After experiencing three great trips to the BVI our group of four couples was excited to move on to the Grenadines. We are very grateful to all of you who have provided so much great advice, especially Rob Charuk who has contributed so much to this board and on the Usual Suspects site. Your advice and information helped us plan a trip which was in a word, FABULOUS!
We chartered with Mooring out of Canouan and arranged air travel through Moorings travel. Travel to Canouan is a little challenging from the Midwest US and in our case required an overnight stay in Barbados, though we were able to travel home in one long day. We left Minneapolis on a snowy, cold day and eventually reached Barbados at about 9:30 PM., checked into the Silver Rock Hotel, a nice little place right on the water and close to the airport. It was great to hear and smell the ocean again! We were back at the airport very early the next morning to catch the flight to Canouan and were on the ground there at 0730. The Canouan “terminal” is a small thatched roof building described by one of the airline workers in Barbados as a “hut” We thought it was pretty cool. A quick taxi ride brought us to the Tamarind Resort where the Moorings have their facilities. The staff there was friendly and helpful and we felt more welcomed than we have at the big base in Tortola.

Day1
After a very extensive and well done charter briefing we were brought out to the boat, a 45 ft catamaran moored in the north end of the bay. Admiralty Bay is exposed to some pretty significant swells and the boats are normally not kept on the dock. This does prove to be somewhat of an inconvenience as every last minute errand can result in another ride in the dinghy and potentially dealing with swells at the dock.
As half of our crew had missed their plane out of Minneapolis because of snow and traffic jams we needed to stay in Canouan for the night. During the afternoon however our smaller crew took the boat out for a great little day sail down to Mayreau. After reading so much about Salt Whistle Bay I just couldn’t wait to see it. We were so impressed by the beauty of the islands and water! Coming out of Admiralty Bay we could most of the islands of the Grenadines. The islands features are striking and distinctive and we could see that passages between islands would be done largely by line of sight.
The remaining crew arrived that evening tired but happy to be there. We opted for pizza at the Tamarind’s bar and went to bed early.

Day 2
A quick sail bought us to Salt Whistle Bay on Mayreau by late morning. This is an amazing place, everything that I had hoped for. We anchored close to a perfect beach in about ten ft. of water. This is a small anchorage and other boats end up a little closer than usual but this presented no problems. We hung out on the beach for most of the afternoon and really started to relax. We ate dinner at the Salt Whistle Bay Club that night. This is a magical place at night. The tables are set in stone cabanas and most are quite close to the water. The lighting at the tables and around the grounds is low and soft - very pleasant. We all had various forms of seafood and found it to be very good.



Day 3
We awoke to a beautiful morning and went back into the beach, then walked up the hill to the village. We met Father Mark at the beautiful little church at the top of the hill. Father Mark is working to improve the environmental awareness and education of the Mayreau residents and visitors. He toured us through the museum and environmental center adjacent to the church. He seems to be a very dedicated individual and is doing very good work for the people of the island and for the beautiful environment in which they live. It was really a privilege to meet him.
The view of the Tobago Cays and the southern islands from the hilltop is beautiful and shouldn’t be missed. As we walked on through the village we briefly met Robert Righteous who was very friendly and welcoming, and saw several places that we want to try on our next trip.
We walked back to the boat, weighed anchor and motored over to the Cays. We anchored in about ten feet of water just off the small beach on Baradal. The Cays are truly amazing. The horseshoe reef completely protects the boats behind it from the ocean swells, yet the area is fully exposed to the trade winds. There is a huge area of potential anchoring space behind the reef with an excellent sand bottom. Dinghy moorings are placed out close to the horseshoe reef. The snorkeling near these moorings is in fairly shallow water and is wonderful. The water clarity is incredible and the coral is varied and appears to be very healthy and vibrant. We saw big schools of beautiful blue tang, large parrotfish and many other finny critters. Beautiful!
We met a number of the boat boys and enjoyed the experience. We had met Walton Bobb at Mayreau earlier in the day and he visited us in the Cays as well. He arranged to have grilled lobster delivered to the boat that evening which came right on time as promised and was delicious. We had the opportunity to chat with Walton on several occasions during our time in the Cays. He’s a very nice gentleman and went out of his to be helpful.
After a great grilled lobster dinner on board we did some star gazing. Again, I just can’t over emphasize the beauty of this place – both during the day and at night. The sky was alive with stars and a half moon and the only lights are boat mast head lights. What an experience!

Day 4
We got up early the next day, took a quick morning swim and then were off to Bequia. We realized that this would take a significant amount of time, given our relatively short vacation, but we were excited to see the island and wanted to experience the longer more open water sail. The trip took about five hours, about half of which involved motoring or motor sailing. Cats are great sailed off the wind but don’t go to weather well as everyone knows. We opted for a course off the wind a little initially just so we could sail faster but then ended up doing more motoring straight into wind and current as we neared Bequia. We picked up a mooring right in front of the Frangipani from African Pride. After lunch we had a beer at the Frangipani’s bar then explored the town for awhile. I’m not an enthusiastic shopper but there were some interesting crafts available including some really nice wooden boat models, various kinds of art work and some interesting tied materials produced by a Norwegian lady who calls herself “Why Knot”.

Day 5
We arranged a land tour with Julian, one of the local cab drivers. Julian is very nice man who proved to be an excellent guide. We saw the old fort on the north end of the bay which provided a great view of the town and the bay, then stopped at a little art studio at the Old Sugar Mill. Maggie Mitchell and her husband have built a great little studio on the ruin of an old sugar plantation. She is a very nice person and gave us a great tour of the studio and work spaces. There is some very interesting art work and pottery produced by Maggie, her husband and other local artists. The setting is beautiful and I’d highly recommend a stop there. From there we moved onto the Turtle Sanctuary, also worth a look. The Sanctuary is close to Industry Bay, which seems to be poorly named as this proved to be a very beautiful bay with a nice beach and very little development. Friendship Bay and the Friendship Bay Resort were next. This is another beautiful spot with a pretty beach, a GREAT bar (The Moskito Bar) complete with rope swing chairs at the bar and beautiful grounds. Friendship Bay was quiet and we plan to spend a night at anchor there on our next trip. After a beer at the Moskito we drove through the village where most of the fishermen reside. Someone had caught an eight foot shark which was in the process of being turned into lobster bait sized pieces by several guys with machetes – interesting.
Julian picked us up again in the afternoon and took us back to Friendship Bay. This is an extremely nice place to spend the afternoon and we all agreed that this will be a definite stop on a future trip.
That night after a watching a beautiful sunset we went into Mac’s for pizza. I’d recommend the lobster pizza also shrimp and garlic which wasn’t on the menu that night but was made for us anyway. Great pizza and a couple of Eku’s. It doesn’t get any better than that.

Day 6
Decision day for us. We had only one more day before we needed to head back to Canouan and need to decide on our next destination. The unanimous opinion was to go right back to the Cays. We left early under cloudy skies and little wind. The wind filled in a little as we cleared the west side of Bequia and we sailed under full sail in light wind initially. Just north of Canouan the wind picked up as a squall moved through. The winds stayed up as the line passed. We reefed and shot down along the west side of Canouan and back to the Cays. The skies cleared and by the time we had anchored back in the cays it was again just beautiful. Our wind gauge wasn’t working but it had to be blowing at least 20 kits. through the anchorage. We had no problem at all getting the hook down and firmly set in that great holding bottom and just sat there and enjoyed the sun and breeze. What a great anchorage!
We saw our friend Walton again who just stopped by for a chat, also bought a couple nice shirts from Sidney who really had quite a good selection.
We had steaks on the grill that night after finally managing to get the grill lit in all that wind. We hoped to have one more great night of star gazing but the clouds and rain moved in and drove us all off to bed.



Day 7
The last day out. We spent the morning just enjoying hanging out tin the Cays. Some of us went back out to the reef for snorkeling; others swam towards Baradal to see the three sea turtles which had been swimming around in that area. Ultimately though it was time to head back to Canouan. We arrived there after on a very fast close reach and moored about 1500. Moorings off loaded most of the heavy luggage for us and stored it overnight in the briefing room to be picked up the next morning.
We ate at the Hilltop Restaurant in the Village that night. This a family run place, currently managed by three siblings who appear to be in their 20’s. We were told that their mother had just recently died and that they were trying to keep the place going. We had a nice meal of local foods including some great Callaloo soup, lobster salad, red snapper and grilled lobster. These folks are very nice and I hope they prosper!
We walked back down to the Tamarind and found that that we had been locked out of the area, so we hopped the fence and walked back to the dinghy dock. I wasn’t very happy about the presence of a locked gate keeping me and others out of the area, but we had no problems finding a way around it.

Day 8
Our taxi met us at 0615 so we loaded up the rest of our luggage and prepared to dinghy in to the dock. There is always more luggage than anticipated for that last trip and we would have had a hard time getting it and all eight of in on one run, particularly as there was as significant swell running that morning, not to mention that it was dark and raining lightly. At 0600 another dinghy arrived at our boat and offered to help us. We had met a gentleman and his wife the night before who was a Moorings owner and had just arrived from St. Lucia. He took all of our remaining luggage and one of the crew to the dock and I took the rest of the crew in our dinghy. This was a completely unexpected favor and we were really appreciative.
The plane took off at 0750 and we made our back to Minneapolis via San Juan and Dallas without additional incident or adventure. It had snowed a foot since we had left and been so cold that schools in the whole area had been closed because of cold (- 47 wind chill), but had warmed all the way up to about +15 degrees by the time we arrived. We are already missing the islands!

Trip Highlights:
The people. We met a number of interesting and kind people. We had some concerns before the trip about potential “boat boy hassles” and this turned out to be completely unfounded. We especially enjoyed our interactions with Walton in Mayreau and the Cays.

The Cays - what more can I say.

Bequia - it’s worth the time spent getting there and we found the sail up and back a lot of fun. A land tour is a must.

Mayreau. Salt Whistle Bay is stunning. We really want to go back and spend more time exploring the village bars and restaurants as well.

SKYE