We departed Chatham Bay on Union Island a week ago. The bay was beautiful and undeveloped but the winds there were incredibly gusty making for sleepless nights as the anchor chain dragged over the bow roller. My last night was even more disturbed after snorkling above the anchor chain that day and finding that all the movement had caused it to wrap three times around a submerged tree trunk. I spent the night worrying about how we might disentangle but, by the morning it had worked its way free and we weighed anchor without incident. Need to become more Caribbean and “spend less time worrying”:)
It was only a short hop to the tiny island of Mayreau. It is the westernmost isle of the Tobago Cays and surrounded by beautiful reefs. The population is only 400 and, despite significant hurricane damage, they are rebuilding rapidly and with good humour. We anchored in the southwest at Saline Bay and went ashore to explore. A path took us to the windward side of the island only 10 minutes walk away with signposts warning us to watch out for turtles crossing and ‘lovely view, take pic!’ This led us to a beach bar in the process of being rebuilt to a totally chilled design.
The northwest anchorage is Saltwhistle Bay, a picture perfect anchorage but very busy with lots of catamarans. We walked there for drinks and to lunch at some of several beach shacks that have been rebuilt since Beryl. We were joined back in Saline Bay by Rosi and Frank on Amnesty, and shared a few more lovely evenings before we headed north.
After another short sail we made a brief stop at Canouan. We went into Sandy Lane Yacht Club on the south of the island as we wanted to take our dinghy ashore to try to repair a leak. There is an incredible modern, lavish complex of holiday homes, shops, restaurants and a marina that could easily accommodate hundreds of boats – but it was empty. Just us, six catamarans and three super yachts, one of which belongs to the owner of the development. There was no evidence here of hurricane damage but the staff pointed out to us how they had carefully tied and supported all the trees and bushes before Beryl hit. Also, some very wealthy ex-pat islanders had made huge contributions to rebuild schools and other services on the island. It was such a contrast to the poorer, more damaged islands further south.
The best things here, for us, were sunset drinks at Scruffy’s and the fabulous air-conditioned marble shower rooms with torrential showers – such a treat compared to showering on the boat when we are always trying to conserve water. One night of such luxuries was plenty so we sailed around the headland to anchor at Admiralty Bay. Even before the anchor had set we were being sold lobster from a fishing boat and had another feast.
Now we have arrived at beautiful Bequia which seems to have escaped the hurricane. We are at anchor in Princess Margaret Bay, surrounded by many yachts although there is plenty of space for everyone. Ashore are several restaurants and a small town surrounding the docks. There are ATMs, WiFi and they take credit cards – none of this was available on the small islands hit hard by the hurricane. Oh! and also cannabis.
We have dined well on conch fritters and goat curry and had a fabulous evening of live music and dancing with the heady aroma of cannabis wafting all around. We went on a snorkelling trip today on one of the reefs. We saw fabulous fish and moray eels and had a major incident….. Jonathan’s 360 degree video camera drowned! It’s supposed to be waterproof to 10m but died at about 1m. So I do apologise that we won’t be attaching another one of Jonathan’s award winning videos to our blog – I know you’ll all be weeping….with relief 😉
That’s one way to make sure your videos are truly immersive!
At least it is an excuse to buy a new model!