The quest for the Black Pearl

Apartment at Barefoot (SVG)

After a week in Barbados we were eager to start our yacht search, and, if truth be told, Barbados, as beautiful as the beaches are and as perfect as the sea is,  is pretty touristy, extremely overpriced and it’s a struggle to find decent food.

We flew into St.Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) yesterday morning – 28th September – (you can read about the finer points here) to visit our first yacht. This place is beautiful; huge, craggy, volcanic,  jungle covered, lush mountains with the Grenadines scattered around in the surrounding sea and easily visible in the distance.

Rainbow Chaser - sea trial

We pretty much dumped our stuff in the hotel, had a coffee then went for a ‘test drive’ out on ‘Rainbow Chaser’  (bit of a crap name unfortunately).  The boat seems pretty good (not that I would know otherwise), she was a little shabby around the edges, but it’s hard not to get excited when you see the first potential buy and the dream starts to feel more like the reality. Some decisions need to be made very soon…

Sunset from the balcony

The food is good here, just what we attempted to find in Barbados but didn’t. We feasted on goat roti for lunch yesterday and it was delicious. The whole place just feels ‘real’, which sounds a bit silly, and it’s hard to explain, but there isn’t much  tourism visible in the village near where we’re staying. It’s just locals with a bakery and bars and a few shops and fish sold on the streets. No big glitzy hotels and air conditioned bars.

The set for The Pirates of the Caribbean is just north of here, we had a drink with one of the extras today, a British naval officer…