We spent 3 weeks in the southern Caribbean, first on a bareboat charter out of St. Vincent for 12 days, sailing one-way to Grenada, then spent a week at True Blue Bay Resort on Grenada. This is long, but I’ll break it up.

Part 1: Sailing the Grenadines.

Our Liat flight from Grenada to St. Vincent was on time and our luggage arrived intact. The taxi arranged by Barefoot was waiting at the airport. So far, so good.

Barefoot Yacht Charters easily lived up to our expectations. It was a pleasure to work with them from beginning to end. Everything was in order when we arrived. The staff is casual and personable, but professional. Our boat, an older, well-maintained monohull, performed well and was problem-free for the entire trip. This was our second time chartering from Barefoot. Hopefully, it will not be the last.

After a leisurely and delicious breakfast at the charter base of “saltfish and bakes”, briefings were completed, provisions ordered from CK Greaves were delivered, gear stowed, and even with a rain delay, we set sail early that afternoon for Bequia. It was an exhilarating 1 1/2 hour sail, during which we probably exceeded hull speed. The sailing is a lot of fun here, and one of the reasons we like it.

As we approached Admiralty Bay, I was reminded of one difference between the Grenadines and the BVI where we’ve most often chartered. The mooring fields are hard to read here, some balls appear to be poorly maintained. And the balls don’t seem to have any pennants. Boat vendors approach as we enter the bay, each trying to get us to follow. We follow one of them, we like the location of his mooring, and after inspecting it and negotiating a price, we decided to take it, mostly because we haven’t anchored in 2 years and didn’t want to mess up what had been a very smooth day. The system is not what we’re familiar with, but it works. However, mooring balls are not common in the Grenadines.

Once on the mooring ball, we were finally in vacation mode and celebrated with our first Hairouns in 5 long years.



Bequia. Port Elizabeth is as charming as I remember it. We shopped all the next morning, and went to visit Benson who built the model boat we bought last time. I was tempted to get another one. It’s our favorite shop. We had lunch and rum punches at Maria’s French Terrace, enjoyed the lovely view and free WiFi.



We rode the “dollar bus” (about $2.50EC) along the coast and stopped at Friendship Bay where we hunkered down in the resort bar during a brief but intense downpour. When the rain let up, we walked up the hill and caught another bus. It’s a cheap and entertaining way to get around. The drivers and other passengers are often eager to narrate, and give their opinions of politics in the US (they seem to like Obama – quite a different attitude than the one we encountered in 2004). The drivers are also willing to take you off-route for a few dollars more. We rode it to the end of the line just to see the countryside, then back to Port Elizabeth, where we had more rum punches and dinner at Gingerbread. This is a nice place to watch the sun go down in Bequia. The food’s pretty good too.

As usual, we wished we had more time to explore.

Next morning we noticed some chafe in the mooring line after a particularly roll-y night. We decided to move to Lower Bay. It felt better to be at anchor. It was pretty quiet on the beach. Dawn’s Creole Restaurant appeared to be closed for the season. We stopped by Jack’s Bar and Da Reef, and only saw a couple other people. Lots of shells and beach glass, so I just had fun beachcombing.

The Tobago Cays.



Next morning we sailed an easy beam reach to the Tobago Cays. The water here is unbelievable.



The snorkeling was good too. We saw abundant fish and healthy coral at the northern end of the reef. The parrot fish were the largest I’ve ever seen anywhere.



We swam with the sea turtles at Baradel and hiked the islands. At first I was a little freaked out at all the iguanas.



We watched the day-trippers arrive at 10 a.m. and leave by noon. We stayed 3 nights and could have stayed longer. It’s a visually beautiful and serene place. The wind blew hard, but it was comfortable on the boat as there was no roll. We enjoyed the visits from all the boat vendors, and especially Walter on “Free Spirit”. His wife makes good banana bread. It was hard to leave this place. We considered staying another night, but decided to move on.

Saltwhistle Bay, Mayreau.



We motored over to Saltwhistle Bay. There were a few boats here and we could have found a place at the outskirts, but Joseph on “Heart Attack” sped out to us and asked if we were looking for a place to anchor. We said, “yes”, and he said, “follow me”, and we did. He led us past all the other boats, nearly to the beach and said, “drop it here”. After setting the anchor, my husband dove in to check it, then swam about another 50 feet to shore.



The beach here is lovely.



After swimming and lunch at the resort, we went into the village, where we were invited to attend the local Mother’s Day festivities at the basketball court. Among other events, the local girls decided my hair needed braids.
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You will not find friendlier people anywhere in the Caribbean. And of course, Robert Righteous served us up some mighty fine ribs, planter’s punch, and good conversation.
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If there is a heart and soul to the Caribbean, I believe it lies here in the Grenadines.