Our Sail Through the Grenadines
I did my first bareboat charter when I was in my early 30s. There were 8 of us on 2 mono-hull yachts, and we did a week of sailing in the BVIs. That was before I met Mike, and ever since we have been together I have wanted to do a similar trip with him. Fast-forward and we finally could do a bareboat charter with our friends, Mike and Barb. But, instead of being in our early 30s, we are now 69 and 72 years-old respectively. This was a “bucket list” vacation that was a “now or never” situation.
All of us convinced ourselves and each other we could do this. Bareboating, for those who don’t know, means you are the crew. There is no captain, first mate, bosun, chef, or stew on board. All the sailing is up to you and your friends on the boat. Luckily for us, Mike C. and Barb are very experienced sailors and Mike and I are seasoned boaters. Living in Mexico, along the Mesoamerican Coral Reef, we are also used to navigating around and through coral reefs. We all felt confident we could do this and it would be an incredible adventure. About 3 days into the sailing, when we all had our sea-legs, we all admitted we were a little apprehensive about how we would do. I must say, given our age, I felt incredibly proud of each one of us. And to add to the issue of our maturity, before the trip, Barb had fallen and bruised her coccyx and I had managed to bruise some ribs that were still tender.
In this article I will cover the itinerary that we followed and in additional articles I will go into more detail about the places we saw and restaurants we visited. We did provision our boat and many of our meals were cooked onboard.
Days 1 and 2, Cancun to Maimi
We flew from Cancun to Miami and spent two wonderful days with my lifelong friend Debby and her husband, Stuart. Debby is one of the best shoppers I know and I always enjoy spending at least a day shopping with her, and getting to eat things we can’t find in Mexico. This trip that was a Deli pastrami sandwich and crab cakes!
Day3, Miami to Grenada
We met Mike and Barb at the gate for our flight to Grenada. They had just flown the red-eye from Denver. We landed in Grenada and hired a cab driver. Elvis took us to our hotel, Gem Holiday. We checked in and immediately headed down to the beach. It was a long travel day and settled on apps at a locals place called Plywood, then an early evening.
Day 4, Grenada to St. Vincent
We were up at the crack of dawn to head back to the airport to take our Inter Caribbean flight to St Vincent. We knew our rooms would not be ready for several hours so we opted to take a tour of the island with our cab driver, Joel. He did a great job of showing us the windward side of the island, where the “new” volcano and black beaches are. We then retraced our path and went up into the mountains to see the “old” crater – now home to vibrant community, and he finally dropped us off at Blue Lagoon, our home for 2 days. We grabbed some lunch and waited for our rooms to be ready.
Day 5, Kingstown, St. Vincent
We took a cab into Kingstown, and went shopping for boat provisions at Sunrise and Masseys grocery stores. Our rooms at Blue Lagoon came with large refrigerators so we were able to store all our supplies. Mike C was not feeling well - the travel and change in climate caused him to get really dehydrated - so he laid low for the entire day.
Day 6, St. Vincent to Bequia
We did our boat briefing with Brandon of Horizon Charters. He went over all the details of our Lagoon 400, Larimar, and used charts to show us all our options for our 10 day sail from St Vincent to Grenada. As we got closer to departure time we realized Mike was still very dehydrated and we made the call to hire Brandon to skipper our boat from St Vincent to our first destination in Bequia. The seas were rolling and we felt more comfortable doing the first leg with his supervision. Once we grabbed a mooring buoy in Bequia we lowered the tender and took Brandon to the floating bar, where we joined him for a rum drink. Let the sailing begin! For dinner we wanted to try Max’s pizza but it was closed, so we opted to go next door to Fig Tree.
Day 7, Bequia to Mustique
We wandered around the sailing town of Bequia before setting sail to Mustique. Mike C. was feeling much better, so he took the helm while Mike and I enjoyed the sail from the hammock on the front of the catamaran. Mustique is one of the most exclusive islands in the world, best known as Princess Margaret’s hideaway and beach, but also as a retreat for many famous celebrities. We opted to eat on-board, rather than pay jetset prices ashore.
Day 8, Mustique to Canouan
Mike and I woke and did an early morning snorkel around the bay. After coffee on board, we set sail for Canouan and arrived about 3 hours, Brandon had mentioned this new marina that wasn’t even on our charts. We finally spotted the canal entrance at the very western tip of the island. It’s called Sandy Lane, and it’s pretty incredible. It opened in 2017 with multiple mega-yachts in residence, but was unfortunately hit very hard by the pandemic and has yet to fully recover – like much of the Windward Islands, we were to discover It is a planned marina designed to house residents and small shops. Currently only one of those shops, the bakery is now open but there are 3 restaurants, a beach club with a pool and the best, hot water showers! You don’t know how good a shower can feel until you spend sometime on a sail boat. In addition to enjoying the showers we also took advantage of the beach club pool and dinner at Shenanigan’s. This was probably our most expensive meal but you couldn’t beat the location and the staff were incredible.
Day 9, Canuoan to Tobago Cays
Mike and I walked to the bakery for coffee and sausage rolls, which were melt-in-your-mouth explosions of taste. Before heading off we opted for one more shower! Our next sail was to the one place I couldn’t wait to return to – Tobago Cays! It was as magical as I remembered, and in no time after mooring Larimar we had turtles popping their heads up all over the place. We spent two gorgeous nights here and every time we got in the water it was heavenly. The sand here is completely white, the water crystal clear and, in June, during nesting season, you see turtles of all sizes, young who live here and moms and dads coming for nesting season. In addition to the turtles the sandy bottom is full of huge starfish. We also saw several rays swimming around. Tobago Cays is an uninhabited marine park so we ate all our meals on board. Though uninhabited, men from nearby islands, called “boat boys,” do host nightly beach BBQs, which we opted not to attend.
Days 10 and 11, Tobago Cays to Union Island
We dropped our mooring and headed to Union Island, which is still part of the Marine Park. It is the last island that is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. This is where we notified immigrations and customs of our departure from their country. We spent two nights at Union Island instead of doing one night on Mayreau, which we had all seen before. The view from our mooring was looking straight across at Palm Island, a lovely, private island housing a gorgeous 5-star resort. The first night we ate at Thompson Isle a new restaurant on a small little island in the middle of the reef that protects Clifton’s harbor. It was great food and plenty of it. The second night we opted to eat onboard. The snorkeling in the bay just off our boat was incredible. The coral is alive with all kinds of baby fish, it was literally like living in a aquarium nursery.
Days 12 and 13, Union Island to Carriacou
We dropped the mooring line and sailed about 2 hours to Carriacou, one of 3 islands belonging to Grenada. We moored in Tyrell Bay for two nights. The first night we had dinner at Slipaway Restaurant near the marina. The setting was magical especially with the full moon. The food was some of the best we ate on this trip. Of course, none of us brought our phones with us so we have no photos to prove our point.
The currents in Carriacou can run strong in the bay and one time when Mike got in the water the swim ladder was completely extended behind the boat and Mike had to hold on to not be swept away. We had a nice breakfast at Iguanas in the marina and dined on the boat that night.
Day 14, Carriacou to St. Georges, Grenada
This was our longest sail – with light winds it took us 7 hours to get to Port Louis Marina in St. Greorges, Grenada. The entire sail was breathtaking, with one incredible view after another as we passed some small clusters of islands and then sailed along the entire leeward side of Grenada. St George was where we had docked when we did our Windstar Cruise and it has grown since we were last there, but still is a beautiful port. This was our last night on the boat, we refueled, cleaned up, packed and had a fun evening at Knife and Fork at the marina.
Days 15 and 16, Grenada
We turned the boat over and met our tour guide Cutty for a 4.5 hour tour of Grenada. The only thing we didn’t get to see were the Mono Monkeys. The light rain had them hiding. Grenada is one of the most gorgeous islands – with everything from white sandy beaches to rainforests high in the clouds. We spent the next two nights at True Blue Bay, an incredibly whimsical resort with 4 pools, pool bar, a number of different lodging options, a dive shop, bakery, gift shop and the Dodgy Dock Restaurant. We opted for the 2-bedroom villa, which was directly behind the infinity pool right on the bay with the Rum Shop Bar. A perfect end to an idyllic vacation. We relaxed and felt pampered as well as very proud and satisfied with how we all did on our bareboat adventure. We all agreed we would love to come back to these islands and their incredibly friendly people – but next time it will be with someone else at the helm or staying at one of the many gorgeous resorts.
Days 17 and 18, Grenada to Miami to Cancun
We flew back to Miami, spent about 24 hours with Debby and Stuart and was home Tuesday evening and back with our very happy dog, Manito.