Month: December 2019

Bequia is a pretty island next to St Vincent and our last stop in the Grenadines before heading to St Lucia for the holidays.

We arrived and immediately caught up with our friends Darcy and John on s/v Island Dream. The next day as we were heading back from lunch we ran into Meryl and Jim on m/v Kokomo. They were in Port Louis with us for a couple months and came to Bequia to get their boat painted.

Other friends Rose and Scott with s/v Cloudshadow are here also getting varnish work done so we’ll meet them for dinner one night.

We got in a couple dives that were pretty even though the water was rough.

We’ve been pretty lazy this week. We first anchored on the east side of Admiralty Bay but after a couple days moved to the west side where it was calmer. The wind has been pretty fierce with gusts to 47 knots last night. That means keeping a very close eye on the anchor bridle for chafing and checking the anchor alarm every so often to make sure we’re not dragging. Apparently one of the boats near us dragged their anchor about 4am this morning and had quite a fire drill to get the boat back in place and re-anchored, something that’s not easy to do in the dark. Gary watched while I slept through it all!

We’re waiting for the weather to calm a bit so we can head up to St Lucia on Friday or Saturday as it’s supposed to get knarly again next week. With all the wind Rudy has been in his bag. We flew him for the first two nights and that was it. Hopefully it will be sheltered enough in Marigot Bay, St Lucia so he can come out for Christmas.

We hopped over to Mustique for what we thought would be a few days. It’s a private island and you have to pay a fee just to anchor in the little bay.

Once there we headed to shore to have lunch at Basil’s and check out the island. We decided on a one hour cab tour and saw all the houses where the rich and famous stay. I think the cheapest we saw was $18,000 US for a week.

Although the island is pretty with well paved roads, lots of flowers and landscaping, the workers all live in one area of the island and the temporary construction workers live in another specific area. Everything is very controlled and it just really didn’t have that “island” feel that we’ve become so used to.

The anchorage got very rolly so after one night we pulled up the anchor and headed to Bequia.

We originally anticipated leaving Grenada on the 1st and actually left on the 4th so in boater’s lingo we were right on time!

After a rebuild of the motor our davit still didn’t work we called it and headed for Caricou. We didn’t want to waste any more time in the marina so now we’re just towing the dinghy where ever we go. It adds another wrinkle to anchoring and docking but I think we’ve figured it out and this will be fine until we get to Rodney Bay at St Lucia.  At that point we’ll have all the parts and pieces shipped to us and installed there.

After an overnight in Tyrell Bay, Caricou we headed to Union Island to check into St Vincent and the Grenadines. Then over to Tobago Cays to experience the turtle sanctuary. Although we only saw a couple turtles within the confines of the sanctuary we can see them all day around the boat. They really are everywhere.

Last night we went to a “beach barbecue” and had the best lobster dinner yet. Romeo and his cousin picked us up at our boat and ran us over to the beach in their little wooden fishing boat where we had a table waiting. Great food, great service, definitely not Grenada!

 

 

 

 

Of course we’re back in the land of boat boys and every morning someone comes by with fresh baguettes and banana bread for sale. Afternoons brings a different boat with fresh fish and lobster.

We decided to overnight at Saline Bay on Mayreau. Although it was fine when we went to bed, this is what arrived early the next morning.

So up anchor and let’s move to Chatham Bay on Union Island. We stayed here in the spring and it is a little oasis that not many boaters stop at. The weather is supposed to be “salty” the rest of the week so we’ll stay here and enjoy the beach restaurant shacks, play with the kayaks and snorkel for the week until everything calms down and then on to Bequia to meet up with friends.

Leaving Grenada is bittersweet. We’ve had a lovely time here for the last six months and will always think of it fondly. The Grenadians are a very warm people, always willing to help with whatever you need. They are also very proud of their island and want tourists to have a great experience while here.

One thing that you don’t see on the island is slovenly dressed people (except for a couple tourists). I’ve seen security at the mall turn away a group of ladies trying to enter because they were wearing skimpy coverups over bathing suits. Not acceptable.

Some of the things we will fondly remember from Grenada:

-The buses. Prompt, noisy, usually quite full and fun. They will actually have a friendly argument with other buses to get you as a paying passenger.

-The friendliness. Taxi drivers and boat workers will bring you fresh fruit from their trees, for free. Many of them consider themselves to be ambassadors for their island and act accordingly. Everyone we encountered were smiling, polite and helpful.

-The music. Grenada takes island music up a notch. It’s loud, crazy and we didn’t understand a word. But it was fun.

-The horns. Drivers on the roads talk to each other with their horns. Not in an angry way but as a way to say hello, I’d like to pass or just to let people know they are there. In six months we only encountered one impatient driver.

-GMT or Grenada maybe time. There really isn’t a sense of urgency about anything on the island.

-The unlimited wifi we’ve had at the marina. I can’t count how many series and movies we’ve binged watched while here.

-All our friends at Eco Dive, Grenada. They were the best.

-Ron at Island Water World. It was a medium walk to get there and back but Ron was quick to arrange delivery for anything heavy like anchor chain or a kayak.

-All our wonderful dock mates that we got to know. Richard and Olive, Chuck and Caren, Gary and Naimh, Liza and Kaz and many others. Some were there the entire summer, some came in for only a week or a month, but we enjoyed our time spent with all of them. We’ll look for them as we move north and hopefully share a sundowner or two along the way.