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Saint Vincent Charter info

treilley

Sustaining Partner
My wife and I have been offered a free charter at the end of March for helping captain a 45ft. boat. We have never been there so we are looking for any advice.

Places not to miss
Places to avoid
Good snorkeling
Good markets fro provisioning
Sample itineraries

Thanks
 

John Butler

Member II
Tim,
We enjoyed a week of sailing in the Grenadines in Feb. 2006, chartering out of St. Vincent. What a great place to sail! In planning our trip, I found this site helpful: http://www.usual-suspects-sailing.com/exp-grenadines.htm
I also bought Sailors Guide to the Windward Islands ahead of time (there was also a copy on the boat) to help with planning.
We provisioned through C.K. Greaves http://ckgreaves.com/index.html by emailing a spreadsheet of what we wanted and receiving back an updated spreadsheet of what they had and cost of each item. They delivered to the boat.

Here was our itinerary:
Night 1 & 2
We had planned to go to Mustique our first day out, but got a late start and went to Bequia instead. We spent the next day enjoying Bequia and one more night anchored in Admiralty Bay.
Night 3
Relatively early start got us to the Tobago Cays relatively early. It is really quite something anchoring in 20 knots of wind with your bow pointing to the Atlantic Ocean. The reef breaks the waves, but not the wind. No problem with being too hot!
Night 4
Short sail to Salt Whistle Bay, Mayreau. What a beautiful beach! Late in the day we walked up the road to the village where we enjoyed a good meal and some dancing.
Night 5
Sailed to Canouan.
Night 6
Back to Admiralty Bay, Bequia for our last night at anchor.

For don't miss, I would say explore Bequia. Diane and I started off on foot and found a beautiful, empty beach on the east side of the island. We ended up getting a taxi ride to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary from there and then back to the boat. Definately stop at the Tobago Cays and Salt Whistle Bay, Mayreau. Plan to get in some fun sailing in a fresh breeze with big ocean swells when you pass the gaps between islands.

Enjoy!
John
 

ted_reshetiloff

Contributing Partner
Wife and I did two weeks there out of St. Vincent with Sunsail. We went up the leeward side of the island first to Wallalabou (SP?) bay. Great snorkeling from the dinghy stopped at a few spots along the way to anchor briefly and snorkel. Wallalabou is where they filmed the first pirates of the carribbean movie. Boat boys were a minor nuisance but suppose they are everywhere now. We bought a necklace or two and they went on their way.

Next we headed down to Bequia, admiralty bay. Nice sail beautiful anchorage with several great beaches and lots to do and see in town on shore. Good dinghy docks good provisions. Oh thats another thing. Dont waste money on full provisioning from the charter company. Get just the staple non perisheable stuff. There are out door markets on nearly every island in the grenadines with great local produce and you can get beer and rum and anything you need just about anywhere or through the boat boys. The charter companies charge a lot for provisions. Bequia offers really good diving if you are certified through Dive Bequia. I discovered Scuba with these guys on a resort dive course in an hour.

Given you only have a week I would head next to Mayreau then Tobago Keys. You have to go to Tobago Keys as its the best spot in the Grenadines and is an easy sail from Bequia. Mayreau is really nice too, anchor in Halfmoon Bay as opposed to Saltwhistle. You probably dont have enough time to get down to Union Island. Dont bother trying to go to Mustique too expensive and not much to see. We skipped Canouan as well as we wanted to spend more time in Tobago Keys. With limited time you could do well just going to Bequia and Tobago Keys. You can also get a mooring in Young Island off St. Vincent if you get a late start or want to be close on your last day. Dont anchor there though as the current can be strong and its worth the piece of mind for a mooring.
 

treilley

Sustaining Partner
Thanks guys. We have the cruising guide and will do our own provisioning(not my first ro-day-o :egrin:)

Ted, why Halfmoon bay instead of Saltwhistle?

Unfortunately we only have the boat for a week although my wife and I will head to Antigua after the charter to do some sailing there.
 

ted_reshetiloff

Contributing Partner
I just found Halfmoon prettier and less prone to rolliness. Its all relative down there though. Either anchorage affords a nice walk to the top of the mountain and town.
 

Shaggy

Member II
Howdy, Tim -

John and Ted hit all the highlights above, so I'll just piggyback on what they said a little bit.

Our weeklong charter was five years ago with Barefoot on St. Vincent. We had a great experience with this smaller, independent charter company!

Our itinerary was similar to John's, but we pressed on to Mustique the first day. Mustique is a bit shee-shee-poo-poo fancy, but Basil's floating bar is actually laid back and lots of fun. Their annual Blues Festival is going on there for the next few days. Probably a bit busy through 10 Feb.

This was my first experience with the Tradewinds, and they were something else. 24/7 we never saw less than 15 knots. 20-25 seemed to be normal for our March week and we had 30-35 on the last day.

The first passage between St. Vincent and Bequia seems to be typically the roughest, from our experience and from what I've read. We had 8-ft swells and 25 knots of wind right out of the harbor on the way down.

Winds were pretty much on the beam all the way down the island chain and back up. Most days we had 15-20 knots and 5-6-ft swells. This sure made for great passages.

Tobago Cays is the crown jewel of the Grenadines. Anchoring inside of the huge horseshoe reef is a unique experience. All the surrounding islands are uninhabited, which meant no ambient light at night. We had the most amazing horizon to horizon canopy of stars in that anchorage at night. Great snorkeling, too.

The highlight of our trip was hiring some boatboys to set up a lobster bbq on the beach for us one night in the Tobago Cays on a deserted island. They picked us up after dark in their home-built boat and zig-zagged through the reef without lights....eye-opening to say the least, but they sure knew the waters!

They had a bonfire with a grill on it, roasting some gi-normous, Jules Verne, Creature of the Deep lobsters for us. Bring a good bottle of wine!

Our last passage back, from Bequia to St. Vincent was where we saw the 35 knot wind and 15-ft swell. Sporty, but we had a blast on our 44-ft Gib-Sea.

You will have a great time! I haven't sailed much in the BVI, but from what I gather, it is the Bunny Slope of sailing charters and also crowded, with skippers fighting over moorings, etc. The Grenadines are more like Blue Square to Black Diamond sail chartering, less crowded and much less developed....Mustique aside.

Have fun, and give us a full trip report!!

Curt
 

Sid

BOATBUMMS
Grenadine Islands

We just spent two months there check our blog
Boatbumms.blogspot.com:):):)
 
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