The Grenadines

 

The Grenadines have been on my bucket list for many years.

  I have dreamed of running on the beach of a desert island, 

  Of jumping off the stern of a catamaran,

Of drinking beer on the famous desert island where the Corona beer ad was filmed.

 I dreamed of dinner out with friends under the stars, with sand on under my feet, and listening to the beat of reggae music,

 

  Of sailing a big cat and anchoring in a secluded bay where the SCUBA diving is excellent.

 I wanted to visit the islands, meet the people, and enjoy the culture.

Last year I met a couple on Cozumel who organize sailing and SCUBA diving trips and they sent me an email saying they had one cabin available on a 50-foot catamaran out of Bequia that they posted on Ebay.  I was able to buy it for the minimum bid.  Then in November I met Sue at a sail in to the St. Francis Yacht Club. 

Sue loves to sail, ski, dive, travel, and said she would like to learn salsa dancing.  During the next six months we sailed, danced, skied, and got to know each other.  Now we have returned from our first one-week sailing and diving adventure together. 

We flew into Trinidad, stayed the night at a hotel near the airport, and flew to St. Vincent Saturday morning. 

We took a ferry to Bequia, a small island with a lot of history.  It was a slave trading island for many years and Alexander Hamilton grew up there.  He saw the slave market and the appalling treatment of the slaves affected him for life, and influenced the formation of the United States after the revolution.

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After lunch and a short walk around the sleeping town, we met our boat mates.  

We did not know in advance who would be sharing the boat with for a week and we were a little apprehensive, but we were very lucky to have two lovely couples and one single guy aboard, and a beautiful young South African couple as our captain and first mate.  One couple, Les and Trudy, are from Devon, England.  The second couple, David and Shirley from Dallas, Texas, and Scott is from Chicago.  All of them are close to our age and are charming.

Our young captain, Chandre is 23 years old but already has four years of constant experience sailing and has been skippering this boat almost 2 years.  He knows how to sail and treats the boat as his own, with care. 

As he says, “I love my baby.”  His partner, Lise, is a beautiful young woman who loves to cook and make people happy.  All her meals are prepared with love and presented as art. 

Our yacht is a 50 foot Fountaine Pajot catamaran with four cabins and four heads, plus crew quarters.  Sue won the flip of the coin and we got one of the aft cabins with a queen bed and lots of room.  

After boarding, we casted off and motored about a mile away from the dock to anchor for the night.  After welcoming cocktails, we arrived in heaven to our first dinner of half a barbecued lobster, salad, and roasted potatoes and garlic, paired with a nice chardonnay. 
 Followed by the best key lime pie I have ever eaten.  

Sunday morning we went around the corner of the island to a bay with a reef known for the variety of coral and see life.   This was Sue’s first SCUBA dive in many years and after a few minutes of buoyancy adjustment, she was back in the groove.  The reef was filled with a great variety of fish and coral.  We saw lobster, sharp nosed eel, spotted eel, lion fish, scorpion fish, and hundreds of other species. 

After the dive, we weighed anchor and motored to the island of Mustique, where Mick Jagger, Bryan Adams and several other rich and famous have huge homes.  We took a guided tour of the island in the afternoon.  Almost all the homes are for rent … from $24,000 to $40, 000 per week, including staff and a car.  There is a short field airport in the center of the island.  The island is also famous for it's population of protected turtles.   

We stopped a beach front resort for a short rest.  That evening Lise and Chandre prepared another fabulous dinner of barbecued pork tenderloin, baked breadfruit and salad.  For dessert, Lise prepared individual pineapple upside down cake made in a muffin pan.

Tuesday morning, we wenton Barabal Island and hiked to the top, where Chandre opened a bottle of champagne.  It rained on us, but no one minded the warm rain.   

   

Barabal Island had a lot of interesting animals, plants and shells.

Monday morning Sue and I got up early and went for a long swim before breakfast.  Then we weighed anchor for a 20-mile wild broad reach sail to Tobago Cays, which is famous for snorkeling.  The water at Tobago Cays was very clear but there was not as much sea life as there was at our first dive site.  That afternoon we moved to another bay which has a large turtle population.  We snorkeled with the turtles. 

After lunch we sailed to Union Island.    We had happy hour at Happy Island Bar, where a local kite boarder put on an amazing performance of aerial tricks, including grabbing a bottle of beer from a tourist standing on the pier while kite boarding at 20 miles per hour.   That night we went ashore for dinner on Petit Vincent Island.   The ambiance and reggae music were good, enjoyed after dinner dancing, but the food was mediocre, particularly for the price.  When we returned to the boat, we were surprised to see that Chandre and Lise cleaned our cabins and changed the sheets during the two and half ours we were ashore. 

After our walk to the beach on the north side, we played water coconut catch in with our boat mates and swam until lunch time.  After another delicious lunch, we weighed anchor and sailed to Bequia, where we anchored for the night.   During the sail to Bequia, Sue and I took the wheel and had fun sailing the 50-foot cat in 20 knots of wind. 

Then we motored to Salina Bay, Mayreau Island, where we anchored for the night.  Sue and I kayaked along the shore which has beautiful rock formations, and walked on the beach. The next morning, we hiked over the island to the other side, while Chandre motored the boat around the island to meet us.  Mayreau is the smallest inhabited island of the Grenadines with a population of 250.  We visited a church at the top of the one road that goes across the island.  There was a group of young children, ages 2-5, playing ball and Sue and I played toss with them for about 20 minutes, and took lots of photos.  One little girl came up and gave Sue a big hug, then all her friends joined in.  We had a beautiful view of Tobago Cays from behind the church.  

Wednesday morning, we motored to a tiny sand caye where Corona beer had erected a thatch umbrella for a commerical.    It was the epitome of a tropical Caribbean cay.

  Then we sailed to the west side of Union Island and anchored in a bay. After lunch of Mahi Mahi and mango salad, we went SCUBA diving and saw many spotted eel and a nudibranch.  

The next morning, we sailed to Mount Wynn Bay on the west side of St. Vincent.  We were the only boat in the bay.   The black sand beach in front of the grove of coconut trees and peaks in the background were gorgeous.  A local farmer brings his cows to the beach, which was an unusual site to see. We ate breakfast then Sue, Chandre and I put on our SCUBA gear and had a fantastic drift dive during which we saw a rare species of nudibranches.     

After the dive, Sue and I kayaked along the beach and past grottoes carved into the rock walls to the north.  We tried to swim but were quickly stung by tiny string jellyfish, so made a quick exit back to the boat.

After lunch, we weighed anchor and sailed back to Bequia, for dinner ashore and our last night of the trip. 

The week exceeded our expectations in the great sailing conditions, outstanding food, and excellent service. 

On the return trip home, we overnighted once again in Trinidad, but this time about 45-minute taxi ride from the airport in Port of Spain. 

We enjoyed the infinity pool at the Hyatt, wined and dined on the outside patio and enjoyed a watching the beautiful people of Trinidad filter into the hotel for a fund raising benefit event, the women all in beautiful gowns, quite a high end fashion show. 

Sunday morning, we boarded the flight to San Francisco.  We loved the Grenadines and wish we could have stayed longer.  We will return.