We must have set sail from Bequia in the wee hours. After an afternoon of rum swizzles, crab racing, lobster pizza and jump-up I had lost whatever sense of time that I had. We were at St. Vincent when we awoke. The three of us had a small breakfast snack and gathered to hear the Captains story and Rusty's tours and events explained. Captain Neil laid the background for the inevitable joke by explaining that St. Vincent is the playground for the British royal family. Not the Queen of course but the lower ranks. Seems Princess Margeret (maggie) had a rather lusty reputation and used Vincent for a hunting ground. Seems the Queen and Princess Anne were driving in the Queen's Rolls in the London Shopping area when they were accosted by an armed mugger. He demanded all their valuables including the car. Anne protested but even removed her change purse from her bra when the mugger pointed it out. When the mugger sped off, Anne said "Oh dear, now we have no money to hire a taxi and we'll have to walk." The Queen said "Oh just open this umbrella and shield me." Anne did and noticed the Queen reached beneath her dress and fumbled around for a while. Queen showed Anne a roll of money and said "No Problem. A lady always has extra hiding space if she wants to use it." Anne said "bloody hell we could have saved the Rolls if Maggie had been here."
Rusty explained the main activity that day was going to be a boat tour of the island. The boats would go to the volcanic end of the island with pleasant outings planned and lunch at a beach side bistro. Sounded good to us so we signed up for the tour. One of the first sights the captain of my boat pointed out was the fort.  You can see from the construction of the fort that St. Vincent must have been French when the fort was built. The fort is now used as a prison. There are only 8 prisoners now, all female.
Somehow or other Leigh and Misty got on a different boat from me. Turned out to be both good and bad. Good in that I got good pictures of Leigh and Misty in their boat.   If the boats look fast, they were. Pro bass fishermen would kill for those boats. You could ski barefoot behind them. But lordy they were rough on the open water. Many times the captain would point out small patchs of marijuna being careful to let us know that Gunja was very much against the law. We saw several natives smoking tokes so large they would have choked a goat. The island cops are not very zealous inforcing the laws. We pulled in at a hidden cove and my captain told us not to take our cameras. She said where we were going was so wet that the cameras would be damaged and in fact destroyed. She then backed her boat up to a pier and we offloaded. Walked up a windy winding footpath up and down for about a quarter mile. When we got there we saw a waterfall about 200 feet high falling into a ice cold deep pool.The falling water was creating a stiff breeze but my camera would have been just fine. Never even got damp. Leigh and Misty went into the pool. I dabbled my feet in the water. Oh well, like Frasier and Niles this was the small flaw in an otherwise perfect outing. A native guy climbed up behind the falling water about 30 feet and jumped off. Macho guy (see Grenada tour) vowed he had no intention of doing that. meanwhile this very quiet mild looking guide did the same stunt. Well off went macho with his girl friend rolling her eyes. She said he cannot refuse a challenge. We hung out at the pool waterfall for about 30 minutes and then back to the boats. Turned out that that was as far north as we went as the boats headed back to our anchorage. I took many picturs attempting to show the geology of the island. It was built through both volcanic activity and seafloor uplift. Another feature that was striking to me was the low population density on the island. Apparently some clicque has control of the land and holds it tightly. The people all cluster at the south end of the island.
Just after noon we stopped at an open air beach bistro for lunch. Getting off the boats was a true adventure. The sharp wave action kept surging the boats into the shabby, flimsy 2 by 4 pier and tearing it apart. We heard it so often that we began to sing, "Careful, use both hands, let me hold that, take it easy".  For lunch we had creole chicken and fish. I discovered a wonderful sauce called "flambe". Like the name sounds it is very ...hummmm damned hot. There were several trees around the bistro with exotic flowers whose name I never discovered. There were natives there selling bracelets and jewelry made from.the elemental sulfur emitted by the volcano. Misty really wanted a piece but I who work around stinking molecules containing sulfur refused to spend andy money. Sulfur is very brittle and reeks of lit match smell until it all evaporates away.
We renegotiated our way into the boats over the rickety pier and roared off toward the harbor. About 30 minutes later we pulled in against a black sand beach.  The captain could only get within 15 feet of the shore but the water was still 30 feet deep so we had to swim in. I swam about a 100 feet since the backwash of the waves kept pulling me back. The waves, since the beach was so steep, would have sanded off the bottom of the boat. I couldn't swim and carry the camera so I got no pictures. I missed wonderful pictures of Leigh, Misty and I being tumbled ass over tea kettle by the waves. The waves would just sweep the sand out from your feet so it was impossible to stand at the waters edge. Suprizingly the surface of the black sand was not hot but if you burrowed your feet below the surface it felt as hot as a baking oven. We swam back to the boats and roared off toward the Yankee Clipper anchorage. The brothers, like young males around the world, exulted in the violence of therough pounding and the speed. We slowed once when some dolphins were sighted. I never got a picture of them. Strange how Americans are so thrilled by dolphins. I hope we are leading the world to a greater gentleness and appreciation of nature. The younger brother (damn it dad) became our team captain at a latter contest. Next tale will be about the "Sea Hunt" game where the truly awesome competive nature of the Robertson Sisters is displayed. Like me I believe Leigh and Misty would almost rather die than lose. You are truly immortal when you pass on a personal trait.
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