Guest Robert swims with no goggles, and prefers it that way. Pretty impressive, right? Well, I think he’s missing out on all the great stuff you can see underwater. So today, he gets to name this blog in exchange for him wearing goggles on tomorrow’s swim. Thus the name of the blog.

*The lush hills of St. Vincent on the horizon, including the cloud topped volcano, La Surfriére.*

Another early sail, this time from Bequia Island to St. Vincent proper. This big, tall, volcanic island gives us a welcome respite from the wind, and her southwest shores are glassy. We anchored in a little cove near Petit Byahout park, a lush nature preserve. In fact, the whole island of St. Vincent is lush, with bright green vegetation climbing steep, dramatic cliffs and misty clouds hovering over the hills and the volcano, La Sufriére.

Let’s go swimming! First to the bay to our south that borders the park. Big rock formations stick out the water, teeming with healthy coral and a lot of fish. Some of us checked out the black sand beach and the two huge slabs of rock just underwater with narrow cracks filled with juvenile fish. The water is clear and a couple of degrees cooler than the other islands where we’ve been this week.

We swam north to the next bay, where Captain Jason met us in front of a cave. He explained that it’s full of bats, and told us how we can swim through the cave with limited disturbance to our winged friends. We dog-paddled our way through, bats squealing, flying over our heads. The exit to the cave is a narrow crack in the rock, slowly exposing an electric blue glow in the water, and then you’re out and swimming over a coral garden. A peak experience.

Robert loves to play, and especially with a ball. This beach ball kept him busy for 45 minutes today.

We moved to Happy Hill, which it is, and hid from the sun and heat all afternoon, reading and napping in the shadows. Zack and I went out in search of ice. We wound up in the little village of Layou, perhaps the most welcoming place on earth. Crowing roosters, crying babies, barking dogs. We bounced around a bit, meeting people and asking about ice, until we were finally directed to Michelle’s house. The guy that brought us to her said “Michelle, I brought some white people for you!”. Michelle indeed sold ice, in units of solid 5-gallon pails. Perfect.

Our afternoon swim was a celebration of wildlife, including eels, tons of tropical fish and a few very curious and friendly octopi!

*The green of St. Vincent is on full display here at Happy Hill bay.*

Our afternoon swim ended with an hour of play with a couple of very curious octopi, followed by a red sunset washed down with gin and tonics. Jemima put out a scrumptious Jamaican Jerk Chicken dinner. Looks like rain tonight, batten down the hatches!

Hopper