Bequia to Matreau

Christine's Atlantic Circuit
Peter Lansdale
Sun 22 Jan 2017 22:22
12:38N 61:24.5W 
 

So, last time a blog was posted, I believe we/I had fallen in love with Bequia.   A gorgeous, small, relatively unspoilt and very vibrant island.  The main harbour had lots of anchorage, with plenty of cafes, restaurants, a small veg market and supermarkets onshore and the inevitable visits on the water from boat boys, usefully offering laundry services, water (boat tank refills) fresh fish...and none of this as aggressive as it was in St. Lucia.
The island is easy to explore on foot, and we did...lovely hikes to fabulous bays with great views.  We will be coming back up the 'chain' with two friends who we are picking up in Grenada on 25th January, so it was good to be able to recce the island first.

 
Bequia Harbour
 

For me however, a great  surprise (and apologies for repetition in earlier emails)  was going to buy an ice cream in a bayside shop and recognising instantly an American guy who was chartering out his boat with his girlfriend (now wife and mother of two 30+ yr old sons) back in 1979 in St Vincent;  this being the time and place of my introduction to sailing with Nicky Cooper in the "Brussels years".  Even better, as a result, and on instruction from Nicky, I will try to look up a lovely couple in Grenada from the same time.  All we need is Nicky onboard to complete the nostalgia/excitement.  

We stayed on Bequia for 5 nights in all - I think we liked it.  Oh, apart from losing the boat twice on our dinghy trips back "home".  That, my friends, is pretty impressive, as a lot folk routinely lose their dinghies and don't even get back home!  Something about being "knotless" [i.e. the state of being incapable of tying secure knots due to being legless].




So, from Bequia, we sailed to Canouan on 6 January.  A fairly brisk sail in cheeky wind, so a change of sail was required to allow me to handle the boat. We anchored out in the bay, offshore from a posh but practically deserted resort.  Having visited a colourful little village (as evidenced by the "flag shack" shown below) outside of the resort we retired back onboard and there followed an awful rock 'n rolly night, with gusty winds whooshing down the cliff face, dropping like depth charges around the boat all night. So we up-anchored and scarpered off to Mayreau the following morning.


 
The sail to Mayreau was another short but choppy one. Having dismissed the delightfully named "Salt Whistle Bay" as an anchorage, as it was overcrowded, we moved further on to Saline Bay.  Not so prettily named maybe but lovely and spacious with only a handful of boats anchored up.  It must be said that at this stage of the journey, the various islands seemed to become more in keeping with the popular image of "The Caribbean".  Deep blue seas giving way to a lovely green, changing to turquoise and then azure before it reaches the shore. 
We have been following a specific guide book along the way and quickly realised that some leeway has to be afforded with the rave reviews!  That said, we have found some gems, had great food, and are still assiduously testing each establishment's rum punches. The original idea of allocating 1-10 ratings has become somewhat fuddled!
Another thing about these islands is the size of the canine population.  Some of them appear to have been trained as "covert" tour guides as they often more or less nudged us to certain bars and/or restaurants. The picture below was one of them. Rasta "Righteous" on Mayreau - described as being "an ongoing art form of construction and decoration".
 
 
The next blog takes us to Tobago Keys - wow!  L&P