CLIFTON, UNION ISLAND ................

UNION ISLAND is the end of the St. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES chain and the place to clear Customs and Immigration for departure to the next island south ....... They are all sort of within spitting distance of each other ............ Years ago, I remember taking an hour to clear from CARRIACOU, then sailing a short distance, and then another hour to clear into UNION, paying a heap of EC Dollars, only to have the same bunch of guys from the last island walk right by me on UNION ..... No passports, no ship papers, no EC Dollars, no nothing .......... Still, we have to do the right thing, for we have more to lose if the regulations aren't followed .... And boy, do they know how to pile on the paperwork ......... So just before pulling up anchor from behind the reef at UNION ISLAND, we did another quick dinghy run to town ...



We had seen this little shop with a 'shoe repair' sign outside ............ So I took in my torn sandal, the one we had fixed in the Dominican Replublic ...... Anyone else would have got themselves another pair by now ....... Turns out, the 'Rasta' man did a superb job by inserting a whole new leather patch and while that was going on, I took a look at the stuff in his shop ...... Home made leather hides hanging on the wall, beautifully made belts, buckles and shoes ....... I mean the leather itself is straight form the hide, cleaned, scraped, stretched and dried ..... Check it out .....



I mean, look at these beautifully inlaid and embossed leather sandals, all hand-made right down to the permanent colouring of the leather ............ Works of art .......



Then came the biggest surprise of all, for the 'Rasta' man, Augustine (Jah Watcher) Douglas, had been presented with a Gold Award for craftsmanship by an organization who made the presentation to him in GENEVA, Switzerland, fares and accommodation included ............ Now that's an honour ...... Who would have seen that one coming in a little place like CLIFTON, St VINCENT and the GRENADINES........



Downtown CLIFTON is not exactly big ....... And the shoe repair man's shop is in the 'lean-to' behind the glass doors to the left of the RESTO-PIZZA place ..... Not much more than a hole in the wall really, but what a surprise .....



Most of the people we get to see are the fishermen and the vendors who operate these 'runabouts' with 40HP engines ........ All wood and all heavy, and they are pulled up a ramp by hand or with whatever vehicle is available ....... The ramp was built with a donation from JAPAN .......



So on our way back to the dinghy, having cleared Customs and Immigration by walking to the airport, we meet some other local inhabitants ...... Land tortoises, young and old, all quite contentedly feeding inside a courtyard garden of the Bougainvilla Hotel ......



Well, maybe not everyone is content, for this land crab looks none too happy ......



Behind that same hotel were these old PERKINS engines .......... What a shame they were not the same models as ours, for a few spare parts never go astray ...... Oh, and then there's this fisherman that caught us in the street, took us for a walk to his boat to sell us a freshly caught yellow-fin tuna ......... Trouble was that his scale read 12 lbs and that his asking price was $US 42.00 ........ "O.K." He said, then make me an offer, but by that time it is too late ...... We ended up buying the same size fish from another, that surprisingly weighed only 4 lbs and he was thrilled to get the $US 8.00 he asked for .............



And still on our way back to the dinghy we passed this sour-sop tree ...... If you ever get the chance, try this fruit ...... It is on a par with mangoes for heavenly perfection ............ SWEEEEEEEEEET .....


Finally we pull up the anchor, head out from behind the reef at UNION ISLAND and head across to CARRIACOU ...... This is a part of the next country GRENADA, the last country in the Caribbean island chain, for TRINIDAD & TOBAGO are considered more a part of the South American mainland ...... We once again drop the anchor, clear with Customs and Immigration, put the sun shade over the cabin top and observe our world anew .........On the good side is that we actually sailed at over ten knots(kts) at one point, with a little help from the ocean current ...... On the bad side is that our dinghy, while tied to the dock at CLIFTON, was puntured in five places by being pushed under the dock by another vessel that docked in the very limited space ...... Small price you pay for being in PARADISE ........ I'm onto it, with patches and glue ......