Jean & Dave's Website

St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Page 4

The longest sail yet. Over 15 miles, on a broad reach, winds peaked at 14, we finally saw 4 knots (briefly). Girls in the net, Kyle on his perch. Me at the helm, with my GPS, my personal compass. Ho hum, another leisurely sail in paradise.

Brian brought a fishing pole and rigged a holder off the stern. Kyle and Brian diligently let the line out every time we hit open water. No luck so far. Oh well, canned tuna for lunch today…on fresh bread, with good cheese. Ho hum.

Mayreau

We sailed past Canouan to Salt Whistle Bay in Mayreau. A picturesque resort sits on a thin strip of land between surf pounding on the reef on the windward side, and a quiet sandy beach on the leeward, bayside. However, this resort is closed. In fact every resort is either closed, or recently reopened at this time. Brian radioed Dennis' Hideaway for dinner. Recently reopened, with a very limited menu and they won't send a boat for us. Oh well, up goes the anchor and around the corner to Saline Bay.

Mayreau is an island of 250 people…and several dogs, cows and roosters. It poured rain as we were ready to leave for dinner.  After the rain, we locked the boat up tight and Dennis provided someone to watch the dinghy, then he drove us up a very steep hill in his pickup truck to his restaurant in the village. After dinner, we asked about provisions at Dennis' market. Dennis informed us that he has decided only to open the market during the busy months of December, January and February. He said we might get provisions across the street, in the morning. He did sell us some bread, before driving us back down the hill in his truck. Do you get the impression that Dennis kind of runs this island?

At 0220, a squall came through and dumped some major rain. Everybody on the boat was up, hanging around the cockpit. Once it stopped, we reopened the hatches and went back to bed.

In the morning, a cruise ship steamed by without stopping. Good thing, apparently Saline Bay is a popular day stop. The locals set up chairs all along the beach and the cruise ship crowd, well, use the chairs. Glad we missed it.

It was generally warmer on land than on the boat, where you could usually find a little breeze, so our morning trip for provisions tended to be sweaty. Kyle measured the heat in wrings, i.e. how many times he needed to wring his shirt to get the sweat out. Climbing the mountain to the village on Mayreau was definitely a 5 ringer day. Supplies were a bit scarce. I was sick of canned tuna, so we broke down and bought SPAM!

Tobago Cays

A short "power boat" ride around Mayreau brought us to the Tobago Cays (That's KEYS, Denise, not KAYS). The Cays are a group of small islands on top of a huge horseshoe shaped coral reef. Kyle and Denise had intended to scuba dive here, but Father (Brian) said they should snorkel here and dive elsewhere. With miles of live coral and fish in 1 to 5 feet of water, who needs to dive? The water was a bit more cloudy than Mystique since this National Park is very open to the prevailing easterly winds. Still, the place can be described best by my friend Doug's favorite compliment, "That doesn't suck."

Union Island

Another brief cruise in our power cat brought us to Union Island, the main port of the southern Grenadines. We were greeted at the harbor entrance by dinghy with Eat at Lambi's painted on the side. He gave us a free mooring in the windiest (yeah!) part of the harbor and Brian got a free dinner.

Splash, SPLASH. "Was that a Beluga whale and her cub?" I said. "No," replies Denise, "its our water babies, Kyle and Jean, swimming again." "Ready for a cocktail, Denise?" "Of course!"

There was a tiny island on a reef protecting the harbor which Denise proclaimed "Denise's Island".  Kyle and Jean got stuck trying to get around some coral to get this self portrait for her. 

By the time they returned, Denise and I had solved most of the world's problems.   Ho hum, another great day in paradise.