Position: 12:31.55N 61:29.045W

Date: Saturday 2^nd March 2013

After checking out of Grenada’s territory (in Hillsborough on Carriacou) rather than go directly to the next country (Union Island in St Vincent and the Grenadines), which we should have done, we decided to visit another small island called Petit Martinique, which is part of the territory of Grenada. This island is too small to have customs and immigration staff and we were not prepared to sail backwards and forwards to the various check in and check out locations so we took a chance.

The naming of islands and archipelagos in this part of the world is rather confusing.  The same words are used for different islands that have no apparent link to each other. Petit Martinique is a long way from the island of Martinique. Similarly the Grenadines are part of St Vincent, not Grenada; and the Tobago Cays appear to have nothing to do with Tobago.

Petit Martinique was charming, very laid back, and quite undeveloped.  We went ashore for an evening meal in a restaurant called Palm Beach,  recommended in our cruising guide.  Well the beach did have a lot of palms on it, and no road.  The restaurant had about 200 metres of first class beach frontage, with white sand, clear sea and wonderful views.  In any other part of the world this would have been a prime feature, exploited to the full.  But not here.  The entire beach frontage was fenced off with cross linked chicken wire, attached to rusty iron fence posts and with a five foot high gate that you had to pass through to get to the restaurant, which had just a few tables set in the garden. It was gloriously unexploited and free from any taint of marketing.  The food was fine but unremarkable.

Restaurants close early in this part of the world (around 8:00pm) so after eating we took our dinghy back to the boat, in inky darkness, and spent the rest of the evening looking at the stars.

On this day we had sailed from and to four different places (Tyrell Bay, Sandy Island, Hillsborough and Petit Martinique), something of a record for us.