Sailing Log of a Mahe 36: Wallilabou Bay, St Vincent

We were up early for the second leg of our journey to Bequia, passing across the channel to St Vincent, down the west coast (leeward side) of St Vincent and across the channel to Bequia. We had dropped the mooring line by 08:00 that morning having been awake since very early listening to the wind howling with the rain squalls passing through.

After passing the Pitons, you start to head out west towards St. Vincent as the south end of St Lucia curves away to the east. We were soon therefore in the channel with the full force of the Atlantic swell on our beam, there were also regular squalls with wind speeds up to 27 knots. It was a pretty choppy crossing and not exactly what you imagine of Caribbean cruising, but Invincible took it in her stride. We’d reefed down accordingly but were amazed how many boats we saw under full sail in those wind speeds. We think mostly charter boats and although they generally have rough cut sails to accommodate the less experienced sailors that sail them, even then they were pushing it. We were amazed at the number of boats heading south, it felt like a regatta sailing in such company, we hoped they weren’t all going to Bequia, which has a reputation for Christmas and New Year celebrations as it was going to be very crowded on the anchorage!

Regatta of boats heading south past the Pitons

After a couple of hours we were in the lee of St Vincent and it looked fabulous, much less populated with the steep volcano of Soufriere on it’s northern shore topped in cloud. Kevin had been keen to see the film set of the Pirates of The Caribbean which is located in Wallilabou Bay there. We had a look in the pilot book and it looked so good, we decided to stay the night to break the journey to Bequia.

Film set for Pirates of the Caribbean

We took a mooring buoy with the help of the ever present boat boys alongside a selection of other boats who’d also stopped in. We went ashore in the dingy and had a look around the remnants of the film set and saw the locals washing clothes in the river nearby. We were able to check in with customs for St Vincent and the Grenadines with the custom’s officer who comes to his office here for an hour at 17:00. We then had a meal in the restaurant at the end of the pier, the front of which was also in the film and in the many props and souvenirs on show there including a pirates flag signed by the cast is the mast that Jack Sparrow steps of onto the jetty at the beginning of the first film.
We had easily the best meal we have had since we arrived in the Caribbean which was authentic local food. We shared Try-Try fishcakes to start, then I had a vegetarian plate and Kevin Creole chicken, which came with rice and fried plantains plus various kidney bean and other local accompaniments. We went back to the boat and obviously watched Pirates of the Caribbean (Part 1) to spot the shots of the bay which appears as Port Royale in the film.