St. Vincent and our favourite Grenadines

Two days with Kevin in Cumberland, our reunion with the flying kite fish, the bluest water in the world and everything else that happened.

A beautiful spot on this earth: St Vincent and the Grenadines. The country where we took our first steps after crossing the Atlantic. Back then, we made friends with locals on two islands: St Vincent and Bequia. We are now looking forward to making good on our promise to return soon 😍 In Mayreau, we meet up again with our friends from the Orenol, our Catalan buddy boat. Orenol means "flying fish" in Catalan. Got it? 😉 But first: off to Cumberland!

St. Vincent

The crossing from St Lucia goes really well and we arrive in Chateaubelair, St Vincent, early in the afternoon. Here we have to do the usual paperwork at customs. Then it's on to our favourite bay from February: Cumberland. It feels a bit like coming home. Our friend Kevin is already waiting for us with his paddleboard to pick up our lines. We moor here like we did back in Greece: dropping anchor and reversing ashore to tie a stern line to a palm tree. Kevin joins us on the boat for a drink. Kaya cooks us something delicious for dinner, then Thierry and I go to the restaurant on the beach with Kevin. A bit of reggae, a bit of dancing, life is good! 😎

Mitten im Leben

The next day we meet Kevin and his family on the beach. He has invited us to his home for dinner. He lives a few hills away with his two small children and his wife. As we have time, we go for a walk. The contrast to the sheltered life of children in Switzerland flashes through my mind: we walk for an hour or more, up and down steep hills, sometimes in the rain and sometimes under the beating sun. The older daughter walks, the little son is carried. Pushchairs are not a big issue here 😉 The obligatory speaker is also in our luggage, playing Schwellheim loudly. A Basel reggae / hip hop / dancehall band that Thierry played with as a saxophonist for many years (www.schwellheim.com). After a while, we arrive and Kevin shows us his little house and his garden, with palm, papaya and banana trees. He throws a couple of chicken wings on the barbecue with probably the best sauce in the world. Once again, we witness the incredibly big hearts of these people here. It's great that we can experience this 😍🥰 The next day we stay here again, Thierry goes for a walk to the village, I work and the children play on the beach 😉 In the evening, Kevin comes back to us, he has given us 3 lobsters, which he now wants to prepare for us on the barbecue. Bombastically delicious, this guy can make sauces! 🤩 Afterwards, Thierry and I go with Kevin to what is probably the worst village disco ever 🤣 but still fun.

Thank you St Vincent - once again we had a great time 😘

Via Bequia to Mayreau

On our way south, we make a short stop in Port Elizabeth, Bequia. This is the exact place where we dropped anchor after the Transat at the end of January. We will always have this feeling of arriving here. 😍 But we only stop briefly to visit our friend Kim and her family. We also pop into Two Sock's shop, the cool guy with the little fishing shop who repaired our fishing rod. After that, we set off on our way down to Salt Whistle Bay in Mayreau. We've never been here before and are really looking forward to it. Not only to the place, but also to the boat that is waiting for us there:

Hola Orenol!

The last time we saw each other was in Guadeloupe in Les Saintes. Now we drop anchor right in front of Alex and Bruna. It's great to see them again and we spend a few lovely days together. There's wind and the beach here is pretty cool for kitesurfing. We have dinner together in the evening and realise that there are hairy flying objects here as soon as the sun goes down! This is bat territory! 🦇🦇🦇 Haha, I don't like the critters. But unlike the Orenol, we're still lucky, because while Alex and Bruna are eating with us on board, dozens of them are romping around inside their boat, nibbling on the fruit and leaving their red poo stains behind... 😅😅 Not very amusing.

Regatta to Union Island and Tobago Cays

After the bat debacle, we make our way down to Union Island. Tomorrow there should be another nice wind for kiting, and we don't want to miss out on that. But first we treat ourselves to a little regatta with the Orenol, but we have to admit defeat in shame - they pull away from us 😪 They sailed upwind of us and stole the wind. Skill should be rewarded 😉 The next day we kite and wingfoil in the shallow water behind Frigate Island. A little kubb on the beach at sunset rounds off our day perfectly. Meanwhile, Gabriel, Kaya and David have been having fun on the Cervino with card games and other shenanigans. We make pizza together for dinner and then it's off to bed.

Snorkelling with turtles

Our next destination is called: Tobago Cays. You know what that means. Beautiful water and turtles as far as the eye can see. And, surprise surprise, there's wind for kiting! 😁 We're really enjoying it here right now. And then there's another highlight: a charter boat with a Swiss crew, two of whom we know, is moored next to us at the buoy. So beautiful! We stay here for a few more days and then set off for Petit Martinique, one of the smaller islands that belongs to Grenada. Next to it is Petit St Vincent, which is private and it costs 100 USD to go ashore here. No thanks 😉 On Petit Martinique, we do what we always do: climb the highest hill on the island. But it's not such a huge undertaking here either 😂

From here we head back to Carriacou. On the way, we stop briefly at a very special island: there is only one parasol here. Of course, our explorers don't miss out on this, while Kaya and I take a break on board. 😎 In Carriacou, we enjoy another beach day and see our friends Kathie, Aaron and crew again.

That was it, our sailing season in the West Indies. Our time here is coming to an end for the time being, the hurricane season is just around the corner and we are now heading for our base for the next five months. We've had a great time on the islands here, with lots of warm friendships and beautiful nature 🌋🌴 Now we're excited to see what Grenada has to offer 🃏! And of course I'm also looking forward to my Divemaster training and all the diving 🤿

What a hash is, how we lose our virginity, and how shitty a hurricane is?

Read it for yourself....