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Seabird is now located at the Crews Inn Marina in Trinidad and Steven and I have just returned from a four day trip to the land of PLENTY (USA)… more about that later.
A few months ago we were having cocktails with our friends Hans and Judi who have been cruising the Caribbean for 8+ years. We had the Cruising Guides out and Hans was marking the anchorages that we should visit and suddenly he gets this big grin and says “now we are getting to the good stuff”. He was not kidding. Our voyage through the Grenadines was the best yet. Here I go again with more “favorites” but they just keep getting better!!!
We exited St. Lucia with an overnight stop at the magnificent Pitons. We were anchored right between them with our friends aboard Take Time. The afternoon was filled with a tour of the Sulphur Springs that are odiferous bubbling pools created by a volcano and form the inside of the crater the pictures in the gallery look more like the moon than the earth. The tour was followed by a visit to the elegant Dasheene Restaurant at the Ladera Resort for an awesome view of the Pitons and our boats anchored below.
On to the Grenadines…..we cruised right by St Vincent and that was a wise decision as a boat was boarded in a popular harbor by two local entrepreneurs and weapons were drawn but no injuries were reported. Our first stop was the island of Bequia. It is a good anchorage and the town has numerous restaurants and fair provisioning but it was not as scenic as we expected. Since we were on a tight schedule to arrive in Trinidad for June 1st we elected to keep moving so we did not miss any of the promised treasures ahead and the first one was the Island of the rich and famous, Mustique. The water was so clear that at 50 ft you could see ripples in the sand. We rented a mule (fancy golf cart) with four of our friends and toured the Island. It is a private Island with about 80 beautiful homes, one hotel and several gorgeous beaches. We looked for Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Rachel Welch while having dinner at Basils but they must have been off island.
Canouan was the next Island and we took some great hikes and enjoyed fabulous views. One walk was to Raffles Resort and the Trump Casino only to find out it was private and we were not allowed on to the property. It was rumored that Donald was on the Island to see the new Trump Golf Course. Apparently the locals are not happy that the northern half of the Island has been made off limits to all. The Tamarind Beach Hotel was host to our Birthday celebration for Sue on Evensong. It was a great evening with lots of laughs!!
We cannot decide if Salt Whistle Bay or Tobago Cays is our first choice for the best anchorage to date. They are both so special I wish we had the time to spend a week at both places. We were so sorry that we did not arrive in the Grenadines sooner. Salt Whistle is a half moon bay on a low lying beach in the Island of Mayreau. Please look at the pictures as they are far better than the words I might use. The village of Mareau is charming and the people are wonderful. Steven inquired where he might be able to have breakfast and the fellow opened his restaurant and proceeded to cook him an omelet and home fries. Tobago Cays is made up of small deserted islands that are surrounded by coral reefs that make for the best snorkeling and a calm anchorage in high winds. The water is so pretty with all shades of blue. We launched the little dinghy and visited each island and saw thousands of beautiful fish while snorkeling.
The next day we managed to do three islands: Palm Island, Union Island and Petit St Vincent. The only one we liked was PSV. If one wanted to really get away in luxury this is the place to be. It has a long pretty beach and views of the fishing village on Petit Martinique. The only problem was when we went to pull up the anchor; we noticed that the only thing that the anchor was embedded in was an old tire (see the photo). For those of you who aren’t familiar with anchoring, the anchor is supposed to be embedded in the sand!! Anyway, the next day we arrived in Carriacou and cleared customs in Hillsborough and anchored in Tyrrel Bay before moving on to Grenada.
In Grenada we thought we would anchor in St George’s, the capitol city, but it is a real small lagoon with moorings that are placed very close to each other. We took a ride in and were lucky we made it out without a collision. Prickley Bay became our final destination and we met up with Wayfinder and others and enjoyed the next three days awaiting a good forecast for the trip to Trinidad. We were not alone as it seemed the majority of boats in the harbor were heading to Trinidad. Most sail boats leave at night so they make landfall in the day light. It is only 83 miles so we thought it would be 10 hours max to the harbor. WRONG!! The first several hours were beautiful with clear skies and calm seas and then came this weird current that took us from 8.5 kts to 5.5 kts and remained that way for a long time. To add to the misery the seas picked up to 10 to 12ft for the last three hours. Needless to say 10 hours turned into 13 hours and we were happy to arrive in Chagaramous as planned on 6/1/06.
That is all for now. Next entry will be about Trinidad.
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