Christmas in SVG (St. Vincent and the Grenadines)

 

Monday 17^th January, Admiralty Bay, Bequia, SVG.

Ooooh, it's a cosy rainy day here in Bequia, we're being blasted by a squall just now. Lovely. Gráinne's got a bit salty and could do with a good fresh water rinse.

Well we've just had a fantastic Christmas/New Year here in SVG (the main criteria being Karl and I together in the same country, and no-one's in quarantine, and no one's dead, and Karl's not in Grenada!), we are in complete holiday mode and have been enjoying sailing, snorkeling, wandering and just sitting around. The Grenadines sort of encourage that type of behaviour.

SVG is made up of the main island of St. Vincent and a string of smaller islands stretching south as far as Carriacou. The islands are all within a short sail of each other, the trade winds are reliable, the anchorages are pretty and the beaches and towns ashore are just lovely. The Gods were having a good day when they designed this neck of the woods. And it's very chilled. Ve-ry chilled. We have definitely now perfected the art of limin' (the finishing touches to our already considerable skills were applied in Canouan).

We started at Union Island, just north of Carriacou, and have been pottering north through Mayreau (my-roo), Tobago Cays (keys), Canouan (can-oo-an) and now Bequia (beck-way). There's been no wild excitement, no near death experiences and no unexpected stow-aways so I think this blog is going to be a bit like inflicting a holiday photo album. You have been warned.

Sailing again, wind in his hair.

Union Island (population 3000)

We had a great sail up from Carriacou, it's only ten miles away but turned into 15 by the time we tacked back and over. Gráinne's new sails have had us flying along at 6 to 7 knots, with a second reef in, in the 15 to 20 knots of winds we've been getting. So good, such fun sailing. Arriving in Clifton we were slightly overwhelmed by the loads and loads of charter boats and pasty European tourists there for the kite-surfing. It did have a good veggie market, a fort and great bar so we stayed for Christmas. We indulged in a full roast dinner followed by mulled wine, mince pies and Christmas cake. Ah. The other big excitement on arriving at Union was Karl's first experience with an SVG ATM (because you never know how an ATM in a new country is going to treat you, it's a bit like playing the pokies/slot machines). You should have seen his face when it gave him a pile of money and only charged 0.8%. 0.8%!!!!! Ah, the thrill.

The anchorage at Clifton

Gráinne moored in the front row nice and close to the Happy Island bar on the reef.

The most delicious Christmas Eve cocktail with loads of freshly blended fruit at the Happy Island bar.

Downtown Clifton

Veggie market

Next we moved around the corner to Ashton, the smaller town on the island. There wasn't much happening there. A woman who served us in her mother's shop was back from London for Christmas so because we're Irish she threw in a Heineken and some Fox's Glacier Mints on the house.

Gráinne anchored off Ashton.

Then we pottered around the next corner to Chatham Bay where there isn't even a town, just a few beach bars. One morning we went for a walk up a hill in search of a view. Having scrambled up a ridiculously steep field (we took the wrong route [Karl disagrees]), past a freshly born calf, we came across a local sitting on a rock taking in the view. “Bushman” was almost at the end of his half-hour morning commuting walk and always likes to stop at this rock and take in the view. I don't blame him. Nice view. We walked with him the last couple of hundred metres to the house/farm where he works and he pointed us in the direction of the good views. And we saw a tortoise. I didn't know the Eastern Caribbean had tortoises.

We found a view of Chatham Bay.

Tortoise!

Mayreau (population 271)

Another short, exhilarating sail and we arrived at the very small and very quiet Mayreau. At first we thought it was so sleepy because it was that period just after Christmas but no, it stayed just as quiet even after we were back to normal business days. The population is almost exactly the same as Inis Oirr (281) but Mayreau has way more bars. Way more. We had an early New Year's drink ashore and then a quiet and early night aboard Gráinne only to be woken at midnight by surprise fireworks. On New Year's Day I launched the Kara's New Year's Open Water Swim Challenge in keeping with my 2021 resolution to conquer the freestyle. Usually we've been buzzing ashore in the morning for a nice safe swim parallel to the beach but at Saline Bay we were anchored close enough to the beach to make it a doable challenge to try to swim ashore (I make it about 300m, Karl may disagree). And I made it! Not without a couple of rest stops but still, an improvement. We also got chatting to a couple of local men back from Bequia for Christmas who told us about taking part in the whale hunting in Bequia. I never associated the Caribbean with whale hunting but there you go, the traditional whale hunt continues on a very small scale and it seems to have been inherited from some original settlers from New England.

The other main pastime on Mayreau was walking up a very steep hill to the top of the village, taking in the view, and walking back down again (two choices – walk down the same side again or....the opposite side).

The Village.

They do take their drinking seriously here.

View of the Tobago Cays from the top of The Village.

Saltwhistle Bay on the opposite side of the island from Saline Bay.

Limin' in Saltwhistle Bay.

"The bars of SVG" series.

Sunday afternoon lunch at the beach.

Tobago Cays (human population - 0, turtle population - loads, tourists on boats - plenty)

A collection of tiny, uninhabited islands on a reef. This is the stuff of holiday brochures. We anchored in a quiet spot away from the tourist hoards (and discovered, as the conditions became more spirited, why there were only us and two other boats in that spot) and spent a lot of time snorkelling. I was actually overwhelmed on my first snorkel by the sheer amount and variety of fish, coral and plants. I literally didn't know where to look. There was an amazing big orange coral ball, lacy lilac coral, black coral tubes with yellow rings around the opening, the land of big grabbing hand plants, the land of green coral, a thing that looked for all the world like a huntsman spider and loads of translucent “stingers” that didn't sting. And giant, absolutely GIANT, starfish. I'm talking a half metre diameter with really big, thick, juicy limbs.

Snorkeling, snorkeling and more snorkeling.

In real life this was a glowing orange ball of coral.

Hiding fishy.

The Land of Green Coral

The Land of Giant Wavy Hands

A ray.

The Tobago Cays are a marine park with a protected turtle habitat so of course we had to go looking for turtles. And we found them. I spent ages just hanging out with one as he munched grass on the bottom (you could hear the crunch as he bit off the grass like a cow munching). Then just as you forget he's underwater and get used to thinking of him as a turtle walking along the ground and eating grass he launches himself and flies to the surface. So beautiful. And after a breath of air he's back down to the bottom again. And then he gave a little fart, you can't hide that stuff underwater.

Munching grass on the bottom.

Flying.

Buzzing from one snorkeling spot to the next.

We celebrated Nollaig na mBan/Small Christmas on December 6^th with a lunchtime beach picnic and an evening modified roast featuring tinned chicken and canned brussels sprouts.

Canouan (population 1700)

Next stop, after yet another speed record on Gráinne with the new sails, was Charlestown on Canouan. This is a slightly strange island because about a third to a half of the entire island in the north is taken up with a private gated resort and a good chunk in the south is taken up with a private gated marina and resort leaving just the middle bit for us mere mortals and the local residents. It's a pretty nice middle bit though. There's a lovely little village with a good veggie market and very friendly locals. It does have an airport that can handle jets (of the private variety) which was a bit of adjustment having not heard a jet since mainland Grenada. We found a favourite (there wasn't a lot of competition) bar and worked on our liming skills. A bunch of local men were boiling enormous lobsters over an open fire and (like barbequeing men everywhere) each and every one of them was offering their own opinion regarding the doneness or lack thereof or optimum approach to the task while swilling rum. And there were also loads of tortoises on Canouan.

It's all bustle on the dock when the ferry arrives.

A very pretty police station.

And a cute airport.

Loads of tortoises on Canouan including this little pocket sized one that only narrowly escaped becoming a boat tortoise. Just so tempting.

Our favourite liming spot.

Bequia (population 4000)

And that brings us to Bequia, the northernmost island before the “mainland” of St. Vincent. A very pretty island, a fabulous anchorage in a big bay, a nice swimming beach and a nice Sunday Beach Day beach, good snorkeling, a fort, an ATM that only charges 0.8%, a veggie market, chicken breasts in the supermarket! (the only part of the chicken we haven't seen since Carriacou) – it has all the important angles covered. It is distinctly more touristed and touristy that the other islands but we tucked ourselves in in a quieter anchorage in the north of the bay, off Hamilton (so named because the land here was granted to James Hamilton, father of Alexander of musical fame), and only venture down to the south of the bay, off Princess Margaret Beach, for our morning swims before the hoards down there have gotten out of bed.

Gráinne anchored in Admiralty Bay.

"Bars of SVG" series.

We took the ferry over to Kingstown, the capital of St. Vincent, for a daytrip of tourism. It was a successful daytrip where we achieved a PCR (for our upcoming trip to St. Lucia), a visit to a fort and a top up of goodies at a big supermarket. Such are the criteria for daytrip success these days. And the free coffee on the 0630 ferry didn't hurt either.

The excitement of a street full of shops in Kingstown.

Another day, another fort. Fort Charlotte in Kingstown.

"Bars of SVG" series - pop up bars in the carpark in Kingstown.

It was nice to have a day back in a big town with a bit, but not too much, of bustle going on. Highlight of the day was an overheard half of a phone conversation in the queue for the PCR “No, he can't make it, he'll be busy. He said he's going to be liming.”. So that's going to be our new excuse – sorry, we can't, we'll be busy liming.

The Royal Clipper - prettier than your average cruise ship.

Prettier than your average superyacht.

Sunday 23rd January, Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.

We made it to St. Lucia and we have plane tickets to Ireland leaving Wednesday (fingers very much crossed). We'll also be paying a flying visit to London on the way back. Yippee!

Flickr Photo Album