St. Lucia to St. Martin: Dolphins and Orcas

Susan and I sailed back up to St. Lucia and met our trusted and able-bodied crew, Sam Dickson.  You may remember Sam from the trip south! This week Sam is joining us to get back to St. Martin, with touring stops in St. Eustatius and Saba.  We didn't have a lot of wind, but the sights were memorable!

First highlight was a ridiculously large pod of dolphins swimming south off the coast of Martinique.  There were hundreds, so we slowly turned the boat back south to watch them:

"OK, that was cool, but what else ya got?"

Next day we were off the coast of Nevus/St. Kitts, and the sea was glass.

See, glass sea.

Susan was first to spot the "What is that dot?"  We got closer and this is what we saw:

Sam was first to identify them as Orcas.  I must say I was skeptical until I checked the markings against Google.  The distinctive gray saddle patch and the white markings are the giveaways.  Sure enough, there are not one but two types of North Atlantic killer whales.

Sam also captured two pics of two of them swimming under the boat to check us out.  One has even flipped over, I guess for a better view:

Later that evening we anchored off Oranjestad in Sint Eustatius (Statia) and the next day we walked the island.

Steep road to town!

We hiked to the top rim of the dormant volcano called The Quill.  Spectacular!

Deep, lush crater behind us

Sam, atop the Quill, with Oranjestad below and Saba in the distance

On the Quill with Saba and St. Martin in the distance

Final stop: Saba

Looking way down to the airport.

The "beach"

Why we take a taxi here

Then back to St. Martin:

Megayacht "A" and Pratique arriving in St. Martin

St. Lucia, Bequia and Mustique

Before we started north again, we visited St. Lucia, Bequia and Mustique.  A few of the highlights:

Rodney Bay, March 2016

Looking south from the fort

Soufriere

Pitons

Not the first one to pose this!

Marigot

Marigot

What other kinds are there?

Bequia has just the right mix of friendly people, a large and comfortable anchorage, and lots of walking and sights!

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary

Moonhole

De Niro's seat!

Mustique is an ultra-exclusive and mostly private play island for the super-rich.  We tourist-cruisers were allowed access to the "public" landing and anchorage at Britannia Bay.  Most weeks you can still walk freely around the island to gawk at villas previously owned by Princess Margaret, Tommy Hilfiger, Mick Jagger and David Bowie. When we visited Easter Holiday restrictions were in effect, so we had to be "guided" by taxi around the island.  Hmm.

Can Tommy come out to play?

Susan after scuba diving at the Cotton House

Visiting Bequia and Mustique was a powerful tease for cruising the rest of the Grenadines.  We had to turn around and start north from here, but we vowed to return to the Grenadines and further south, in a year or two.