Our next stop is the island of St Vincent and it is at its south end that we go ashore and put into action one of the more foolhardy ideas that has ever popped into my frequently off camber mind. A guide book of the island says that it’s possible to climb an active volcano, called Mt. Soufries (Mount Sulfur in English, the name a hint what lies ahead), using one of two paths, called harder and easier by the author. […]
At the island of Bequia, we go ashore for supplies and a bit of shopping but otherwise leave the place unmolested.
Mustique is known as a haven for British royalty and rock stars. Mick Jagger has a place here and performs most years in the annual blues festival at the local, and only, bar. The island shops are well stocked with high priced gourmet items and fine wines to supply its residents. Because we are there out of season, the place is nearly deserted.
The Tobago Cays are among nature’s most perfect places. Beautiful islands ringed with white sand beaches lined with coconut palms dot the area, and almost nobody lives there. We anchor behind a protecting reef but are otherwise exposed to the trade-winds that keep the day balmy. […]
Grenada, the island that became world famous when US forces invaded the place to free it from Castro commies who had briefly taken over, is today still forlorn thanks to being blasted by Hurricane Ivan several years ago. Until then, it had not been hit for 50 years. We didn’t spend much time here.
Trinidad has not been hit by a hurricane ever and so marks the southern end of the hurricane belt. Still, yacht insurers prefer that their insured vessels reach the equator by July 1 in order to be certain of safety. Since we are for practical purposes out of the danger zone and also in need of some refit work, we linger here for 8 days. […]
The long trip from Trinidad to Paramaribo, Suriname was largely uneventful except for an odd event that took place one evening at sundown. The sea was wonderfully calm, the sun was setting, and I was comfortably seated on the upper deck reading a book. The coastal plains of Suriname, some 25 miles to the west, was far out of sight. […]
Paramaribo is the capital of Suriname and almost the only place in the entire country that could be called a city. It lies up a large river that we had to enter using a pilot to guide us through the tricky channels. With no marina, we anchor just off the main hotel and take the tender ashore. […]
French Guyana, a department of France and not a sovereign nation, has as its capital the town of Cayenne, but as its harbor is too shallow to be accessible, so we pull into Kourou instead. One of this place’s two notable characteristics is that it’s the home of the French space program, a kind of Cape Canaveral in the jungle. […]
It is a moment we have all anticipated eagerly for some time now, and at approximately 8:30pm on June 20, 2006 it happens: we cross the equator. The crew and I are on the bridge, and Grant snaps a photo of the GPS screen at the instant of crossing thus commemorating on digital memory what we have experienced in real life. […]