It seems the further south we go, the more relaxed the vibe. Maybe because the cruising season was winding down and everyone was heading south to their hurricane homes. Maybe its just always like this. As much as I enjoyed the beauty of the BVIs I think I have to say that this part of the Caribbean is by far my favourite. We are now at the very southern end of the St Vincent Grenadines. Further south lies the islands of Grenada and well beyond that Trinidad and Tobago, the latter not to be confused with...

​The wild, uninhabited islets and reefs of the fabled Tobago Cays are known among cruisers as some of the most spectacular in the Caribbean. Seasoned cruisers often list this idyllic anchorage as their most treasured, citing dreamy crowdless beaches, dazzling reefs and vivid aquamarine seas. OK dear reader, you probably realised those were not my words, however Tobago Cays is a really special place and is now on our list of Caribbean favourites.
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Located in the southern St Vincent Grenadine islands, the Tobago Cays are an archipelago comprised of five small uninhabited islands: Petit Rameau, Petit Bateau, Baradal, Petit Tobac and Jamesby. Together, these islands are the main attraction at the Tobago Cays Marine Park, a national park and wildlife reserve.

Much of the park consists of a massive 1,400-acre lagoon, surrounded by a horseshoe reef. Just imagine shallow, sand-bottomed, crystal clear lagoons teeming with green turtles and colourful fish, protected from the Atlantic Ocean by coral reefs and fringed with small, white-sand beaches (ok with a bit of sargassum).

​The rainy season is living up to its name and dark clouds gather most days. We had some light rain one day it was full of Saharan dust so ITIKI is filthy again. The only good news about that is it means the risk of hurricane is low as the weather off the coast of Africa is a little cooler. Rather than wait for some clean rain we spent some time cleaning the windows and getting some of the dust off the boat. It is a never ending task!
 
Went over to Petite Bateau in the dinghy and the motor cut out just as we reached the shallows – groan.... Fortunately it was only  the fuel line that had come loose at the engine so we could quickly fix it. We walked up over the top of the island through the bushes and down to the beach on the other side. This is where the beach BBQs are as well as the popular, and more protected anchorage, called The Cut that we passed on the way in. Walked back around the much shorter and flatter end of the island. Bamboozle II has arrived so we dropped by to say hello to them. Andy and Brenda from Whispering Winds drop by as well, they are friends with Mark and Myra who came aboard on St Martin, having bought their Helia sight unseen.

We have been told of a couple of great snorkelling spots but they are on the outside of the horseshoe reef. We tried to check it out one afternoon, you have to go through the “dinghy cut”, a small opening in the reef, but finding it is quite difficult. It is marked by small buoys but they are hard to see from low down. We finally spot them and make it through the cut, tying up to the outer most buoy, but it is really quite rough so we decide to come back another day. Instead we popped across to Jamesby Island and walked along one of the "crowdless beaches". Sadly it has quite a thick coating of Sargassum weed, that is not mentioned in the tourist brochures! I think they must just photoshop it out!

​Outside of the lagoon, on the eastern side, there is a small island called Petit Tabac. Its possible to get over there in the dinghy if it is calm enough, but one morning we decide to head over there in ITIKI (to empty tanks on the way and make water as well). Switched the instruments on nothing happened, everything was blank. No lights, no action! Went through a bit of trouble shooting but no luck at all. Seems they are not getting power, which may have been related to them cutting out intermittently. I called Garmin but they just sent the trouble shooting guide that didn’t really help. Keith took off around the anchorage to ask for assistance from fellow cruisers. Jeff from Jace comes over to take a look and spends 3 hours running the multi-meter over the boat with a fine tooth comb. Finally he found a voltage drop which turns out to be due to a chafed wire that has been pulled through a roughly hacked hole during installation. It has probably been there since the beginning and possibly been responsible to our continued electrical problems. Jeff cut and re-crimped the wire and we had power back to the instruments. Wow! Thank goodness for helpful (and persistent) cruisers! We invited Jeff and Lynn over for dinner to say thank you and had a lovely evening chatting.

In the morning we decide to head across to Mayreau after more drone flying and a bit of hull scrubbing. It’s such a short distance so we are motoring, avoiding a few reefs as we come into the bay. We anchor in Saline Bay and go ashore for a walk. There is not much here at all, a very quiet island with a small population, a school and a couple of small resorts. Great views from the top of the hill and we can see down to Salt Whistle Bay anchorage which looks pretty crowded. Not much in the way of supplies available here, can't even find bananas! There are quite a few goats wandering around - haven't seen it on the menu though so not sure what they do with them. Some local kids from the sailing school have been around the anchorage in their dinghy looking for donations of equipment, lines, fibreglass, resin etc. We promise to take a look at what we have and would suit them. A couple of dudes come around in wooden boats touting for business for restaurants. It’s so quiet here now it must be tough with tourist numbers dwindling. 

,After breakfast we head ashore to walk across to the windward side. There is some interesting signage along the way, installed by the beach bar on the other side. We feed the goats and untangle them from their tethers which are wrapped around trees and their own limbs. Not the brightest of creatures. The local power station here is a solar farm. On the southern end of the island is a large salt lagoon (without flamingos). We get great views across to Tobago Cays as we walk over the ridge to the windward side. When we get to the windward beach it is, well, windy. There is a fringing reef providing some protection but not really much of a swimming spot as there are lots of rocks and plenty of sargasso. The Beach Bar is not open yet. We walk along the beach and back and then head back to town. I decided to swim back to the boat. Later that evening we enjoyed sundowners on Mai Tai with Ollie, who is a keen ex professional fisherman and he gives us a few tips and lots of encouragement!

We spent 10 days at Chatham Bay, with a couple of trips out to empty tanks and provision. Some of the highlights include:

• Walking along the beach: A lovely, long and totally uncrowded beach with just a few shacks and one "resort" along the shoreline. The sand was quite steep though so we had to walk with a list! The shoreline was rocky in places and several herons and other seabirds were grazing in the shallows.

• Drinks at Sunset Cove beach bar: We had a couple of here sessions chatting with the locals as well as fellow cruisers. Here we met Alex, who regularly paddled around to the anchored boats on a plastic kayak with a broken paddle, looking for work and a chat. He was very well informed about the outcome of Australia's recent election and the movements of Penny Wong in the Pacific, with some stern warnings about the Chinese. It was a really laid back atmosphere at the beach bar but  rum punch needs a health warning! I think they were a bit heavy handed on the OP rum. After a couple of those we practically had to crawl down the beach into the dinghy  motor very slowly back to ITIKI. Needless to say it was a slow start the following day!

• The Lambi challenge: So at one of our "sessions" at the Sunset Cove Beach Bar, Keith got chatting to Philip (the manager) about Lambi (or Conch as we know it). Philip explained how to get the meat from the conch shell, that you have to beat it with a mallet and then boil it to make it tender. Sounds great! He offered to get some for us for a very reasonable price and Keith decided to order some - for me to cook! Philip will do the hard work for us, the beating and the boiling, for a small service fee… The next afternoon Philip arrived with the Conch meat in a large bowl. It is pretty weird looking stuff and doesn’t smell too great but but if you close your eyes and take a little bite, it is actually quite tender and tasty. I cut it up and managed to make a reasonable curry out of it, and that did us for the next night as well! There was about 1.2Kg of it all up so we put half in the freezer. It is kind of a cross between abalone and octopus.

• Walk up the "fort": Behind the beach bar we found a steep and rugged trail across a paddock which joined an unpaved road. We followed this around the ridgeline to a peak overlooking the bay. Here we find the remains of a fort - well actually it is just a cannon on a pile of rocks. There are a few goats wandering around here as well and a lovely view of the bay. The rain clouds are gathering so we need to head back down quickly. The heavens opened as we picked and slipped our way through the steep (and now very muddy) field behind the beach bar. We were absolutely soaked by the time we reached the beach, but the rain had stopped by then. Our Teva's were caked in thick gooey mud.​​
• ​Snorkelling along the rocky shore: All along the rocky northern shoreline and right up to the beach there is some pretty good snorkelling, by Caribbean standards. At least a few spots of colour with some bright red corals, and some unusual bowl shaped formations which are leathery to touch. There are a few colourful fish including some large schools of yellow fish. I swim into a seemingly endless school of small silvery fish pouring out from the shore like flowing water and scooting back and forward in the dappled light.
• Checking out the local birdlife: Along to the far west of the bay is a rocky outcrop that hosts lots of birds, judging by the white "snow" covering the favoured perching positions. Here we can see the brown "dive-bomber" pelicans, some masked boobies up higher and a few more herons. We take the dinghy around the point to get a closer look at them. We saw some fellow cruisers fishing from their dinghy around this area and they seemed to be quite successful, dropping by to boast and show us their catch. We tried the same but needless to say we were not so successful, so the score remains locked the same:  Fish 2 vs K&L 0

When we arrived in the Caribbean we landed first in Barbados and from there we headed north west to St Lucia and kept heading north from there. That meant we had missed out on the southernmost of the Lesser Antilles chain. As we spoke to other cruisers along our journey, we heard so much about the Grenadines and how wonderful it was to cruise, so we figured we would need to stay another “season” in the Caribbean to make sure we didn’t miss out. Getting through a hurricane season either means heading north to the USA or heading south to Grenada, so we chose to head south to haul out over summer. This proved to be a great great opportunity to explore the wonderful group of islands, that is St. Vincent and the Grenadines (or SVG for short).

​SVG is a southern Caribbean nation which is a very popular cruising destination and with hurricane season approaching, many cruisers are heading this way for the summer. SVG’s 369km2 territory consists of the large, main island of Saint Vincent and, south of that, the northern part of the (St Vincent) Grenadines, a chain of 32 smaller islands, some of which are uninhabited. Whilst most of SVG lies within the Hurricane Alley, the further south you go, the lower the risk.

We did the 90nm trip from Martinique to SVG in 2 stages, leaving our anchorage in St Anne, Martinique around 7:30am, waving farewell to Steve and Zhara who were boat-sitting on Cushla, and refuelling before we got away. We put up the main and genoa with 1 reef in both. The conditions were pretty much the same as we have had for other north-south crossings between islands, and never quite as forecast. Wave height is not so bad this time but it is right on the beam and we get the occasional belting with a rogue wave. Wind is in the low 20s but we have several rain squalls pass through and they bring more pressure with them. It’s a relatively short, 30nm hop across to our first stop in St Lucia. We head past the familiar Rodney Bay and the fuel tanks south of Castries, before dropping the sails and turning into the narrow entrance of Marigot Bay, where we met Keith’s niece Debs and her husband Martin in January. There are a few boats here already so we don’t have a great choice of where to anchor. It’s a narrow shelf between the cliffs and the channel and we have to try a couple of times before we are happy with the set. The boat is pretty dirty but there is not much point cleaning it. We do what is called “yellow flagging” here, meaning we don’t check-in or complete any formalities, we don’t go ashore, just stop for the night under quarantine conditions with the Q flag up.

We start at first light for the next leg which is 60nm, bypassing the main Island of St Vincent and slipping into Admiralty Bay on the island of Bequia (pronounced Bek-way). It’s full sails at first as the forecast is light and there is not much action whilst we are in the lee of St Lucia. We cop the full force of the Atlantic winds as we get out into the channel between islands, and reefs are quickly deployed in the main and genoa.  It is a relief when we get into the lee of St Vincent, which is fortunate as our first reef has pulled out and we had to hoist the full main. We get smacked again when we cross the open water to Bequia and have to carefully manage the strong gusts with a full main. We decided to do our check in at Bequia rather than St Vincent because the process is easier and we could do a Covid test on arrival, using our own kits, if we go through an agent. After making contact with Daffodil her guy came over to collect some paperwork and money. As we headed into the dock we got a line wrapped around the dinghy prop and Daffodil’s offsider towed us back to the boat and unwound the line -  then it was "take 2".

First step is our health clearance - we were taken to a shipping container at the back of the hospital to await the nurse. It’s unusual to be able to do a test on arrival, normally you have to turn up with a negative test result done within 24hrs (RAT) or 48-72hrs (PCR) which can make for a logistical challenge in terms of timing longer passages - not to mention the extra expense. We can BYO test kits too which is nice as we got them for nix (thanks Debs)! I asked our agent what happens if the test turns out to be positive, he looked at me quizzically and said he didn’t know because no one ever tested positive… Hmmm – fortunately we were not the first and the nurse handed us the completed our health clearance and we made a small “donation” the the hospital... Next stop is the Port Authority where Daffodil has pre-forwarded the paperwork. We handover multiple different sums of cash for cruising tax, customs fees and a bit more for immigration. I had to make a trip to the ATM between counters to restock the wallet! The process didn’t take too long though and we were soon back to ITIKI. It has been a fairly exhausting couple of days so we spend the rest of the afternoon and evening chilling out and do pretty much the same the following day.

Admiralty Bay in Bequia is a wide bay, open to the west on the southern end of the small island. We had anchored in the NW near the old fort, where Daffodil has her office. The town is quite pretty, clean and colourful and has a nice relaxed vibe. We go ashore mid-morning to watch the FA cup final at Papa’s bar - its Chelsea vs Liverpool and Keith is a Liverpool fan. I amuse myself on the internet and manage to polish off a blog post. At half time I hear the sound of singing and steel drums and race outside - there is a lively funeral passing by, a big parade of people with music and singing, a real celebration of someone’s life well lived. Meanwhile Liverpool win on penalty shoot-out, a good result and we celebrate with burgers for lunch. In the afternoon we take a stroll through the town and around the boardwalk. We walk past some colourful shops and houses and the boardwalk takes us around the edge of the bay to Princess Margaret Beach. I guess it must have be one of her favourites, and it’s a long white sandy beach with a few nice looking bars and a resort.

The following morning we walked up to the remains of Fort Hamilton. Its named after Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of the USA, who recently had a musical made about him. It’s a sleepy Sunday and there is some country style religious music coming from one of the houses as well as the sounds of kids playing. We have a drink at Daffodil’s bar and head back to the boat. It’s quite gusty overnight but we have not moved, the anchor is well set but we decide to put out a bit more chain. Mid-morning we go ashore to the produce market, our first shop in SVG. There are a few different vendors in the market and but we have to be choosey about what we get from whom as the quality varies between vendors. I like to spread the love around anyway so I am happy to be able to buy a little something from each of the ladies. After the plentiful stocks in Martinique though it's relatively slim pickings down this way in terms of fresh produce. Everything comes from St Vincent and you just have to take what you can get. Fresh produce is relatively expensive so we shop to minimise wastage, just as the locals do. After lunch I go for a walk along the boardwalk again, to Princess Margaret Beach. It really is a beautiful white sandy beach and there are quite a few boats anchored over this side. From there I can go over another headland to Lower Bay, which is even more secluded. This is the southernmost side of Admiralty Bay and I am looking north across to Fort Hamilton and ITIKI.

Well the holding tanks are getting full and the water tanks are low so it must be time to move on. We head around the southern end of Bequia Island to an interesting looking, secluded anchorage at Friendship Bay. It sounded nice enough, even though there is a short stretch into the wind to get there. We take our time and pull out a headsail. Around the first point there are some caves in the cliffs with some houses built to blend into the rock, an experiment in eco tourism. They are quite hard to see (they really do blend in!) and we can’t really get any closer. We continue on through a narrow gap between the Bequia and a couple of small islets. It’s pretty hairy squeezing through as there is quite a swell punching through the middle. We cop a fair bit of wash coming over the boat as we are slamming into the wind and waves, and as we round another small islet coming into the anchorage even the helm station cops a wave right over the top. I managed to dodge it but Keith got the full treatment! The crockery drawer comes open as does the fridge drawer - it’s about a 2m swell and pretty uncomfortable, but short-lived. Unfortunately the anchorage turns out to be nothing special, the water is not clear and there are a lot of local boats on moorings. We manoeuvre around them to find a spot to drop the anchor and have lunch. It’s also very rolly and given that it’s not particularly nice we decide there is no reason to stay. There are a couple of potential anchorages on small islets nearby but with the swell that is running at the moment they are quickly rejected.

Instead we head south to the Mustique, the island of the “Rich and Famous”, which is only 7.5nm away. It’s a nasty angle to the swell at first, quite big and beam on and Ellie the autopilot is struggling so Keith hand steers for a while. It settles as we get away from the coast. We pick up a buoy in the north of the Britannia Bay with the help of the mooring manager. It is mandatory to use a buoy, unless they are all full and then you can anchor – either way the fee is the same. Strangely it is advertised as EC$220 for one night, with 2 more consecutive nights free – why not say EC$220 for 3 nights? There must be a story there. We are in the north of the anchorage and out from the beach a fair way so we are quite exposed to the wind and swell and we are swinging in all directions, maybe that is why there are 2 nights for “free” so you don’t give up and move on to the next island. We move ITIKI to a different buoy further in and south of the dock where it's much calmer, and later a couple of other boats do the same. As it is a private island, there is a limited area where us "blow ins" can walk around so we head up the hill to the village, where there is a post office, police station (not so busy…), a couple of bars as well as local housing. On the way back we drop in to Basil’s and have a cocktail. It’s a lovely spot overlooking the water and fast WiFi but at US$18 per drink, we just have the one!

One of the highlights of Mustique is a taxi tour of the small island – it only takes 1 hour and is the only way to get around. We visit the famous Cotton House which is the main resort, with access to a long white sand beach and numerous restaurants. We drive by Tommy Hilfiger’s mansion, then the Lacoste owners pad and we see Mick Jagger and Bryan Adams houses from a bit of a distance, as well as the house where Kate and William had their honeymoon. There are numerous privately owned and stunning mansions scattered around the hills and cliffs of Mustique, many of which are for rent on a weekly basis – starting price of around AU$100K, without staff… The island has some elements reminiscent of Hamilton Island with well-maintained roads and gardens. Staff accomm is provided to key personnel and all Mustiquans are provided with work and housing by the Mustique Company Limited, who manage the island. In the afternoon I go for a snorkel around near the boat which is similar to most places we have been, you would think they could afford better coral! Later we go ashore and walk all of the way down to the southern point of the bay. Here there is a small lagoon as well as a tiny, semi enclosed beach with a huge pile of empty lambi shells. I guess they have to go somewhere! On the way back it is feeding time and there are dozens of terrapins wandering around in the grass along the foreshroe.

The next day we walk up to the bakery for super expensive bread and also bought a postcard, they are so hard to find these days - by the time we get to the PO though it is closed! Found The View restaurant and bar and booked a table for tonight. Dropped by a few boats in the anchorage to invite them for drinks there later on. We were joined by Lucie and Jamie from Bamboozle II and 3 Austrians from a catamaran. Keith had a free consultation on his shoulder from one of the Austrians who happened to be a traumatologist! His assessment was that Keith probably didn’t need surgery. I guess we will see. Dinner was a lovely meal of Lambi curry and garlic shrimps but like everything on the island, quite pricey and not huge servings. Great talking to Jamie and Lucy from Bamboozle II who have been cruising for 18 years on-and-off, with 3 different boats.

Well our 3 nights are up so we left Mustique around 9am and headed south to Savan Island. It’s a tiny anchorage and seems not so well protected in today’s conditions, which thankfully have settled significantly since a we arrived. There is no one else there but the beach is not that pretty, just a couple of fishermen’s shacks. We decide to give it a miss and move on to Canouan Island, but on the way we put the fishing line out and we are surprised when we actually get our first ever bite! Assuming it would be a big lump of sargassum weed, we start reeling it in and panic sets in when we actually see a fish on the end of the line. Unfortunately it is a fairly underwhelming Barracuda, which after a bit of a struggle, we decide to drop back in the water. Hopefully he wont recognise us if we run into him again. where we anchor at Rameau Bay – it is really well protected and lovely water. We stop for lunch and some snorkelling and it is quite lovely. Unfortunately though it is one of those bays where we swirl around on the anchor and the chain wraps and unwraps around rocks. The anchor is not that well dug in to the hard sand bottom, so we decide not to stay the night. We head further south down to Charlestown Bay and anchor just north of the Ferry dock. It’s not quite as pretty and its very gusty but excellent holding and will be safe for the night.

The following morning it’s time for a shore run to get some provisions, as we are heading to the uninhabited islands of Tobago Cays, where there are no shops! There is too much of a surge to leave the dinghy at the dock so Keith drops me ashore. I go in search of cash but the only machine in town is empty! Apparently the workers raid it on Friday night before heading back to St Vincent for the weekend, and it is Saturday today. We manage to scrape together EC$100 and I can get some fresh produce from the limited selection available. We up anchor and head around to Glossy Bay on the southern end of the island. It’s a lovely long white beach outside the new and very empty, brand new super yacht marina, The Sandy Lane Yacht Club. Again Keith drops me ashore and go into the supermarket for a few more items and hoping to get some cash from the checkout or failing that the Marina. I strike a deal with an English lady who was clearly provisioning a charter boat and about to handover a wad of cash - I offer to pay for her stuff on my credit card and take her cash. She is 50c short so that ends up being her commission! Much cheaper than the ATMs which charge EC$8 a pop! Missions accomplished we can now head to our next exciting destination....