Favourite Islands Part 4: Martinique to Grenada

These are the Windward Islands and when sailing south, Martinique is the point where you no longer have to sail east to make the next island.  Who said Caribbean sailing was all gentle breezes behind the beam?!  At least from here on down the chain there's a good chance the wind won't be hard on the nose.

This is the final instalment in my little island series - here's the one that started it all off.

Martinique

Approaching Martinique is much like walking into a tropical greenhouse - you can smell the flowers from a couple of miles off the island, especially at the end of the dry season when it seems just about anything that can bloom is showing off its most spectacular colours.  Visiting Martinique is like stepping into a heady mix of first world France on vacation in the Caribbean.  The island has just about every convenience and if you like shopping this is the place to come.  Also, if you have a French boat as we do, this is the place to find all those unique little requirements that are hard to source elsewhere.  Le Marin is huge and much like the lagoon on St. Martin offers services of all types and chandleries with direct supply lines to France.  The island of Martinique is a delight but is most easily explored by car on excellent European-signed roads.  Highlights include the volcano of Mt. Pelee, many rum distilleries and a banana museum, Fort de France - a bustling city, the mountainous interior region and we have particularly enjoyed hiking on the east coast.  The best thing about Martinique are all the anchorages starting with St. Pierre in the north, many little Anses around Fort de France and then Ste. Anne and Le Marin in the south.  Even if you don't speak French, the locals are friendly and will help out with quite a bit of English.

     Love:  Lorraine beer, cheap wine, great cheese, pain chocolat for breakfast

     Hate:  (apart from the effect on my waistline) There's really not much to dislike about this place - I suppose when you're trying to get a repair done, the French-Caribbean working hours are difficult to accommodate.  We use the mantra, "But of course, we are French."  Most trades work 9 to 12, 2:30-ish to 5, Monday - Friday and sometimes Saturday morning.  Also, if you use propane make sure you are well-stocked before visiting the French islands since you can only buy butane cooking-gas here.

St. Pierre nestled under the heights of volcanic Mt. Pelee.

Hiking the dizzying slopes of Mt. Pelee.

Fort de France - back to all the mod cons.

Night time concert at Fort de France.

The southern beaches and anchorage at Ste. Anne.

Christmas eve night in Ste. Anne and there's standing room only outside the church.

St. Lucia

St. Lucia is an independent island that has developed quite an infrastructure to support cruise ships and resort visitors.  After Martinique it feels a bit like visiting the wild, wild, west and in fact we have found there is even country music sometimes playing on the radio.  Rodney Bay at the north end is where most cruisers congregate and there is a good marina and boat yard with associated services here.  If you ran out of propane in Martinique because you stayed too long, this is the place to fill up (or to prep on the northbound voyage).  There are restaurants to please every taste and some of the best Indian food we have eaten down here.  However, it's not cheap so plan your visit accordingly.  In fact we find that St. Lucia is one of the most expensive islands to visit since prices are geared with cruise-ship and resort vacationers in mind.  On the flip-side, staying in the marina is affordable and a great place to take a little break.  Marigot Bay with access to the Capella Resort if you stay on a mooring is a delightful visit and we use this as our arrival and jump-off point to the south.  The south end of St. Lucia is dominated by the magnificent and iconic Pitons.  Many people do stop off in these southern anchorages but we prefer to view them from afar and avoid the clamour of the boat-boys.

     Love:  The ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) arrives in Rodney Bay in December and we loved the crazy energy of the place as these long-distance cruisers arrived.

     Hate:  It's hard to walk down the street without being asked for a hand-out.

Rodney Bay - another big anchorage where cruisers congregate.

Buying fruits & veg from one of the boat boys - just check everything for bugs and roaches cause they love to live in that canopy!

Gros Islet feels like a town out of the wild west, right down to the horses on the street.

Beautiful tiny Marigot Bay.

Sunset behind the palm trees.

Hiking here is straight up the mountainside!

Sailing to the iconic pitons.

Sunrise over Petit Piton.

St. Vincent & The Grenadines

St. Vincent (the big island) and the smaller islands of The Grenadines - Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Union Island and many little islets scattered in-between make up this nation.  We have not yet visited the big island of St. Vincent due to security concerns so Bequia is the first stop we make here when heading south.  We check CSSN regularly when cruising throughout the Caribbean and especially when in this area.  It is unfortunate since we have heard that the island of St. Vincent is magnificent, much like Dominica.  While some visit the island, most take a miss preferring not to take the risk of being the "one" vessel that ran into a bad guy on a particular night.  The island of Bequia has taken the cruising community to heart with many small businesses and restaurants all gathered around the end of large Admiralty Bay which makes this a delightful place to stop and visit.  The islands south of Bequia are unique in their various attractions and spaced apart to make day-hopping a pleasant activity.  Mustique - an expensive private island and resort for the rich and famous.  Canouan - another resort island with a dodgy reputation so we haven't visited (yet).  Mayreau - so small you can walk around the entire island but big enough to support a surprising number of bar/restautant establishments.  The Tobago Cays - turquoise, Bahamian-like waters full of turtles.  Union Island - we like Chatham Bay on the west side where you really get away from all the hustle and bustle.  All these islands have spectacular palm-tree lined white-sand beaches and look like they were plucked off a postcard.

     Love:  this is what you dreamed the Caribbean would look like

     Hate:  the unstable and corrupt government that has led to the security problems 

Bequia - Admiralty Bay from atop Peggy's Rock with 'Jetman' as our guide.

Bequia - Friendship Bay and the whaling station. 

Mayreau - Righteous & Da Youths bar.

Mayreau - Saltwhilstle Bay

From Mayreau - looking out over the Tobago Cays.

Tobago Cays - Petit Tabac and absolutely clear turquoise waters.

Sundowners in Chatham Bay on Union Island.

Grenada

Grenada is our chosen destination for hurricane season (August to November) and as such has been our home for about three months of the year for the last couple of years.  We've had a chance to get to know Grenada up and down the island but spend most of our time on the south shore.  Before getting to the big island however, there is one more island to visit that is geographically part of The Grenadines, but politically belongs to Grenada rather than St. Vincent.  Carriacou is our gateway to this southern island and is a great place to get away from the busy-ness of Grenada during the season.  This little place is where time tries to stand still and if you haven't seen the movie Vanishing Sail, I highly encourage you do so.  Grenada, on the other hand, is a busy, vibrant island full of cruisers, university students, ex-pats and locals.  The cruising social scene really heats up in Prickly and Mount Hartman Bays but there are plenty of quiet little anchorages where you can safely tuck yourself away if you prefer a more peaceful sojourn.  Weekly shopping buses, Saturday Hashes, cooking classes, yoga, fitness, volleyball, loads of great haul-out facilities and boat services mean that Grenada is strongly competing with Trinidad as the place to stay or leave your boat during the hurricane season.  We like to kick off our stay in Grenada in August with the annual Spicemas - a week-long party in St. George's that celebrates Grenada and all things Carnival.

     Love:  the friendships and camaraderie of Grenada and the Grenadians

     Hate:  heat and humidity - why do we come so far south at this time of the year!

Beautiful Secret Harbour on Mt. Hartman Bay - our home in Grenada.

There are so many waterfalls on Grenada to visit - Concord is one of the easiest to get to and most popular.

Volleyball kept us busy at Secret Harbour.

We managed to play a round of golf too.

Carnival time and the ladies are in high gear with the sequins and glue guns.

Old and young - all love to parade in costume.

Jouvet morning and we're ready to party.  Who knew we'd make friends with young med school students!

The frenzy that is carnival.

Jouvet is all about the paint - we're heading for the communal wash-down next :-)

Every Saturday afternoon there is a Hash somewhere on Grenada.  We were lucky enough to be there for the 900th - 900 organized runs on this tiny little island!

Bring on the dotty potty for the birthday celebrations - there's always a reason to have another beer after the Hash.

Hash buddies - ON ON!

Well, there you have it.  These (and the ones in my preceding posts) are all the islands that we have come to know and in some cases love over our travels of the past two years.  We still feel that there is much more to discover but we are starting to get a measure of these places.  Have we found an answer to the question, "What's your favourite island?"  Perhaps not, but we definitely have favourites (plural):

     St. Martin - duty-free boat parts

     Antigua - great round-the-island cruising grounds

     Dominica - abundant nature

     Martinique - France in the Caribbean

     Grenada - home away from home

... oh wait - can I add more? - it's too difficult to choose!!

Our explorations are so enriched by these guide books - don't leave home without them!

Name the country!

And of course - Cheers to all the friends we've made along the way.

A Hop, Skip & A Jump

Leaving the big island of Grenada and heading north, our first stop was Carriacou.  Such a favourite stopping off place to check out of Grenada with customs & immigration, it was almost like stepping back into Camp Grenada with all the boats we knew there.  The anchorage was crowded but the water clean and clear - oh so good to be on the move again!

We met up with Neptune II who had spent the season in Mt. Hartman with us so we hatched a plan to head north together.

Raising sails and looking forward to a quick sail up to Union Island.

Union Island is the southernmost outpost of The Grenadines, the island chain that stretches out below St. Vincent like a string of little jewels.

Our stop for the night was on the west coast of Union in Chatham Bay - so good to see the azure tones of the water all around us.

Anchored in a sandy patch in about 10' of water, we were dazzled by the colours around us once again.

With no power and no running water, the little shacks along the beach offer the traditional selection of BBQ and deep-fried meals with stunning sunset views.

Sundowner rum punch right on queue.

As we sipped our cold beer and rum punches and met up with other cruisers making their way north from Grenada, we celebrated my birthday in picture-perfect surroundings.

The next morning we decided it was time to get out and stretch our legs a bit with a hike over to the little town of Ashton.  Up the trail behind the BBQ shack, along the road and over the ridge brought us down into the bowl where the town is built between the dizzying heights of The Pinnacle and Mount Parnassus.

Thankfully we didn't have to climb over the Pinnacle to get into town.

The picturesque town of Ashton with Petit St. Vincent (St. Vincent) and Petite Martinique (Grenada) in the distance.

There were originally five wells dug in the town to provide people and livestock with water.  This one was described as "the least salty" so was once used for drinking water.  Now only used for domestic use, rainwater is captured in cisterns for drinking.

The doctor comes to Ashton, but hopefully you can fit into their schedule.

We scored some cold drinks and ice cream in Ashton, along with arranging our dinner for the evening back in Chatham Bay and then commenced to find our way back to the west side.  Flowers are still in bloom along the way making for a pretty wander and we are back in islands that are so much drier than Grenada.  Lots of waving grass in the breeze emulating the waves we see on the sea.

Pretty paths lead the way.

And down we go back to the boats in Chatham Bay.

Looking at the weather report for the next few days over the weekend it looked like we were in for a rainy spell that wouldn't make the Tobago Cays particularly enjoyable.  We decided to take a bigger jump right up to Bequia with the plan to enjoy the rest of The Grenadines on our return south later in the season.

Of course, as we arrived after a particularly frustrating sail fighting wind and current all the way, we were greeted by a few little spritzes and a changed forecast with no rain.  Dang it - we could have made water as we motor sailed north rather than waiting to fill our tanks with rainwater.  Not complaining about the sunshine though we settled into Admiralty Bay amid the beautiful colours of Bequia, known as the Island of Clouds.

Just enough rain to produce a beautiful rainbow over the anchored boats in the bay.

I'd like to meet the character that painted his fishing boat pink - not many men down here have the gumption to do that!

Such pretty colours scattered up the hillside above us.

There's a busy little industry providing cruisers with clean laundry, water and fuel.  Gotta take a call wherever you are.

The busy little port at Bequia often sports three or four of the local ferries lined up beside each other.  These ply the waters back and forth to the main island bringing back everything needed on the little outpost island.

Bequia is even a stop on the itineraries of the smaller cruise ships, although they still dwarf us in the anchorage.

Someone once told us (it was Alex on Banyan I think) that once you have spent a season in Grenada you will never be alone in an anchorage again.  I remember when we came down this way in July we knew no-one and the place was so strange to us; now we look out and see a half-dozen friends anchored around us and the place feels like another version of home.  The smiling faces of the Bequians, not known personally, are familiar and our ears are more tuned to the Caribbean sing-song creole accent.

While enjoying the companionship and sunset bocce ball on the beach, we still have a few projects to work on aboard.  Henry has been upgrading some of our wiring and finally figured out an issue with our chart-plotter that has been temperamental for quite a while, and I have added to our new bikinis with rain and sun protection.

The aft shade cover is crucial to comfort in the afternoon when the sun bakes down on the back of the boat.

Now when it rains, the water runs from the helm bimini down to the main roof without soaking the seat below.  Little things like a dry cockpit are a MAJOR improvement to comfort.

Traveling with Neptune II afforded us one last chance to enjoy the soothing sax tones as Gary joined Gavin from Secret Smile for an evening of jazz at The Fig Tree. We ended up with a table of 10 as various folks came and went, enjoying another evening of entertainment.

Gavin and Gary at The Fig Tree for one more appearance.

Travelling with kid boats always reminds us of those years when the kids were in school with homework, tests and exams. Boy did we have it easy just sending them off to school.  Kids on boats have to get their education through home schooling, the internet and sheer force of will to get the work done.  We love these folks though since they have taken such a commitment to get out here and show their kids a different view of the world.

So, as Elliott on Neptune II had to knuckle down to complete some assignments and write some exams, we joined up with Three Little Birds (John, Maria, Fin, Oliver, Annabelle and Tashi the dog) for a hike up to Peggy's Rock.

Friendship and Moon Hole - what better names to have on your address?

More beautiful windswept views to the south of Bequia and Friendship.

Around we went and up and up, up to 900' above Admiralty Bay where we spied our boats in the anchorage below.

John ponders the view below and the main island of St. Vincent in the background.

Next stop on our passage north?  We will linger a few more days enjoying the sights of Bequia, and then make our way north with a plan to stop in Wallilabou on the main island of St. Vincent for a night.  Most boats avoid St. Vincent but we are willing to give it a chance, especially as it will knock a couple of hours off the longer transit straight up to St. Lucia.