Traversing the Caribbean with Threats Unknown
As we left the mooring ball in Bequia in the Grenadines at 4:30 am, it was cool and dark but the stars shone brightly across the night sky and a 1/8 moon was peaking out. Nature's beauty was in stark contrast to the music that continued to blare from the shore. This was the same music that the villagers had been enjoying all Friday night and that had prevented us from getting a good sleep before the long day ahead. We should have been tipped off that a big party was underway that night when Roger saw the local fresh produce proprietor selling multiple customers something that most definitely was not of the vegetable variety.
As we headed out into the darkness and left the music behind, I saw the Big Dipper. My brother in-law, Ross, had mentioned seeing it the past several nights around 4 in the morning. During his two week visit, he had taken to sleeping on deck in order to enjoy the cool night breeze.
While Pamela and Ross had travelled with us from Martinique to St Vincent, on this 11 hour trip, it was just Roger and I now and we were headed further north. In just over 2 weeks time, we needed to be in the British Virgin Islands to greet some new guests who would be sailing with us there. While we had taken our time going south from Antigua to the Grenadines, we would be quickly island hopping for the journey back. This leg of the journey was to Sainte Anne, Martinique where we could easily anchor upon arrival given our familiarity that harbour.
Heading into the dark from Bequia, we knew there were a number of cargo ships about as we could see them on AIS. We were not the only sailboat underway either.
We were motoring as we passed by St Vincent at daybreak.
As we reached the landmark Pitons at the south end of St Lucia, the seas calmed and Pirate was genuinely happy.
By 5 pm, an hour before sunset, we reached our destination in Martinique. Pirate was very happy to finally get ashore to do her business and we enjoyed the sunset before heading into Le Marin the next day for a day of laundry and provisioning.
Our day in Le Marin was largely successful, and we were fortunate to meet our friends Doug and Lucy who had just arrived. They were heading south, while we were heading north so we took the opportunity to have a cappuccino with them at a dockside restaurant to get caught up before heading out.
We had a relaxing sail up along Martinique, reaching Saint Pierre at the north end about 5 hours later. While there were the inevitable clouds around the top of Mt Pelee, in the shot below I think I caught a rare glimpse of the volcano's peak.
On shore, some family-oriented Carnival festivities were taking place. Many of the small children came up to pet Pirate with their parents keeping a close eye, as it is unusual to see a dog as big as Pirate in these islands. We then headed back to the boat in time to see the sunset and head for bed as it would be another early morning. Next stop: Guadeloupe.
We set out at 4:30 AM in the dark with a bearing of 310 degrees. We had determined the day before that this heading would give us a clear path out of the mooring field avoiding the other anchored boats and the fishing pot floats that could foul our propeller.
By 6:45 a.m., we could see some rather nasty looking squalls approaching from upwind. This would prove to be one of our wettest crossings.
While we had been sailing along comfortably with full main and jib, we decided to play it safe and bring in the jib and put a reef in the main as the squall line approached. Soon the wind and rain came on hard and Roger was braving the elements. Despite what the lottery commercials try to sell you, living this life is not all relaxing poolside with a cocktail.
Our reward from the winds and rain was this rainbow.
We soon pulled the sails back out and cruised along under blue skies until an even larger squall headed our way, eventually blacking out the island of Dominica as we approached it from the south.
As you can see, we weren't the only ones traveling that day!
That squall too eventually passed and we were able to dry off and enjoy some time in the calm lee of Dominica.
The wind picked up nicely and the skies cleared as we headed out from behind Dominica on route to Guadeloupe. We had a great sail in 15-17 knots of breeze and the instruments indicated we would be arriving in Les Saintes, Guadeloupe a little earlier than expected. Pirate was particularly excited when a pod of dolphins came out to greet us, jumping and playing in our bow wave as we entered these beautiful little islands.
We were fortunate to secure a ball near Plage du Pain de Sucre, across from Ilet a Cabrit where we typically stay.
While Roger was taking Pirate ashore, I had some sailing friends from Antigua email to check to see how we were doing. They said there had been a US strike on a boat in the Grenadines and they wanted to make sure we were okay. We were shocked to say the least. We were obviously aware of what was happening in Venezuela, but had no idea that these activities were also happening in the Caribbean.
https://www.searchlight.vc/front-page/2026/02/17/us-confirms-strike-boat-off-svg/
The strike occurred not far off Canouan at 2pm on Friday, February 13th. We had literally sailed by that island 2 days before on Wednesday, February 11th. It also reminded me that we had seen a grey military-looking boat on our passage to Guadeloupe the night before. We had seen a similar boat on our southbound passage and in the Grenadines. Each time we saw the boat, we could not find it on our AIS instruments. At one point, Roger could see it on our radar system and briefly locked onto it as a target, which is something you occasionally do for collision concerns. He quickly thought better of that decision and removed the target completely. What I didn't know is that months before Roger had registered our boat with the US government. Our boat is also registered with the AIS and EPIRB system, so it is a known entity. However, in these uncertain times, apparently dinghy theft, or having your yacht broken into are not the only threats in the islands.
We named that boat Adventure I for a reason. Let's see what adventures await on the next leg of our journey north to Antigua and the BVI.
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