Back to Mayreau
Stream
Darrell Jackson and Sarah Barnes
Sat 24 May 2014 21:42
We sailed across to Mayreau around mid morning. We entered Saline Bay on the south west of the island and we kindly shown where to anchor by a boat boy, in return for a bottle of the local beer! Saline is a large sandy bay, with no real development in the bay or along the beach. The only signs of activity were the fisherman and their boats on one side of the jetty. There is a long stretch of sandy beach dotted with palm trees and deserted apart from a couple of dogs, which, for a change, left Darrell alone.
We went ashore and wandered up the very steep hill through the village. Along the side of the hill were tethered goats and their free roaming kids and several sleeping dogs. Every other building on the road up the hill was either a restaurant or a bar, very often having diversified into a minimart/guesthouse. We stopped at the empty Combination Cafe for lunch in their single upstairs room with a bar, open on two sides with views over the bay and out to sea. In the corner of the room was the remains of a Christmas tree and there were a few Christmas decorations around the room. After a pleasant lunch we continued up the hill to the top where there is a school and a Catholic Church. From the terrace at the back of the church we had amazing views of the Tobago Cays and Canouan. On the way down the hill we stopped at Dennis's Hideaway, where we climbed his open tower for a great view, as we had a cool drink. Dennis, a local, had lived in South Shields for a few years, so we had a good discussion about the delights of the north east of England. We then returned to the boat.
Our quiet evening on Stream was interrupted at about 8pm, when a motor was heard and a red light noticed. As we watched it became obvious that it was turning and coming into the bay towards where we, and several other boats, were anchored. As it came closer a flashlight could be seen waving from the front and we realised that it was in fact quite large. Now we had an anchor light on, but not all the yachts around us did. The noise of the ship drew the attention of many of the nearby boats and their lights quickly came on, but one near the end of the jetty stayed dark. However, the skilful pilot of the local ferry, with the help from the crew on the foredeck with flashlights managed to miss all the yachts and manoeuvre so he could moor stern to on the jetty. Strangely, although they did drop the ramp nobody or vehicles left the ferry or boarded it. It had a couple of container lorries already on it. We watch the crew wander about and then it all went quiet as they had obviously stopped for the night. They left about 7am just before the school boat arrived to pick up the students for school on Union Island.