Sailboat Discovery: St Lucia and the Grenadines

St Lucia and the Grenadines

After our stay on Martinique as interesting as it was, our focus went back to our deadline to get down to Grenada and out of the hurricane box by June 1. So we left from Grand Anse another one of the wonderful french fishing villages at first light with our destination to be Rodney Bay the northern most anchorage with customs so we could clear in. Rodney bay is home to a wonderful IGY marina with facilities for mega yachts all the way to cruisers like us! It has a great group of bakeries, stores, marine stores, a sail loft, electronics service shop and several restaurants! The floating docks are great and the prices during the cruising season are very reasonable. We anchored off the beach that is home to Sandals and several other lage resorts! It was a easy dingy trip into the visitor dock and then we had access to all the facilities at the marina. We also took the dink thru the marina to the lagoon that is further in island and that gave us access to more stores, groceries etc. We took advantage of our time and did a tour of Pigeon island and the British fort that overlooks the anchorage, its a very well preserved example of the types of fortifications that dot the Caribbean islands. We also did a tour by bus of the island, this gave us a chance to see the famous Pitons up close with out having to take our boat to this less area that has a history of boat boarding's and robberies. The Pitons are two volcanic mini mountains that rise straight out of the sea and are spectacular!

We decided to bypass the southern part of St Lucia but the entire island of St Vincent the next island south. On our way we changed our mind and after the 40 mile passage from St Lucia to St Vincent we stopped at Chandebilar the Northernmost anchorage on the island. As it turned out it was a mistake, when we arrived a boat boy came out and meet us , he showed us where we should anchor, then he took us ashore to find the customs house and clear into the island, the customs office was closed and no one knew when they would open. So we returned to the beach and our boat boy took us back to the boat. The village was clearly very poor even by Caribbean standards, very quickly we had two fellows paddle out to our boat begging for food, batteries etc. Also we learned that one of the three boats that were anchored in the bay was broken into 3 days prior. The robbers beat up the boaters, stole money, passports and the dingy. This pretty much sealed the deal and we decided that we would stand watch that night and leave at first light. If the robbery wasn't enough the swell was so bad we could not sleep even if we wanted to!

So at first light we were off to Bequia, a island just 5 miles south of St Vincent that is the gateway to the Grenadines! The Grenadines is group of small islands located just south of St Vincent, they are part of the country of St Vincent and are positioned on a shallow bank of wonderful white sand and coral reefs. Included in the Grenadines is the Tabago Keys, islands that have perhaps the best combination of sand, clear water and beaches in the entire eastern Caribbean!

Bequia is the first stop coming from the north to the Grenadines. Its the largest island and is home to great eating places, good snorkeling and the best sail loft in the Caribbean to get chaps or other canvas work done on your boat! The snorkeling on the point that's located on the north edge of Admiralty is spectacular! Its also a convenient place to clear into St Vincent from the North and clear out when traveling from the south! We spent a few days enjoying Bequia and then headed to Mayreau and the the Tobago Keys!

Maryeau is a cool island with two really special anchorages, Salt whistle on the north edge and Saline a little further south. Saltwhistle may be the most photogenic anchorage in the Caribbean if you like south pacific looking beaches! Saline bay has a great beach and its less crowded than Salt Whistle. It also is well protected to swell and offers a peaceful night sleep! And unlike Salt Whistle you can anchor here instead of being required to take a mooring ball. There is a small village at the top of the hill with small grocery store and a few restaurants!

From Mayreau its a short 4 mile sail around the top to the Tabago Keys, these small islands are scenic and along with the reefs offer just enough protection to be comfortable. There is a section between the islands that is a turtle sanctuary with area roped off to protect them, it makes for a great place to snorkel and get up close to the turtles! In addition there is a small island just beyond the turtle area that's called Petite Tabac, it was used in the first Pirates of

the Caribbean movie, its the one where Captain Jack was marooned and where Elizabeth built a bonfire and burned the rum, its a wonderfully beautiful island and cool to be on one of the sets of that movie!

After our visit to the Tabago keys we headed south to Union island, the last of the Grenadines islands and the place we can clear out of St Vincent! We anchored at Chatham bay a large very well protected bay at the northwest side of the island! Chatham is surrounded by tall hills and anchored up next to the north hills we were snug as a bug in a rug.... until the gusts started rushing down the mountains, the wind would be light and then all of a sudden wham 25 knot gusts come rushing down, not really a big deal but we needed to make sure the anchor was well set in the soft sand! We had a great 5 day stay in Chatham, our first day we were greeted by a boat boy named Bushman, he was representing a beach restaurant called Boll heads, we told him that we were good for dinner that night but we would consider him in the coming days. The next day he came by again but this time with another fellow in a differnt boat, he explained that his boat was broken and he couldn't work, he asked if he could borrow our dinghy, not sure why but i said ok, he told us if he was successful in getting customers for dinner we could come and have dinner for free! He did find customers and we were invited to dinner and had a great meal! This arrangement lasted several days and we either ate at the restaurant or had dinner brought to the boat! We snorkeled and ate like kings during our 5 days at Chatham, but we needed to move on to Clifton the village at the south side where we could clear out of St Vincent and leave for Grenada! The day we left Chatham our new friend Bushman came by in the morning to take me fishing, I envisioned rods reels etc! But instead we took my dink just 100 feet from our boat and Bushman jumped into the water and came up with a rope, we then pulled up a huge fish trap loaded with fish! Bushman picked out several big ones, scaled and cleaned them and we put them in the fridge! We gave our new friend some t shirts and exchanged hugs and promised to visit again! Next day we sailed to Clifton cleared out and made our way to our final destination for the season Grenada!