Best of Grenadines

Guadeloupe - Pitons: from here we headed for the Grenadines

In May we sailed island after island: Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Martinique and St. Lucia. It was a month full of emotions, discoveries, adventures and making new friends. And we got closer and closer to our final destination for that season: Grenada. But not so fast - there was something in between... ah yeah, the Grenadines! Cruising there really stands for "island hopping" as the distances are getting short. You can easely have a lazy start in the morning, lift anchor at noon and be on another island for your sundowner - of course by then you already snorkeled in the nearby reef and explored the little island! Even though we rushed a little bit through this area (something we might catch up on next season, but more on this in a later post) we really enjoyed it. Every single island is special in its own way and we post ONE picture for each one of them with a little description what made it unique for us:

St.Vincent: We decided NOT to stop there as unfortunately we've only heard bad things about it. But we still had to sail along its Leeward side which meant for us - slack, no wind at all. So we had to start the engine. The advantage was that there also were no seas, so we could cook and eat lunch in extraordinarily calm conditions!

Bequia: While approaching Bequia we had our sail of the season! We run constantly 7 knots of speed all the way from St. Vincent till the entrance of Port Elisabeth! I was steering when we all of a sudden saw a dinghy appearing in front of us. I was not willing to tack so I kept course - even though I was concerned to hit it at one point! Then it turned and came along our starboard side. And our stern. And our port side. Finally we realized that the guy in the dinghy was taking pictures - OF US! Later the day when we were anchored in Admiralty Bay the photographer Kenmore Henville stepped by our boat and showed us the pictures he's got taken of Habibi. We were thrilled and bought them after some negotiation. The picture above is awesome, isn't it? If you ever sail there watch out for him!

Canouan: This is a small island with the huge Charlestown Bay on its Leeward side where we anchored in green-turquoise water off the Tamarind Beach Hotel. The wind was shooting down the hills in gusts which can be noisy, but as there was anyway a local party going on in town with very loud music all night long we didn't care. Together with Monica and Ron from s/v Eos we had a sundowner and dinner in the Hotel which wasn't cheap but nevertheless a pleasant evening! On this tiny island there are two resorts that stand in stark contrast to the life of its inhabitants. We didn't see much of the island but we still wondered how locals feel about this developments. For sure they're not the ones that get any profit out of it...

Tobago Cays Marine Park: This.Was.Just.Amazing! It's a group of small deserted islands protected from the sea only by a Horseshoe Reef. It literally gives you a feeling that you're anchored in the open water with nothing in between you and your boat till Africa! Have a look on Google Maps, you'll be amazed! But besides this the water is so clear you can see the bottom and all the fish swimming by your boat. We felt like to be back in the Bahamas... But the most amazing part were the turtles. We heard about a designated "turtle watching area" off Baradel but thought with all this boats anchored next by and people jumping in the water they must have been disappeared long time ago... Fortunately we were wrong. When we put on our snorkeling gear and started to swim in this area they were all over and seemed to be totally disinterested in us! Can you imagine how exciting that was for a newbie snorkler like me to see turtles grazing on seagrass??

Union Island: Clifton is a port of entry and we had to check out of St.Vincent's and the Grenadines at customs here. That gave us the opportunity to stroll around this charming and colorful town. They have a picture perfect fruit and vegetable market and many little restaurants and bars along the bay. When we were there it was already off season and left a sleepy impression. But we could imagine it to be bustling during high season. There shall be some nice hiking, maybe something we might consider on a second visit...

Carriacou: Even though it's already part of Grenada I still decided to include it in here. We checked in in Hillsborough for Grenada and moved then over to Tyrell Bay - that's where our anchor windlass broke down. There are around 70 boats anchored in this bay but it was surprisingly quiet. We guessed that many boats were live aboards or even abandoned. The "town" didn't impress us too much. It literally consisted of a couple of shacks that either were identified as a restaurant, a bar or a store. But all of them advertised "Free wifi"... What we really were looking forward to was to take the dinghy and explore the nearby mangrove swamp. It did not disappoint us - except that we maybe expected to see or hear more animals. It was so peaceful in there! There is even a mangrove oyster growing on the roots of the mangroves.


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With love from paradise
Rahel