Yesterday we sailed from the south of St. Vincent to a bay on the west coast that's named Wallilabou. It is a very scenic bay with an arched cliff in the north corner, ashore you find buildings that look old but if you look behind the front you'll discover scaffolding. That's because the village was built up for the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean. Jack Sparrow stepped ashore on the same jetty as we did. Led by a local boy we took a short walk to the waterfall, the waterfall wasn't that exciting but the road that led to it was. Our guide showed us nutmeg trees and cranberries. We also got to meet the donkey that played a part in the Pirates movie, he was very sweet. Sadly we never met Jack Sparrow, but our guide persisted to tell us that his name was Johnny Depp. But he was a bit too young for us so there never was any romance with the pirate, if you don't count our fantasies while walking around in the small village.

We had decided to sail to St. Lucia during the night, usually the wind eases a bit during night so we thought that would be better for our new crew members. We armed them with a steady dinner and seasickness tablets before we left around 9 pm. It didn't take long before the calmness gave way for a strong gale blowing from the direction we wanted to go forcing us to sail close hauled. The ride was very bumpy, I could see how clouds with strong gusts and rain were closing in on us. I reefed the main and started to furl the headsail, but something was wrong with it. The problem was hard to fix while the boat was heaving and surging into the sea, rushing big waves of water along the foredeck making it impossible to go there without inflating the lifejacket. Instead we took the second reef in the main and then we were alright. Although the wind decreased to a normal gale after a while the waves continued to push us around. Something that our new crewmember Jane wasn't too satisfied with, she decided to make a sacrifice, her last dinner. Later she told me that it wasn't her best night, but she'd had worse hangovers. Cecilia on the other hand coped very well with the waves and could sleep down in the saloon when she was off watch. But she had taken a stronger seasickness tablet maybe that did the difference. Next time Jane is going to try one of those as well. When we got close to St. Lucia in the morning the waves became smaller and I could go on foredeck and take the furler apart. We furled the headsail and motorized to the anchorage outside Soufriere.

Here we have had a lovely lazy day ashore, a snorkelling trip around the boat and a well deserved hair wash in saltwater. A sun downer made of vanilla rum and fresh lime topped with nutmeg completed the vacation feeling and made us all very tired and ready to go to bed early. / The Captain