<center>St. Vincent & the Grenadines
May 12-19, 2008</center>On May 12, we left DFW Airport on a 6:00am flight destined for Orlando, FL, and after a series of successful flights-including an on-time and wonderful Liat flight we arrived in
St. Vincent. After we passed through a quick line in customs, Pearl took us to the Barefoot base. We checked in to the apartment there and headed downstairs for dinner and drinks. It was turning out to be a great night; the temperature was perfect, cool breezes blowing, we continued upstairs on the balcony with a few drinks and decided to turn in to bed. Everything was fine until about midnight when we were swarmed with thousands of mosquitoes! I ended up wrapping myself in a sheet and sleeping in the hammock outside where the breeze kept most of the mosquitoes at bay, my husband soon followed. An hour later Jenn came out and slept in the chair wrapped up in a sheet with only her eyes showing! Needless to say, it wasn’t the best night’s sleep we had ever had but by morning the mosquitoes had disappeared. …..if you stay at the apartment-take bug spray! My husband’s feet looked like they had been shot with buckshot! The next morning we took our last real shower, ate breakfast, had a great chart briefing with Phillip (wish I would have taken notes though, he gives you so much information!), and got checked out on our Bavaria 40. The destination for the day was Admirality Bay, Bequia so we didn’t have a very long sail which is nice for the first day. Seas were 6-8 feet and even with taking Bonine we were all a bit queasy. The first day is always tough on us-after that we always seem to be fine. We sailed main only just because it was taking us a little time getting our sea legs not to mention the breeze was blowing a steady 20+. BTW, it looked like the main on the boat had been cut down about 20%. Not sure if Barefoot does that on all their boats, but that was the first time we had seen the sails cut down like that.
Admirality Bay, Bequia-we anchored down by Tony Gibbons beach then went to town to check it out and scope out a place for dinner. This is the one place we did not get to spend enough time. I would love to go back and maybe even stay land based a few days or at least spend more than one night there-we missed so much on Bequia! We walked all the way around the bay and even up in to the hill (geocaching). Highlights definitely were the Rasta vegetable market (best mangos I’ve ever had! They taste so different from the ones I buy at home - we spent $20.00 US before we knew what hit us!), shopping, seeing the model boats, we did end up buying a coconut boat from a vendor! It even made it’s way all the way back to Dallas! We had the most awesome curry shrimp dinner at Gingerbread’s with superb company and service. Going in to shore in the morning our dingy motor went ka-put in the middle of the bay. Luckily a taxi came to our rescue to tow us in (for only $40 EC). Since I left my ipod at the base, we were waiting around Bequia anyway waiting on the SVG Air flight to bring it in (my husband had been dispatched via cab to the airport to wait on the flight - now we were also waiting to having our motor fixed. That gave us a good excuse to have brunch at the Frangipani, talk with some folks, see the church, etc. Finally the motor was operational (or so we thought…..) the SVG Air flight was recalled from the runway in St. Vincent so it never arrived in Bequia but at least my husband got to see the airport there and chat the cab driver for two hours, right? Oh well. SVG Air said they would send it over to Mustique. We finally got out of there about lunch time and headed for Mustique.
Britannia Bay, Mustique- After much discussion with crew (like I said, should have taken notes in the chart briefing!), we opted to sail between Petit Nevis and Middle Cay en route to Mustique. So far the sail to this point had been quite enjoyable in spite of tacking about 25 times. As we approached Petit Nevis & Middle Cay we were going to have to tack about 25 more times to get through the channel, the current was getting stronger and pushing us back and we just didn’t seem to be making much headway. Since we left Bequia so late in the day and we wanted to enjoy Mustique, we fired up the motor to get us through the channel. This turned out not to be a very popular decision among the crew but we really shouldn’t have to work so hard on vacation, right? Anyway, we picked up the mandatory mooring and headed ashore to rent a mule. There was a geocache on Mustique we were off to find. Of course Mustique is unlike any other Caribbean island I’ve ever been to and funny enough the airport is one of the landmarks that sticks in my mind. It was pretty impressive. I’ve never seen a runway so beautiful! BTW, no ipod made it to Mustique. We started to joke that we would never see the iPod ever again. Mustique is just simply pristine. Almost sterile for a Caribbean island. Macaroni beach is gorgeous with a wonderful park and bbq. I wish we had more time to pack a cooler, picnic and enjoy the beach but it would be getting dark soon and we needed to clean up for dinner at Basil’s. I would agree with The Usual Suspect’s review of Basil’s as overpriced and not that great but it was the only place in the Grenadines that we could get lobster and Jenn really wanted to eat there. Being the famous Basil’s it was worth experiencing but if there is a next time I think I would opt for Firefly or just eating on the boat.
Salt Whistle Bay, Mayreau- BEST EVER! What else can I say? Hands down, this was the favorite stop of all four of us (yes, even better than the Tobago Cays). Just simply gorgeous and the best place to slip your legs through a life jacket, grab a Hairoun and float in the water behind the boat. The anchorage was just a bit crowded and a boat boy led us to a great spot very close to shore that we would not have picked otherwise smack dab in between two big cats. It was a perfect spot for a swim to shore to hang on the beach. After a swim, Curtis drove us up the hill to the church and to see Saline Bay. He was a wonderful tour guide and provided great insight to life on Mayreau. Even got to see his house and stop and pick up some bread for “his old lady”. If Curtis isn’t on the beach in his hut by the dingy dock selling his crafts, there is a sign with his number to call if you need a ride! Some may say that is a decent walk. Those people must really like to walk, it’s quite the hike! Curtis took us to meet James at Island Paradise so that we could get our dinner order in. I will tell you this was the best meal of our trip and coincidentally the most inexpensive. Curtis then introduced us to Robert of Robert Righteous da Youths fame. Our plan was to have a drink with Robert then mosey up to Robert’s for dinner. A perfect plan! Robert Righteous is everything we expected from John and Darcy’s report, definitely something to experience. Robert sat down with us and chatted while we enjoyed some lamby, cold Hairoun and rum punch! Again, dinner was just perfection at Island Paradise and a group of locals attempted to teach us how to play the card game “All Fours” but I think we just had too much to drink to catch on!
Tobago Cays- I really almost hate to say this and we may be the only 4 people on the planet to think this but the Tobago Cays, while beautiful and a place I would never think of missing on a Grenadines charter wasn’t as great as I was expecting it to be. After reading everything on the Grenadines we could and speaking to friends that have been there before us I was expecting a huge “wow” factor. The one common thread I have always heard is how everyone had wanted to spend more time in the Tobago Cays and I was expecting this to be the highlight of the trip if not my life. If you haven’t traveled Caribbean much I could see how the Tobago Cays would be the “end all be all” but for us it was a nice stop and pretty but I think we could have even just made it a day stop. The highlight of the Tobago Cays for us was the naked French people that had anchored, very closely I might say to us, who did not put their clothes on the entire day and the Australian’s on the other side in their 50 foot boat they sailed over from France. After good conversation with the Australian’s on their luxurious yacht (a 50’ Benateau), we had a beach bbq on Petit Bateau of kingfish, conch, and fruit. The temperature was mild, sunset beautiful, got to see a nurse shark and stingray in about 6 inches of water. I was yet another fun evening!
Mopion and Clifton, Union Island- Since we were going to be leaving out of Union the following day on an 11:00 am flight we opted to stay at Clifton instead of overnighting in Chatham Bay or PSV which is probably recommended. It could have been done but we just didn’t want to mess with having to move to early in the morning. From the Tobago Cays we went to Mopion for a lunch stop. A word to the wise, you need to keep a close look out for rocks on your dinghy ride to the island! Might want to consider rowing when you get close or notch the motor up one or two ticks! Getting to Clifton we opted to pick up a mooring as we heard from a few sources that holding is not so great in Clifton and I had not heard anything bad about the moorings. The description of the moorings is definitely true. We are used to the nice Moore Secure moorings in the BVI. We tied up to two pieces of Styrofoam and a cooler. Once we decided that we were not going to break off the “ball”, we took a walk through Clifton and bought a few last minute souvenirs, and decided to have a drink at the Anchorage Yacht Club before going back to clean up for dinner. My advice is to get a beer. The rum punch was one of those that just puts an end to you evening before it even starts. We had dinner at Lambi’s – not the best meal but I can say they had the best steel drum band I’ve ever heard in my life. I’ve never heard such energy coming from a steel drum band! The next morning we leave the boat tied up to the dock at the AYC, ate breakfast at the Bougainvillea. Dropping the boat off like that is a very odd feeling. “Just call us and we’ll get over to get the boat.” We did so, and crossed our fingers that it wouldn’t be taken for a joy ride. We made the 200 yard walk over to the airport where we found out that we were going to be flying on a Twin Otter. The trip on the Twin Otter had to Andy’s favorite part of the trip (he’s a pilot). As everyone in the plane was looking out the windows at the island below, Andy was like a kid in a candy store watching the pilots fly. Now, I failed to mention earlier that as we were underway to Mayreau I received a phone call from SVG Air stating I had a package in Bequia…..my ipod made it to Bequia (2 days after we were there). Since we were flying SVG Air out of Union in a few days I asked if it could be flown over to Union and I could just get it when we flew out. Getting to the airport in Union, I thought what the heck; let’s ask to see if my ipod is here. Turns out it was there but it still was addressed to Bequia and they had just sent it out on a flight to Bequia that morning! Now, I had figured long ago I would never see my ipod again but they said they could get my ipod on a flight arriving in Barbados 36 minutes after we arrive, sure enough we wait around after landing in Barbados, and lo and behold! I got my ipod………can you believe it? My iPod could post it’s own trip report!
Barbados-With 19 hours to spend in Barbados we planned on a whirlwind tour. The wind was taken out of our sails when we realized it was Sunday and EVERYTHING is closed! So much for the Mt. Gay Rum tour . We checked in to Time Out at the Gap, not a place I would want to spend a week long vacation but it served its post charter purpose-clean, A/C, bathroom and a bed. It was lunch time and we walked the Gap to have a cheeseburger in paradise and a Banks beer at Sweet Tomato and made our dinner reservations at the best restaurant of the entire trip, Pieces. Even though everything was closed we did hire a taxi for an hour or so to drive us around to at least see what sights we could see- Bridgetown, Independence Square, the Synagogue, a few beaches, etc. That got us back to the hotel just in time to take a real shower and walk the Gap again to dinner. Apparently our hotel is the place for happy hours – no one really stays there but they all go for drinks. That being said, it was like Cancun during spring break when we got back after dinner. But a perfect way to end the drink- a few more Banks (Carib for me) and off to bed for our 4:00am wake up call!!
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Side notes:[/color]
Money- take lots of small bills, either EC or dollars it doesn’t matter. We took all $20’s and making change was a problem everywhere. Take a bunch of $5’s and $10’s.
Boat Boys- I loved them! Didn’t find them pushy or annoying at all, in fact, we rather embraced them. They were very helpful in the fact that we were always in need of ice, bread, souvenirs, a beach bbq, rum or something….
Liat- a very enjoyable flight. The flight attendant made the flight-she was so awesome, pleasant and funny. The flight was exactly on time and the luggage made it from the tarmac to the plane!
If you carry a hand held GPS, check out
http://www.geocaching.com/. Even though we never found the cache, we did have a great time looking for them and went to places that we probably never would have.
Link to pictures
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/563574202jKurpl?vhost=good-times
