Leg 17 – Caribbean – The Grenadines

So we were there, laying in Admiraly Bay in Bequia on anchor in a 28 degrees warm clear water after an ocean crossing. Prior to our arrival we were trying to imagine what the feeling would be like when we would stop the engine after mooring. The truth is, we had no energy left for any big celebration. We used the remaining energy to inflate the dinghy and go onshore to clear immigration. After that we took a short walk in a street of Bequia and finally sat in a bar with a beer to celebrate our accomplishment. It took some days to really start relaxing. Some days to stop thinking about what needs to be fixed on the boat. Some days to stop wandering what every sound is coming from and if that sound means that something needs to be adjusted. In this mood it was actually hard to really appreciate the place, the warmth, the blue water, the lovely local people around. What we needed first was a long rest. The days following the arrival we slept around 12 hours per night. Slowly we started to appreciate the little things, starting with early breakfast. The bay was very busy during the day with dinghies going in all directions, ferry boats and private sailboats regularly coming in and out of the bay and reggae music played out loud from some bars onshore. Then some time during the night everything would get quiet until a couple of hours after sunrise making breakfast time such a delightful moment exalting the beauty of that place. And finally we realized that we actually made it to the Caribbeans!

We remained six days in Bequia. Three days moored at a buoy and three on anchor. We celebrated Christmas with our friends sailing S/Y Alba who came in the anchorage two days before Christmas. They arranged a memorable boatmade glögg (a typical Swedish Christmas warm drink), a wonderful boatmade potatoes au gratin, cheese (a luxury in this area of the Caribbeans), cooked eggs and drinks. From our side we arranged a delicious boatmade saffran pankake (a speciality from Gotland), some chicken legs and some herring (herring is a typical Swedish Christmas food). With all that we made a Christmas celebration we won’t forget.

We left our anchorage in Bequia the following day on Christmas day. We chose for our first destination the island of Mayreau. We initially wanted to stop in Canouan but we read comments about a boat being boarded and robbed. Even though it is probably old stories, we decidwd to skip that island. Mayreau is a pearl in the Grenadines, laying about 25Nm south of Bequia. There was only a light breeze blowing and because we wanted to refill the water tank, we motorsailed the whole way and ran the watermaker at the same time. It felt amazingly good to be on the move again and start to discover or rediscover the Grenadines.

We made a first stop in Salt Whistle Bay located on the north side of Mayreau. An idyllic bay with palm trees, small bars and restaurants on the beach. All the mooring buoys were occupied when we arrived so we dropped the anchor. The depth was only 4,5m so we laid only 20m of chain.

From our anchorage we took the dinghy to go on shore and walk to the town located south from Salt Whistle Bay. Our walk revealed another reality : Mayreau as well as Union Island, Carriacou and smaller islands like Petit Saint Vincent and Petite Martinique got severly hit by hurricane Beryl in 2024 and many houses were still under reconstruction or just abandoned with no roof left and broken walls. However it seemed that many repair works had already been completed. The resilience of these people is admirable. Locals keep many goats on this island and they had many young ones… incredibly cute !

In the charming environment of Salt Whistle Bay, on December 26, we celebrated Maria’s birthday. For that occasion, Maria opened the second last of the gifts from her sister and her sister’s husband. The gift was entitled “Systerskap” that means sisterhood in Swedish and contained a lovely souvenir from a sister spa before our departure. Then for dinner, we chose “The Last Bar Before the Jungle” and ordered some grilled red snapper and grilled lambi. Absolutely delicious! … since the restaurant was on the beach we could also keep an eye on Lovisa because it was actually blowing quite well in the bay … and she didn’t move a cm!

After two days on anchor, the wind changed from east to north east making our anchorage very rolly. We spent one rolly night with poor sleeping, then on December 28 we moved to Saline Bay just 2Nm away on the west coast of Mayreau. We were happy to find a bay with less waves but it took us ages to anchor. We usually manage to get good anchoring at first attempt. A few times we had to reanchor because we ended up too close to another boat, but this time we needed four attempts.

First attempt: we dropped the anchor, laid 30m of chain while gently reversing. Once all the 30m were out, we secured the chain and reversed the engine at 1800rpm to see if the anchor was holding the boat in place. And it did. The boat was not moving while reversing but when we dove to check the anchor, we saw that it didn’t dig well on the bottom so we decided to lift the whole thing and retry.

Second attempt: this time we laid 10m of chain first while gently reversing. Once we felt that the anchor took bite we laid down additional 20m. Once the chain was secured, we reversed at 1800rpm. The boat was not moving. We dove again to check the chain. The anchor itself was sitting very well but it took also a chain that was laying down there. Why there was a chain down there we didn’t know… maybe it had something to do with the buoy we saw earlier that was drifting away together with the catamaran that was moored to it ? For the story the crew of this catamaran realized they were drifting away after some time when they were quite far out actually. It was another guy on a sailboat that noticed, took his dinghy and went to warn them. They just detached themselves and went away without problem. Anyway we didn’t want to remain entangled in a chain so we took up the anchor.

Third attempt further away from the chain: same procedure but when we jumped in the water again with our masks to check how the anchor was sitting, we found the anchor slowly dragging on the bottom with a big piece of algae attached to it. We were not sure if the anchor would be able to reset by itself with all that stuff around it so we decided to go for a fourth attempt.

Fourth attempt, same procedure in another place … but way more hungry… Luckily for our stomach, that one went well and the anchor was sitting well on the bottom. After an hour and half of taking up and down the anchor we could finally sit down, start cooking lunch and enjoy the rest of another beautiful bay in the Grenadines.

The funny thing is that all these efforts to set the anchor didn’t help out that much. Around midnight, the wind picked up and the anchor alarm woke us up. In just a few minutes, the anchor dragged 15 meters backwards. But luck was with us: after 15 meters the boat stopped again: the anchor just managed to set back firmly! Since there was no other boat behind us, we left the things like this and went back sleeping or at least trying to …

After a second consecutive poor sleeping night, we left Saline Bay to reach Tobago Cays.

Tobago Cays is another pearl in the Caribbeans. It is a group of small islands surrounded by shallow waters that host a wide variety of marine wildlife. The whole thing is surrounded by a huge coral reef that provide a natural protection from the swell coming from the ocean. The trip took just 45 minutes so we didn’t hoist the sails but instead went by engine. At arrival we got lucky to find a free mooring buoy close to the beach of islet Petit Rameau. We spent a lot of time snorkling and got the chance to admire stingrays, sea turtles and all kind of colorful fishes that make Tobago Cays such special place. Unfortunately when it comes to corals, most of it was dead.

We remained three days in Tobago Cays including New Year’s eve. We celebrated the new year with other sailor friends from S/Y Marey, S/Y Inga, S/Y Eden and S/Y Eagle of Norway who gathered in Tobago Cays for the occasion. For dinner, we enjoyed some grilled lobster, grilled fish accompanied with sallad, grilled potatoes, grilled banana and rice. So good !

And with good company and good food we closed 2025. A year we will remember for life.

On January 1 and as a first destination for 2026 we sailed to Petit Saint Vincent, a small island only 10Nm south of Tobago Cays. The island hosts a resort that unfortunately has been dramatically hit by Hurricane Berryl in 2024. Reconstruction works were still ongoing when we were there. Many parts of the island were still holding the scars after hurricane Berryl but some were still showing the beauty of that place before Berryl.

We anchored in turquoise waters over a sand patch of 3,2m depth. This means that we had only 1,6m left under the keel. This was quite little but since there was no swell entering the anchorage and no boat traffic around generating waves, we felt comfortable staying in shallow waters.

We left Petit Saint Vincent already on January 2 to go to Carriacou. We had to make a short stop on Union Island to declare departure from Saint Vincent and Grenadines to immigration and custom offices because Carriacou, although it is just a few Nm away, belongs to Grenada. We had about 1 hour sailing only from Petit Saint Vincent to Union Island and 2,5 hours from Union Island to Tyrell Bay in Carriacou.

Tyrell Bay was probably a very lively place before hurricane Berryl hit the island in 2024. The bay and its surroundings, like many other places on Carriacou and neighbouring islands were still holding the scars of the hurricane with many damaged houses. In Tyrell Bay we saw many damaged boats on anchor waiting for repair. Some of these on anchor were actually sunk during the hurricane and got salvaged. Two fishing vessels and a ferry were still laying along the shore. Local folks were still very active rebuilding what the hurricane wiped away. Although Carriacou is not completely what it used to be, we had a lovely stay there. Looking at the determination of its inhabitants and listening to the stories of the people we met we had no doubt it would come back to what it used to be. Some areas actually already did.

We remained two nights on anchor in Tyrell Bay. Tyrell Bay anchorage is very well protected from the swell so we took that opportunity to climb the mast to fix an electrical issue: an indirect short circuit (electrical leakage) between the connection of the cable of the anchor light and the one for the navigation light. It was not a complicated work but it required to stay up on the top of the mast for an hour or so. The view from up there was lovely !

After a couple of days, we moved to Sandy Island, just on the other side of Tyrell Bay. Another lovely place with much fewer boats that was also a good opportunity to produce some 180L of fresh water with the watermaker. We prefer not to run the watermaker where there are lot of boats around.

When we planned our journey through the Grenadines, we decided not to sail further south than Carriacou. And so on Tuesday 6 January we started our journey back north towards the island of Mustique, located just a few Nm south of Bequia. So back to immigration and custom office in Tyrell Bay to announce departure from Grenada and back to immigration and custom in Clifton on Union Island to announce arrival in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Clifton bay is quite busy with many boats going in and out of the bay so we decided to spend a night in Catham Bay instead, prior to continuing north. Catham Bay is a very quiet bay well protected from the swell although the hills make the wind to swirl. The consequence is that the boats were all with the bow in different directions, even boats close to each other.

After a quiet evening and night, we set sail again on the following day. Our intention was to get straight to Mustique but the trade winds were blowing east-northesterly making it impossible to sail straight toward Mustique on close reach. On the top of that we had a tidal stream pushing us towards west. We decided to let the wind and current decide for us as we did so many times earlier. And so, at 3pm we anchored in Bequia after around six hours of sailing and a fish.

Yes, on the way, fishing luck stroke again and brought us a beautiful 45cm little tunny, a type of fish we didn’t catch before so we were very curious to taste a new fish.

It felt very pleasant to get back to Bequia after two weeks sailing in the Grenadines. Bequia is such a charming and welcoming place with its bars, restaurants, small shops, marketplace, beaches and nice people. Local people offer as well many services for boaters so we took the opportunity to get our laundry done and get one of our gas bottles refilled. While waiting we cleaned the boat and enjoyed a fika with our friends sailing S/Y Ayla who were also anchored in the bay.

So it was with a clean boat and wearing clean clothes that on January 9 we set sail towards beautiful Mustique, our last stop in the Grenadines. We enjoyed a very nice sailing with winds blowing northesterly between 8 and 10m/s in company of S/Y Ayla who were also on the way to Mustique.

Mustique is a private island owned by The Mustique Company, itself owned by a Majority shareholder named Colin Tennant and the homeowners as minority shareholders. Amongst the homeowners, there are several celebrities and some of the world’s wealthiest people. Although this is already quite special, this is not really the most interesting thing. What is striking already from Britannia Bay, the main anchorage for sailing yatchs, is the nature. Most of the island’s nature is untouched.