Grand View Beach Hotel St. Vincent

... and exhausted! Well, may as well try and make it, I thought, so gritted my teeth and dragged myself upward with burning thighs…..and then the real hardship began – we were now in the cloud and it was cold – really cold – and then the wind started whipping across the area just below the rim of the crater and nearly blew us over. We huddled together and ate our lunch still being buffeted by the howling wind waiting for the cloud to ...

... Bay in the lee of Basil's. The black sky above loomed ominously - but not for long, as the sky was darkening at a rapid rate to ebony. What followed has given me confidence and strength. Thorpe Park, Disney, Universal Studios - eat your hearts out. We survived 45 white knuckle minutes with Zoot. For most of those minutes our bums were not in contact with the "seat", whereas out hands were clinging on to various obscure bits of the boat for dear ...

... lumbering through the gardens or crossing the "roads". Courtship and mating is quite a noisy affair with much grunting and clacking of shells. Indeed in "the village" - more of which later - there is a huge, bronze statue of mating tortoises ( I guess nobody famour ever did anything here).
If the tortoises set the pace of life - then the lack of set times/hours is governed by the island's largest number of ...

So I blew off French Guyane all together, given the fact that it's not a real country anyway- merely an overseas department of France- complete with French prices. Add to that the fact that every mile traveled out means another mile I must travel back- the motto after all IS 'backpack, don't backtrack'- since interior roads are few and far between in this undeveloped wilderness. So I decided I'd maybe just go to the border and make an unofficial crossing ...

... northwest end of the island where the road ends and were going to walk the path to a beach to snorkel. We tagged along, and had a lovely chat with the Scottish duo. When we got to the beach turn off (a rock painted with a red dot), they said that the road continues around the north part of the island with gorgeous views of Petite Martinique, Petite St. Vincent and Union Islands before it reconnects with the bus route. We continued on alone ...

... boat (one of the 75 that sailed from Virginia to Tortola with us) that we caught up with when we were anchored in Les Saintes several weeks before. They met up with a friend of theirs who had just completed a circumnavigation. He started out in St. Lucia but was from New Jersey. Guy and Hanna invited us over to meet him that evening. It was bound to happen -- sooner or later -- nothing to write home about, but embarrassing just the same... We had just tied off to the ...

... King started the project when he was camping on the beach now located next to the site. While sleeping under the stars he was awakened by the unsettling feeling that someone was throwing sand at him. As he cautiously came out of his slumber he saw a mother sea turtle laying her eggs at his feet. Fascinated by the creature, he built his home here so he could watch the turtles hatch. Inspired by this event, Mr. King eventually ...

... fort guarded by sea-worn cannons. It provides a scenic and quiet place for an afternoon picnic retreat. Both Cinnamon Garden and Mount Pleasant offer shade and secluded gardens with panoramic, natural views. Paget Farm, a small fishing community and home to the lovely Banana Patch Studio, is another worthwhile destination. Best Unusual Attraction: Moonhole A magical, if not eerie, mix of Frank Lloyd Wright's ...

... and the cruising community is in constant contact here. We met Denise and Byron on the Island Spirit 400 South of Reality. Our visit was short but delightful as we compared notes. They headed south the next morning when a weather window opened. We had a lovely evening with Sharon and Gary on Elusive asking tons of questions about their 10 years of cruising. What a plethora of information they are! We made a quick trip to Mustique to pick up our bosun's chair...remember the ...

... subsided after a couple of years... She wasn't impressed, still got the part though! Ha ha! Well you lovely lot, I best sign off here now, this is getting a bit long winded. Sorry I haven't been in contact more, but with the laptops gone I can't spend time composing emails on the boat, and if I wore boxing gloves, I wouldn't type any slower. I don't even have the time or money to write persoanlised messages on the bottom here. The best I can do is tell you that you ...