Matt and I decided last year that we need to keep sailing in our favourite places so we can always give personal first hand knowledge to clients, crews and owners. This summer when Hurricane Beryl hit Grenada we made the choice to still go, the islands need the support of tourism more than ever, so with excitement after the first of the winter Caribbean charter shows we headed down to Grenada.
Before boarding the yacht we spent the night at Calabash Hotel, somewhere we had had dinner some 20 years ago. The staff were so welcoming the room was wonderfully Caribbean, with views across the green and onto the beach and bay.
We headed off to Port Louis marina in George Town, it felt older than we felt it should have done, we spent the night on the dock and headed off to Carriacou the next day. It was the island of Carriacou that took the force of the hurricane and the damage was evident in the bay with yachts still at anchor with tattered sails. Customs was fast as we were greeted by another happy face and again we reminisced our previous visit!
We cleared in to St Vincent and the Grenadines through Union Island, this island had also been badly hit and the office had been moved and there were tents round by the dock for those currently without homes. The anchorage was deserted, so we spent the night in the beautiful bay surrounded by reef. The mooring guy asked if we needed anything so we asked him if he could get us a tuna! And an hour later he came back with a beautiful chunk of yellow fin tuna for us!
We sailed up to Salt Whistle Bay on Mayreau, this was an absolute highlight, the bay was just as beautiful as we remembered sadly the restaurant on the beach was derelict but then again 20 years ago the power had gone out and they told us to blow the candles out when we left! So it could have been like that years!
We sailed onto Canouan, this is somewhere we missed 20 years ago, although the investment was incoming little had been done so wasn’t somewhere we stopped, now with Sandy Lane Marina, it’s a whole new world! We ate Shenanigans Beach Club, the setting was beautiful and the food average. For breakfast we went to Foxy Jack’s and the cappuccino’s and eggs Benedict were perfect.
From here we headed up to Bequia, opting to anchor off Princess Margaret Beach, we had sundowners at Jack Beach Bar, where we had an early dinner, the kitchen shut at 7!
We then headed off to Mustique, and being in a catamaran we got the best mooring on the east end and in close. The water was spectacular, a couple of turtles popping up around us. In the afternoon we walked round to Lagoon Bay which is where we were married 21 years ago this month, still as beautiful as it was all those years ago. Basil’s Bar was busy for sundowners and we stayed on for dinner.
Lunch the following day we headed over to The Cotton House, the perfect beach restaurant, it was thanksgiving week so it was a bit busy but service was good and we eventually headed back to the boat and BBQ again that night.
Another morning watching the turtles and a trip to the bakery. And then we sailed off to the Tobago Cays, the wind had picked up a bit so we had a good sail and then motored up inside the reef and ventured through the Cays. We picked up a buoy and then bought a lobster off the boat guy and we had lobster on our bbq! He very kindly popped his knife through its head so I just cut him open and popped it on the grill.
It was quite a windy night behind the reef, we moved in the morning behind the island and it was much calmer so we stayed another night with more turtles popping by!
We then headed back to Canouan, we chose to go on the dock again in Sandy Land, we ventured down to Scruffy’s for bar food and while watching the sunset, the following morning the marina organised our clearing out of the Grenadines at the airport while we went back to Foxy Jacks for more great cappuccinos and breakfast.
We then headed off south back down to Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou, maybe the best sail of the week, bit of rain, but it was November, we arrived just in time to clear into Grenada and had one final BBQ at anchor, watched a catamaran drag their anchor through the anchorage! Nonstop entertainment!
We had an early start to get across to the mainland and all the way down to St George’s. Some great sailing between the islands, a few more squalls, and we were reminiscing about the last 10 days and how much we still love the Grenadines, nothing compares to exploring them by yacht.
Back in St George’s we went to the new restaurant Chez Louis that just opened in November, overlooking the marina, with a fresh decor compared to a lot of the places we visited the last 2 weeks.
We probably won’t be back for a few years but we definitely won’t leave it as long this time!
