movies. En-route the boys tried yet again in vein to catch fish and the wind, ever reliable from the East decided to have a day off and go Southerly and right on the nose. The engine got a good workout and everyone had a little snooze as we cruised down, except Kathryn who we locked in the saloon with strict instructions not to surface until the first blog was produced. Despite driving clean through a load of feeding fish it seems they don’t want to eat our lures. We must visit the lure shop and change our tactics I feel! We squeezed in a 10 minute sail before the wind went wrong again so gave up on that one! We arrived in Wallilabou under the cover of darkness where we had a reservation for the local restaurant at 2030. With Chris and Nia in the dinghy we executed a crafty stern too manoeuvre and tied a line to the very dock where Johnny Depp swung around on the gallows. After a brief smarten up we headed ashore in the dinghy- mistake number one!

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Blog 1 – 10th April – 12th April

The sun, sea and rum have sent us all in total relaxation mode, resulting in a delay to our first blog being completed through chillout induced writers block. However, after a second day of watersports and cheesy music we are reinvigorated and able to put pen to paper…that and Ian has been giving us grief for our lack of blogging.

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Final blog. Sadly, Virgin Atlantic awaits later today but our final days have not disappointed.

Sunday in Wallilabou Bay was a great day, the snorkelling probably some of the best. We zoomed up the coast line in the tender and there’s just one after another magical little inlets. There are some waterfalls inland near the bay and, without any conviction that it was A Good Idea, we agreed with one of the local boat boys to take us there on foot. It felt a bit like venturing into the unknown circa 1800s being led off by this bare-footed scarey-looking youth but he was amazingly knowledgeable – anything you could eat, he knew about. Birds and wildlife – not a clue. Biggest danger: being run over by speeding locals in their fairly up-market cars.

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