Terry Shuster and I have been corresponding for a few years over the Internet.  He and Kristin have been exploring charter boat ownership with Barefoot, and just like I did before taking the plunge, chartered a boat from them last year to try it and them out.   This year, just to make certain, they did it again - twice!  Their first ten days were spend aboard Blessed, a Jeanneau 42.  They were joined for their second ten-day excursion by family members aboard Napanee, a Beneteau 50.  When they returned from their adventure, I received the following report.  Thanks Terry and Kristin - looking forward to that first Rummer on your boat!  -  (Rob C.)

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Hi Robert; 

Hope all is well with you and your summer sailing season was good.  The following is a ‘report’ about our recent trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  We were able to go sailing for 3 weeks during the end of July and the first half of August.  Since this trip was our second to SVG, we felt much more comfortable with the cruising grounds, we knew what to expect from the weather, and our relaxation factor was increased.

We had been looking forward to and needing this trip for some time, but just getting to the Caribbean is usually an adventure for us, and that adventure normally includes some airline problems.  This trip was no different.  On arrival at LAX for the overnight flight, Kristin and I found out that we were classified OS meaning that the flight was oversold and we might end up without a seat.  Our collective blood pressure went up but fortunately, we got on the plane that left at 11 PM and we made it to Puerto Rico where we were scheduled to catch an ATR to Grenada in the late afternoon.  

We were looking forward to a couple of nights in Grenada and had made reservations at the Rendezvous Beach Resort near Prickly Bay.  Kristin had asked the folks at Rendezvous to send a cab to pick us up at the normal arrival time (always optimistic) but our flight out of San Juan was delayed.  An electrical problem that we were told would be a quick fix ended up costing us a couple of hours, after which we were loaded onto the plane.  After sitting on the plane for awhile, the pilot realized that the problems were not fixed and he thought they were serious enough to demand another plane.  So, into the terminal  we went again, to sit, grateful I guess.

 Meanwhile, Kristin had been calling the hotel at each update in the delay process to tell them when the airlines was projecting we would arrive so they could send the taxi driver.  Last year, our late flight left a taxi driver sitting at the airport for too long and Kristin didn’t want that to happen again.  At the other end of the line in Grenada was a woman named Odelette (unsure of spelling) and she and Kristin hit it off.  Each subsequent call took longer because Kristin spent more time talking with Odelette.  Our ‘new’ plane arrived, we finally took off, and we spent the next 2+ hours in the ATR vibrating our way toward Grenada.  We eventually made it to Grenada several hours late and maybe a bit deaf.

We stumbled out of the taxi at the hotel some time after 11.  We were worn out and hungry and we knew that the hotel restaurant had been closed for at least an hour.  To our surprise, Odelette had stayed late to welcome us with hugs (Kristin and Odelette greeted each other like long lost sisters) and the chef walked out with two hot chicken rotis that we could eat in our room!  We were pretty happy to be in the Caribbean and with some warmhearted island people again.  The chirps of the tree frogs and crickets, and the stars in the Caribbean sky helped us to feel human again after a long trip down.

We spent the next day in St. George’s walking around the town, guided by the information on your website.  We walked through the market, had beer and great pumpkin soup at the Nutmeg, and hiked up to the fort.

Late in the afternoon we went back to the Rendezvous for dinner at their beautiful restaurant overlooking the bay where we watched the sunset, rummers in hand.  The Rendezvous at Prickly Bay is definitely worth the price of admission, their restaurant is great and their people treated us very well.  St. George’s was also a hit so we hope to go back there soon.

The next morning, we headed off to St. Vincent.  We were picked up at the airport by the now-famous Phyllis and we headed over to Barefoot’s base.  Kristin and I plan a vacation with just the two of us each year to try and clear our heads, so for the first 10 days in SVG, we were going to have a boat all to ourselves.

After stowing our stuff on a Jeanneau 42 and doing the paperwork, we headed back to the Sunrise Supermarket to provision.  We still asked Barefoot to supply bulky items such as water, starter package and wine, but we had never provisioned for a charter before so we wanted to give it a try.  We found everything we needed and when we were going through the check out line at the Sunrise, Kristin asked the checkout person if she knew how to make the callaloo we had just bought.  The checkout lady stopped everything and showed Kristin how to prepare the stems etc. of the callaloo for cooking.  Nobody seemed to mind waiting!

Back at the base, Barefoot let us put our stuff in their freezer/refrigerator overnight. We could have also bought our own wine  but we have had such good luck with Barefoot providing wine, we decided to stick with that approach.  Our suspicion is that Seth has a personal interest in wine because every bottle of wine they have supplied us with has been very good.  We spent the night on the boat and loaded up our stuff the next morning.  Before leaving we had a chart briefing with Philip, and even though we had been through these islands before, the review was very much worth the time.

Anyway, we were off to Bequia in the early afternoon, with lots wind, a bit of rain, and large seas running through the channel.  During the crossing, we had a reefed mainsail, a mostly furled jib and we were still surfing down the increasingly impressive swells in that 42 foot boat.  As we got close to Bequia, we looked at each other and asked ‘what the hell is that?’.  There was some nut out in a dinghy zooming around through the swells.  He came close and started beeping a horn at us. When we looked over, he took our picture while standing up in his dinghy! This guy zipped around through the swells clicking pictures of us and then he disappeared. The next morning he found us again and presented pictures of us sailing down the channel which we were free to buy, or not.  We bought one and thought that he had earned the money.

The next day was also windy and wet so we decided to stay.  Bequia is indeed sweet so we ended up staying for 3 nights, like last year.  Over the next couple of days we had quiche and rummers at Mac’s, made friends again with Julian (our favorite taxi driver in Port Elizabeth), had lunch at Coco’s, hiked back and forth from Lower Bay, negotiated with Rastafarians at the vegetable market, visited the places with internet access (Gingerbread’s is the best), were serenaded a couple of times by some over-rummered German-sounding guys (we think they were German crew from a cargo vessel in port) who loved to sing ‘Row Row Row your boat, we don’t give a F......’ over and over and over as they rowed their dinghy about the harbor.  

I gained a couple of black and blue toes on deck cleats, Kristin fell off the back of the boat while tying up the dinghy, we had rotis at the Green Boley and we met more people.  The local artist whistling Willie paddled by each day and our new friend Shelton came by in his boat with his 10 year old nephew named Terrence. Since we have the same name, Terrence and I became friends.  Bequia was starting to feel like home.  Finally, we arranged for Daffodil to come over to fill our water tanks in a downpour just prior to our departure for the Tobago Cays and off we went for an uneventful sail down to the Cays.

The Tobago Cays were just as beautiful as we remembered them.  Even after a couple of visits, it is still a thrill to pull into the Cays when the sun is shining and the water is glowing green.  We recognized some of the boat boys as we pulled in and they came over to say hello.  We spent about two hours with Sydney over the next 2 days learning more about each other and exchanging stories about our families.  We met some new guys on the boat Seasonings (these guys called themselves Onion and Garlic) and everyday Onion would bring us fresh vegetables and Walton Bob would come by with fresh bread and ice.  When Kristin’s father John was with us in SVG last year, he thoroughly enjoyed talking with Walton.  So, we brought a T shirt from Walton for him and also took a picture of Walton Bob selling it to us.  Kristin gets along so well with some of these guys I think she should have a T shirt that says ‘I prefer the company of boat boys’.

The Cays had pretty good snorkeling last year but it was definitely better this year. We saw many more fish, particularly parrot fish.  At the end of our trip we met the manager of the Tobago Cays (Kurt Cordice) and he told us that the Cays were recovering from a die-off of sorts that had occurred for unknown reasons a couple of years or so ago.  Visit the Tobago Cays website for more www.tobagocays.org.

Knowing that we would be back again, we cut our visit to the Cays short and headed over to Clifton harbor at Union Island.  We had heard tales of outboards being stolen and other unpleasant things about Clifton so we tied up at the Anchorage Yacht Club for the night.  While there, we had lunch at the West Indies, got our  laundry done, visited Erika’s to check email, walked around Clifton, filled up with water, and had dinner at the Yacht Club.  Tied to the Yacht Club dock for the night, we listened to live music most of the evening.  It was great!  The next morning we picked up fresh baguettes and pepitos (croissants filled with cream and chocolate) and headed out.

At this point, we were mostly through our first 10 day charter so we headed back to St. Vincent by way of Canouan, Mustique and Bequia.  For the previous few days our weather had been ideal and it continued that way to the end of this charter.  These were the sailing conditions that generated people’s first impulse to sail naked. 

During the next couple of days, we enjoyed the best of being in the Caribbean.  We snorkeled, had great dinners, and watched the stars at night.  We also got ready for the second 10 day charter that we were about to start on the Beneteau 50, Napanee. Kristin’s daughter Veronique, our friends Bruce and Mary, and Bruce’s daughters Christine and Stephanie would be joining us for another 10 days.  That would be a total of 7 people on the 50 footer, and 3 of those would be teenage girls. 

Our new crew was headed to St. Vincent from San Juan and they would be bouncing on about half of the islands along the way.  We met them at the airport and Phyllis brought us all to the Beachcomber’s for dinner.  The recent arrivals spent a ‘restful’  night at Beachcomber’s with a party in the next room and Young Island Cut jump-up music in the background much of the night (welcome to a Caribbean Saturday night).  Kristin and I spent that night on the boat so we could stow all of the provisions and get the boat ready.  Spending the previous night aboard helped us get a speedy exit from the Blue Lagoon the next day.

We had asked Barefoot to provision us for the second charter.  Normally, when we ask for provisioning, we request that the charter company provision us for fewer people for fewer days than we actually have.  In this case, we wanted Barefoot to partially provision us for 5 people for 7 days even though we were 7 people for 10 days.  Previously, we found that charter companies do a good job of provisioning.  I suppose well-fed charterers are happy charterers.  Barefoot was no exception as the quality and quantity of the food they gave us was excellent.  The meat, vegetables and goodies Barefoot supplied was superior to that which we had obtained earlier by shopping ourselves.  We mentioned this to Seth at Barefoot and he said that while he thought we could find all the great food provided by Barefoot if we searched, we should realize that the charter company visits several stores and uses local knowledge to get the best provisioning available.  For sure, nobody on our boat complained about food.

With our new crew on our Beneteau 50, we headed off over a benign Bequia channel to Admiralty Bay for another 2 days.  While we waited for a tropical wave to pass, we had dinner at Mac’s, listened to the folk group Ferrin play music at the Gingerbread, had lunch at Coco’s, and went to the turtle sanctuary to visit with Brother King.  We also saw the Green Flash as the sun dipped below the horizon! Bruce, Mary, Christine and Stephanie had not been to Bequia before and they thoroughly enjoyed it.  Before we were allowed to leave for the Tobago Cays, we had to commit to spending another 2 days on Bequia at the end of our charter or the crew didn’t want to leave.

Off we went to the Cays again for more days on those crystal clear waters.  In the Cays, everybody bought at least a year’s supply of T shirts and stuff from Sydney, Walton Bob and the guys, and we spent some time with John from the boat Mr. Fabulous.  We hadn’t had a chance to talk with John on our previous run through the Cays but when we arrived this time, he recognized us from last summer.  John remembered that we had threatened to come back and he was pleased we had made it.  John is a Rastafarian who spends most of his nights on Mr. Quality’s trimaran and he thinks he lives in paradise.  John is very proud of the Cays and he says he makes an effort to stop people from putting their dinghy anchors on coral or damaging the Cays in any way.  We also met Mr. Quality for the first time and bought a couple of T shirts from him.  He seemed a nice guy but a bit too pushy for most of our crew.  Unlike the other vendors, he didn’t easily accept a ‘no thank you’ for an answer.

Our next morning in the Cays was incredible.  I woke up with the stars still up and the tips of the eastern clouds just starting to glow in anticipation of the morning sun.  I made a cup of coffee and started to watch a spectacular Caribbean morning unfold.  With very little prodding, Kristin got up and joined me on deck to watch the sunrise and to take an early morning swim off the rear of the boat.  Later, we made such a fuss over how beautiful that morning was that Kristin’s daughter Veronique actually got up at 4 AM the next morning to see if she could see a similar sunrise.  Maybe there is hope for that teenager!

The same morning, we also noticed a head bobbing in the water near a cruising boat just upwind of us.  After a couple of minutes, Kristin and I realized it was a dog trying to get up onto the cruiser’s boat.  We headed for the dinghy and went for the rescue.  The dog was making a lot of noise so just when we arrived, the cruiser came to the stern and lifted the dog up on his ‘back porch’.  It wasn’t the cruiser’s dog and when we were close enough, the dog launched itself into our dinghy and proceeded to urinate what seemed like 3 liters into the dinghy.  We had to remove the drain plug and zoom around, all the time bailing water into the dinghy, just to get rid of all the pee.  Anyway, we recognized it as John’s dog and we took it over to Mr. Fabulous which the dog recognized and enthusiastically jumped into.

At one point while anchored in the Cays, all of us except Mary were off the boat snorkeling and Mary thought the boat might be dragging anchor.  Mary is the least experienced sailor in the crew and she thought it better to be safe than sorry.  She hailed a cruiser anchored just downwind from our boat for advise and the cruiser couple immediately jumped into their dinghy, came over, and snorkeled our anchor which was, of course, up wind from them.  They reassured Mary that the anchor was well set and all was OK with the boat.  After we returned from snorkeling, we went over to the cruisers and forced a bottle of wine upon them for their kindness.  I hope they enjoyed it.

Well, the clock was running so we headed to Union for water, another great night in Clifton, and some provisioning.  This time we took a mooring ball.  The only distasteful thing that happened at Union was that someone pushing Lambi’s restaurant came over to talk with Bruce while he was sitting alone in the cockpit.  When Bruce suggested we might have dinner at the Yacht Club, Bruce was told in emphatic terms that the owners of the Yacht Club had cheered when the WTC towers were destroyed on Sept. 11 and that we shouldn’t go there for dinner.  We doubted the story and the group decided to not go to Lambi’s. So, we still haven’t been to Lambi’s and will have to do that some time in the future.

The next morning we headed over to Mopion Sandbank for some snorkeling.  There were about 10 boats when we arrived and, as suggested by Barefoot, we found a white spot about 100 meters upwind and dropped the anchor on it.  As we snorkeled back down to Mopion, we realized that many of the other boats in the area had just dropped their anchors on the coral.  The PSV side of Mopion consisted of mostly-destroyed coral.  Bruce and Christine did find good coral and fish on the Northeast side but when we left Mopion we were all a bit disappointed that the boating community was destroying so much coral.  We later discussed this with Philip back at Barefoot’s base and he agreed there is a big problem at Mopion and that the islanders would like to find a way to stop the coral destruction.  I suppose mooring balls are the only real solution.

After Mopion, we headed over to Saline Bay for a night at Mayreau.  We all hiked to the church for the view and then walked back down to the Island Paradise Restaurant for something to drink.  Island Paradise was so pleasant that the 4 adults decided to stay and have dinner there.  We met the owner James Alexander and he started putting together dinner for us.  The teenagers however, really wanted to meet Robert so we released them to walk over and have dinner at Righteous and de Youths.  We suggested to the kids that they ask Robert to feed them with the assurance that we would be in later to pay the bill.

While we were sitting at Island Paradise nursing our rummers, Mary looked over at James working nearby and said that somebody important must be coming because James was setting quite the table near us.  A few minutes later, James came over and told us that our table was ready and would we mind moving over to it as dinner was almost upon us.  Hey, we were the important people! We felt special and had a meal to match.  James told us that he has worked at both the Salt Whistle Bay Resort and at the resort at PSV.  He did a great job and Island Paradise is highly recommended by us for dinner when you are anywhere near Mayreau.

Later, we headed over to Righteous and de Youths and Robert gave us a big hug as we entered.  He said he remembered us from last year and was glad to see us.  I suppose he was equally glad to find out that there were actually some adults coming to pay the bill for the kids.  We spent another hour or more there listening to Robert and letting the girls could get their fill of Robert and Timothy, his cook.  We had a great time at Righteous and de Youths, and then walked down the not slippery, not muddy, new concrete road to Saline Bay and our boat.

 

Time was running short so we headed up to Mustique.  This day gave us one of those exceptional sails you can’t forget.  We had all the sails up as we left Mayreau and with the wind somewhat out of the south, we sailed non-stop past Canouan and almost to a mooring ball in Britannia Bay before we dropped sail.  Nothing like 50 feet of sailboat charging along with most of the crew on the windward rail enjoying the ride.

After some had drinks at Basil’s, we saw another Green Flash but had to endure a rather rolly night that forced all of us to get up early and go walking along the beaches of Mustique.  After a pleasant half day on the island, the waves continued to roll in as a tropical wave went through so we decided to go back to Bequia a day earlier than planned.  We hoped to head into Friendship Bay but on arrival there, it didn’t look inviting.  The hotel was closed and only a couple of boats were anchored.  In addition, it was cloudy and cool so the reefs at the entry were hidden, and the quiet, deserted beaches were not very inviting.  The crew opted for lively Admiralty Bay again so off we went and we didn’t regret the choice.

As we pulled into Admiralty, we found a noisy party in full swing at Lower Bay so we quickly secured the boat and most of us headed out for rummers and cokes at De Reef.  The party consisted of a large bunch of people from St. Vincent just over to enjoy the beach.  The next couple of days we had dinner at Mac’s, more music at the Gingerbread, lunch at the usual places, we went to a jump up, and had a tour of Friendship Bay and Paget Farm with Julian.

Admiralty Bay was full of Windjammer Cruise people (3 boats worth anyway) so we no longer had the place to ourselves and our last evening we found every restaurant full.  At the jump up we ran into Shelton and his friends so we turned the teenage girls over to him and he made sure they didn’t get into any trouble that night, I think. 

Earlier that day, we had taken the teens scuba diving with Dive Bequia and Stephanie and Veronique got more lessons on how to safely use the dinghy, with Stephanie a quick learner but heavy on the gas pedal.  While the 3 teens buzzed around the harbor burning off our gasoline and flirting with the natives, the adults sat in the cockpit and burned off some of our rum and wine, and then we all watched a spectacular Caribbean sunset, suitable for a last night, before heading ashore for dinner.

The next morning we had an easy sail back to St. Vincent where we deposited the boat after a trouble free vacation.  Bruce, Mary and the kids headed over to Beachcomber’s for the night while Kristin and I checked off the boat and spent a little time talking with Barefoot’s Mary, Seth and Philip.  Then, we went to the bar for lunch, rummers and conversation with the parrots.  Barefoot and the islands were really feeling like home and we hated to leave.

Kristin and I flew to Grenada for another great night at the Rendezvous and the rest of our flight home was trouble free.  The rest of the crew went to San Juan again for the night.  Great vacations always get us thinking of next year.  Kristin and I tossed around a combined charter in SVG and the BVI, perhaps spending 10-14 days at each site.  We have done several charters in the BVI and loved those islands and events like the parade on August Monday.  We also wanted to have another trip to SVG.

When we got home, we received an email from Kristin’s parents and learned that John, her father, may want to join us again in the Grenadines next summer.  During our vacation down island this summer, Kristin had occasionally sent her father emails telling him what we did the past couple of days and that got him thinking I guess.   Kristin’s daughters are also primarily interested in going back to St. Vincent and the Grenadines so we’ll likely start investigating our options down there soon.

One of the problems with chartering in SVG the way we have, in 2 ten day charters, is that we always interrupt the 3 weeks of charter with a trip back to St. Vincent to pick up new crew.  This approach limits our range.  It means that we will always be returning to great spots like Bequia and the Tobago Cays several times during the 20 days since everybody wants to go there.  It also means we will be missing some places.  Next year we will do it differently.  We’ll structure a charter so that we make crew changes in Grenada or Carriacou, in the middle.

After we returned home, I picked up a copy of Cruising World magazine (August 2002) and there was a short article by  Dave Gibson on his charter through the Grenadines (“Schooled by a Charter”).  In that article, Dave describes the people of The Windward Islands he visited (St. Lucia, St. Vincent, the Grenadines, Grenada) as “the happiest people on Earth” who are very rich, by their standards.  We agree with Dave Gibson’s opinions regarding the island people.  In addition to great islands, our SVG charters are filled with enjoyable dealings with the locals.  Although we realize that we have primarily met island people that wanted to meet us, the attitudes of people we have spent time with were wonderful.  The inhabitants are one good reason why St. Vincent and the Grenadines are special.

Well that’s it. I understand you are headed down to visit the Usual Suspects in a couple of months.  I hope you enjoy your time in the islands as much as we did.

All the best,
Terry