PART THREE – JUNE 20 – 27
Sailing the Grenadines

Part three of our adventure takes us aboard a 51 ft Privilege Catamaran named Camille. This was our first time sailing with Tradewinds, and we were REALLY looking forward to it. Our sailing experience is not recent, our last bareboat charter in 2005 visiting the B.V.I. We did not feel confident enough to attempt a sailing trip on our own, very rusty skills, so the Tradewinds option worked out great for us! We can do as much sailing as we like, and do not have the responsibility of cooking, provisioning, and the boat tasks. This truly was vacation! We met Paul and Jan (our captain and first mate), and they led us to Camille. She was great – looked beautiful and welcoming complete with a welcome sign with each of our names and pitchers of cocktails and appetizers. We all enjoyed the early evening waiting for the last two boat mates to arrive – Jackie O. and Neal. Once they arrived, we unpacked, stowed suitcases in the locked Tradewinds storage area and left the dock to anchor near Princess Margaret Beach for the night. Each meal was amazing and hard to believe that Jan could produce that kind of food in such a small area. Not only was it delicious, but the presentation was fabulous as well! Kudos to Jan.


Sunday: 6/21/09
After a nice breakfast, we were off for Mustique (island of the rich and famous). We left Bequia and got the closest view of Moonstone I have ever had! What a unique place… one of these days I do want to see it up close.


Mustique was about a 2-3 hour sail. One of our crewmates was not feeling very well, a bit seasick, so put on Seabands and took Bonine that I had brought along (just in case). We sailed into Mustique, had another fabulous meal and dinghy’d to the dock. Our group of six decided to do the island tour. Wow is all that I can say. Compared to other islands, this island was pristine. I am in education, so always pay attention to schools. The school on Mustique was beautiful. The facilities were up to date, and the children had a gorgeous playground. In all of my travels to the Caribbean, I have never seen a school that would even come close to that one! During our tour we visited the Cotton House Hotel grounds – beautiful! And of course drove by some magnificent homes.


We ended our tour at Basil’s Bar with a drink and sunset before heading back to Camille for another wonderful dinner. What a great day!

Monday: 6/22/09
Another wonderful breakfast and we were off – sailing to Mayreau. Paul and Jan dropped us off in Saline Bay. We donned our shoes, took a cooler bag with provisions and headed ashore. Our task – to climb the hill over the island and end up in Salt Whistle Bay. At the top of the hill is the Catholic Church. If you go behind the church, you will find the most magnificent view! Don’t miss it…

Keep following the road (the only road, so you can’t get lost) and you will end up at a beautiful beach where the Salt Whistle Resort is located. During our jaunt over the hill, we ended up on a goat/sheep rescue mission. Many appeared to be tangled, so we helped untangle the goats, or were they sheep? Tails up – goats. Tails down – sheep. Our last rescued goat was very sad when we left and cried and cried for Neil, his rescuer. Well, after our tiring goat rescue mission, we were treated to wonderful appetizers and cocktails aboard Camille – and of course another fabulous dinner.
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Tuesday: 6/23
This morning after breakfast four of our group went diving in Mayreau Gardens. They all expressed their gratitude for being able to dive that particular site and stated it was absolutely fantastic diving. Kathi and I spent the morning reading on the trampoline under a shade tarp. Who could ask for more? Once we got a little warm, we decided it was time to float (a favored pastime by all). The boat has noodles aboard and we figured out if you use two noodles, you can fashion a chair of sorts – most comfy!

The other pastime of the day was to watch the excitement of one of the Switch charter boats. It came in later in the day on Monday and they decided to beach the catamaran, tying it to a tree. Huh, we thought - doesn't look like a good idea... None of the other boats were doing that we noticed. Well, the tide (yes there is tide) went out over night, and the catamaran was firmly beached. Some locals throughout the day would come, try to assist, but to no avail. By the time we left after lunch, the boat was still firmly beached. I’m sure they had to wait it out until late in the day when the tide came in and they refloated.

After our lunch, and giving up on the beached cat excitement, we set sail for Union Island. Union Island’s main town is Clifton. We docked for the night and this was our night to go out to dinner. We talked about options, and decided on the West Indies Restaurant for dinner. The six of us spent time exploring Clifton: bars, restaurants, dive shop and internet café. During this time of wandering, this is when Jan and Paul work hard to spiffy up the boat (fresh towels, fresh sheets, more water, and a good scrub for Camille). Boy, do they work hard to make everything perfect! They truly do an amazing job.
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They also had arranged for Sivoney, a friend and musician, to come aboard during our happy hour and entertain us. Sivoney is a master trivia expert, and will absolutely stump you with his questions. He would sing, but prior to starting a song he would deliver a most difficult, multi-faceted trivia question. I don’t think we got any one of them completely correct! He was great, and we did purchase a CD from him. Very interesting and entertaining fellow.

After Sivoney left, we all wandered down to the West Indies Restaurant for a fabulous dinner. Very good food and great service as well.

Wednesday, 6/24
Our Anniversary!

Well, our day began after breakfast by wandering around town a little more exploring the shops and such that had not been open the previous evening. Jan had to pick up some supplies for the boat, etc. Well, tricky girl – she really went out to pick flowers and buy an anniversary card. She came back, handed Larry the flowers to give to me. Very sweet (and funny too)!

We set sail for Petit St. Vincent – an island we had never visited before (always a special treat). We anchored and were dropped off for some beach/floating time. They sent us with the cooler bag of drinks. We were there a couple of hours, and Paul came to pick us up. Time to go back to the boat for lunch. What a beautiful island. There is a resort on island, and they were fairly careful about not letting us beach people wander to far into the resort.
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Next stop – Tobago Cays! Tobago Cays is a marine park – very protected. We used to go here with Windjammer Barefoot Cruises (for a day stop), but once this area became a marine park, that was not allowed. Now that I have been since it has been deemed a marine park, I can see the change! Sea turtles – and LOTS of them. Wow. The afternoon we arrived we were going through a bit of a squall in the area, so we really did not explore until Thursday. In the morning, we swam/snorkeled with a turtle as he was feeding on the bottom. Very cool and the closest I’ve been to a turtle in the water. You could see many turtles throughout our time in the Cays.

Dinner was fabulous and Paul had baked a cake for our anniversary! Jan had everyone aboard sign the card, and they sang a rendition of Happy Anniversary. Jackie and Neal even picked up a Tobago Cay mug from Union Island. Very sweet – what a great way to spend an anniversary! (Let’s do it again next year…)
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The plan for Thursday at 6am was to get up early and swim with the turtles as they were feeding. However, the weather was not really cooperating for that plan so we slept in (really just got up at normal time) and waited out the wind/rain. After breakfast, we did venture over to snorkel the area as I said earlier. After our snorkel, we moved the boat over to another Cay where we could go ashore and climb up a hill for a great view of those turquoise waters. Beautiful! We stayed here until after lunchtime at which point we set sail for Union Island – Chatham Bay.

Chatham Bay is a beautiful, quiet bay that we have been to before. The weather made it “interesting” – huge winds flipping our dinghy (and other dinghy’s in the area as well). We were all drenched by the time we were all squared away (anchored). I’m not sure there were any dry towels left! Once we were all dried off, we moved our usual game activities in to the saloon – cribbage night. After an hour or two, the rain cleared and everything dried. The next day the sunshine was beautiful… storms pass quickly in the Caribbean!
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Friday, 6/26/09
It was time to explore Chatham Bay – gorgeous beach with no people (but us). We wandered, hunted for sea glass and shells, and enjoyed the last peaceful morning on the boat. Our trip was about to wind down… time to set sail for Bequia.

After lunch, we were able to explore Bequia. We went to Coco’s for dinner – wonderful dinner and by the time we got back from dinner everyone crashed.

Saturday, 6/27/09
Jackie and Neal had to leave first as they were flying out on SVG to Barbados for a night at the Crane. We waved goodbye to our new friends. The rest of us went back to Sugarapple Inn where we spent a quiet day exploring Friendship Beach, and being lazy in the pool. We enjoyed a great lunch at the Bequia Beach Hotel.

For dinner on our last night on the island, we met Paul and Jan at Mac’s Pizza. We had to get in our Mac’s Pizza fix, it is a tradition for us to go to Mac’s. I had a lovely lasagna! They have many other things – not just pizza, although their pizza is wonderful. The evening was delightful. We had to say our goodbyes to Jan and Paul – the crew that had become good friends over the week!

Truly, this was “the” best vacation, relaxing and fun. We loved it so much, we are signed up for another week next June, British Virgin Islands this time! Can’t wait… Now, on to Part Four… Grenada!