A charter cruise to some of the Caribbean`s most idyllic islands is a

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Gracious
Grenadines
By Mark Stevens with photography by Sharon Mathews Stevens
A charter cruise
to some of the
Caribbean’s most
idyllic islands is a
trip back in time
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October 2015 SAILING 23
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S
ee that island?” I said to my friends Ed and Kim North,
Right from the start we had been chasing pirates, finding suc-
spotlighted by the full moon just southeast of our
past a towering humpbacked islet dominated by the ruins of a
pointing across the water at a stand of royal palms
anchorage. Swami, a 40-foot Fountaine Pajot catamaran
we’d booked from Horizon Yacht Charters from its base at Blue
Lagoon in St. Vincent, swung lazily on the hook in the Tobago
Cays halfway down the Caribbean’s Grenadine islands.
“Remember the scene from
cess five minutes out of the Horizon Base at Blue Lagoon, gliding
stone French fort. Beside it was Young Island Resort, with its lowlying villas scattered across a hillside, where Johnny Depp and his
retinue stayed while filming.
In Bequia, we found the favored base for Edward Teach, better
known as Blackbeard. And Francis
Drake and Henry Morgan had
‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
once anchored in Admiralty Bay,
where Johnny Depp and Keira
where we had dropped our hook
Knightley got marooned on a
at the end of the first day. We
deserted island, drank all that
were really chasing pirates, though
rum and had a huge bonfire?”
we weren’t out to loot or pillage.
I pointed. “They filmed it
Our quest really entailed fair
right there.”
winds and perfect anchorages like
It was the evening of the
the one found at Tobago Cays.
second day of our charter, our
second day chasing pirates
The wind filled in the next
morning. Halyards clanged, rig-
in the Grenadines. We had
ging whistled and curacao-
headed south of St. Vincent on
colored waters were topped
our first day, motorsailing to
with whipped cream waves.
Bequia, where we had a delightful stroll along Belmont Walkway
A rainbow over Mayreau
on the shoreline at Port Elizabeth, decorated by stone balus-
was an omen of great things
trades fronting restaurants and watering holes. We stopped at the
ahead. But first Ed wanted
Gingerbread with its whimsical facade and gingerbread trim and
another swim to chase the
the Whaleboner Bar, with its whale’s jawbone for an entrance arch.
spotted ray wheeling and
We had a delightful dinner at Bequia Beach Hotel, enjoying lob-
soaring just beneath the
ster on the terrace 30 feet from the water’s edge.
After leaving Bequia, we had lazily meandered under power
over water broken only by the lone splash of a dolphin off the port
quarter and a nonstop display of flying fish beneath white billowing clouds perfectly reflected on the mirrored surface, past Little
Canouan and Canouan, until we had reached Tobago Cays. We
dropped the hook between Baradel, Jamesby and Petit Bateau, my
The Bequia blast rum drink is the color of
the water in the Grenadines, above. The
author steers south toward the Tobago
Cays, top. A rainbow is a good omen to start
the day in the Tobago Cays, previous page.
surface and the plenitude of
sea turtles off the stern.
My wife Sharon, Kim
and I had adjusted to island
time, sipping more coffee,
savoring both the view and
favorite Grenadines waypoint.
the breezes. I asked Kim what she thought of the Grenadines.
prietor Jacqui Pascall during a debriefing at the end of our voyage.
And there’s certainly no shortage of splendor,” Kim said.
“One of my favorites too,” said Horizon Yacht Charters co-pro“Turtles, snorkeling, beach barbecues in total seclusion.”
We watched the moonrise, swaying in synchronicity with the
gentle rocking of the boat, protected from the Atlantic swells by
a horseshoe reef boasting one of the Caribbean’s best snorkeling
spots. Ed and Kim lounged in the cockpit, and we enjoyed a local
libation called “very strong rum,” though the man who sold it to us
back in Bequia called it “true self rum.”
“You know why we call it that?” he added. “When you drink it
you see your own true self.”
I strolled to the sidedeck and gazed out at Petit Tabac, where
they’d filmed that seminal scene from “Pirates,” one of my favorites.
“Spectacular. Perfect place if you want to be more adventurous.
Experienced sailors, the Norths dock their Dufour 36 near
ours back home on Lake Ontario, and they’d chartered in
the Virgin Islands several times before taking on their first
Grenadine adventure.
“I honestly prefer the BVI, particularly for a first charter. Here
it’s more rugged, with longer passages over open waters,” she said.
Kim was on the money but then again, as Horizon’s Pascall
pointed out, “You just need to be seamanlike, know your charts
and keep your eyes open.”
But Kim proved prophetic. That day’s passage proved way lon-
Cruisers tuck into Bequia’s Admiralty Bay.
ger than originally planned. After powering through the narrow, if
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24 sailingmagazine.net | October 2015
October 2015 SAILING 25
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picturesque channel, we raised the sails and Swami roared west on
a broad reach happy as a kid on the last day of school. With winds
like these we were soon passing Mayreau, sailing at 7 knots past
Catholic Rock as we turned south. When you have no destination
in mind, all winds are fair.
“Seven-and-a-half knots.” Ed said. “Eight.”
We passed Saltwhistle Bay on Mayreau, an overnight spot
guarded by voluptuous hills, windward beach and a leeward beach
almost side-by-side. Mayreau, home to fewer than 500 people, was
the perfect secluded anchorage, unspeakably beautiful, but we were
not sidetracked. Winds were fair and it wasn’t even noon, so we
pushed south and Saltwhistle and Saline glided off our port beam.
We broke out into the open waters south of Mayreau, sailing
on a beam reach as the seas grew to 5 feet. Gorgeous vistas were
the order of the day as we flew across those waters, now calm as
we crossed into the lee of Union, its leeward side bedecked with
beaches, decorated by a gorgeous big bay where steep slopes fell
Rodney Bay
away to the waters and the brown sugar beach of Chatham Bay.
We sailed passed Union Island, and soon Petit Martinique’s
steep cone rose from the horizon line like an ancient pyramid, the
ST. LUCIA
undulating folds of Carriacou in the distance. Swami kept flying
over the water, and we bore off, reaching north, pulling into Clifton
Harbour on Union. We dropped the hook just inside a reef where
a kiteboarder zoomed back and forth, and where Happy Island, a
rudimentary multi-hued bar on a tiny islet made from conch shells
beckoned nearby. Given the need for ice and more very strong rum,
and coconut rum and Curacao, a recipe that Whaleboner Bar’s pro-
smaller than some people’s driveways and rudimentary shops were
Luckily for me, the next day was an easy passage over cobalt
prietor and I perfected with great enthusiasm.
we opted to dinghy into Clifton, where planes landed on a runway
ST. VINCENT
Willilabou Bay
Young Is.
waters with steady trade winds, just enough for a lovely 7-knot flat-
painted periwinkle blue and yellow and fire engine red.
decked jaunt. Velocity made so good that before lunch we were in
“This is how the Caribbean used to be,” Kim said.
Bequia
the shadow of the fort at Kingstown, towering 2,000 feet over the
The next morning the winds continued and we rounded Union
sea. So we headed up St. Vincent’s lee coast.
on a nearly reciprocal course, making for Mustique, the island
“This is spectacular,” Kim said. “The hills and cliffs, the valleys,
known throughout the Windwards as the haunt of the rich and
the vegetation, so lush, so dramatic.”
famous. However, given a combination of more cooperative winds,
We reached north, past Petit Byahaut, rounded the rocks at
a warning about the mooring fees and the cost of drinks at Basil’s
ES
AD
IN
GRE
N
THE
Bottle and Glass, letting the sails luff and drifting as a fisherman
bar and an admittedly too-desultory attention to both chartplotter
Tobago Cays
Union
We sailed past a little fishing village where houses clung to
at Tamarind Beach Hotel with its seaside bar reclining beneath a
thatched roof at Charlestown on Canouan. Though Canouan often
times we didn’t go with the advice of Laron Stephens back at the
Ed raises the main on the Swami, the chartered Fountaine Pajot 40, above. From
the anchorage just off Tobago Cays’ Baradel Island, top, you can see Petit Tabac,
a desert island made famous by Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley in “Pirates of
the Caribbean.” Wallilabou harbor’s rock formation, facing page, also appears in
the film.
For the most part I took his advice, scribbling down every
a choir of birds flitting through the trees clinging to precipitous
Our choice of anchorages for that night was one of the few
Horizon base. He’d recommended Mustique.
It also proved to be an island of quiet evenings, serenaded by
word like it was gospel. He proved every bit as instructive as Chris
hillsides, just what we needed before our final night in Bequia, a
Doyle, who apparently liked Canouan a lot, calling it “an island
of bumpy hills, spectacular views and exquisite water colors” in his
seminal Cruising Guide to The Windward Islands.
26 sailingmagazine.net | October 2015
board, trying to sell us fish, gratefully accepting a cold Haroun beer.
ing on a mooring ball in a secluded cove just off the gorgeous beach
gets short shrift, our anchorage was downright idyllic.
GRENADA
pulled up in a rickety wooden runabout propelled by an ancient out-
and GPS, we ended up, after several hours of great sailing, swing-
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night that proved to be nothing short of Bacchanalian. That was
the night we reinvented a drink I’d come up with on a previous
trip and named the Bequia blast, a combination of soda, overproof
hills like nervous mountain goats, pulling in tight to a stark rug-
ged sandstone cliff 200 feet high. I hardened the main and furled
the foresail, turned on the engine and headed into a sheltered
cove, steering for a forlorn weathered dock beside an ancient-
looking building that could have been a backdrop for a movie.
That was no coincidence. Welcome to Wallilabou. The opening
scenes from “Pirates of the Caribbean” were filmed right here. I
wouldn’t have been at all surprised to see a ghostly galleon turn
in behind me. And I would have saluted it as some sort of
kindred spirit.
October 2015 SAILING 27