Sailing St. Vincent and the Grenadines

In February of 2024, just before I deployed once more with the Navy, my wife and I went sailing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Our friends Sarah and Jared joined us as crew and we chartered a Bali 4.1 out of Blue Lagoon at the southern end of St. Vincent. The Bali 4.1 is similar to other catamarans except that it has seating forward, rather than a trampoline, and the interior salon is much larger. We chartered the owners version, which has one of the hulls fitted out with only one bedroom, more storage and a larger shower. The other hull had the standard two bedrooms with one shared head/shower. My wife and I decided that we loved the owner’s hull, but really preferred a trampoline forward and more open seating aft. The Bali 4.1 does have an aft wall that opens the salon to the outside, but it was kind of a pain to do so.

Our plan was to sail south visiting Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, the Tobago Cays, and possibly Union Island. As always, nothing went to plan … the current in the channel between St. Vincent and Bequia [pronounced "bekwee" by locals] was running at nearly 3 knots and we couldn’t hold a course under sail to Mustique. Therefore we fell off the wind and headed to Bequia instead, which turned out to be fortunate. In the lower part of Admiralty Bay, when we tried to drop anchor, the windlass failed, but spectacularly so: it started spitting out chain and nothing was stopping it. We drifted back close to another boat and had to trip the breaker to get it to stop. The windlass was locked, so it was impossible to manually haul the chain back up. Luckily it was still early enough that we were able to get help from the charter company and they brought out a new controller for the windlass. 

Admiralty Bay, Bequia, SVG

As a result of the anchor drama, we had an extra day in Admiralty Bay, but to be honest, it wasn’t a bad place to be stuck. Especially in the lower bay, south of Princess Margaret Beach, the anchorage isn’t as crowded, though the run in for supplies is long. Eventually we were underway again and we decided to make a stop at Canouan. The snorkeling is supposed to be good by L’Ance Guyac Point, but I was uncomfortable anchoring there for the night. So after the crew did their thing, we moved on to the anchorage in Grand Bay. The next day we continued on to the Tobago Cays, which ultimately lived up to its snorkeling reputation.

The entrance from the north is interesting, trying to maneuver through the coral, but ultimately we got one of the men nearby to help us moor up to a ball. The entire place is a national park, so is protected from anchoring. The guy that helped us tie up wasn’t the normal boat-boy found elsewhere, but rather a local that provides a BBQ dinner ashore. We were going to try to dingy out to Petit Tabac, the island Johnny Depp was marooned on in the first Pirates of the Caribbean, but I thought the sea state too high to take my wife and friends out there. Instead we snorkeled in the reefs around Baradal Island and swam with sea turtles, which was cooler than it sounds. That night there was a massive BBQ for all the shoreline of Petit Bateau and our host put on a great meal. Fresh caught lobster and other local dishes while listening to reggae made for a pretty good night. 

We were going to stay another night, but the forecast was for a beautiful wind from the southwest at 20 knots, followed by several days of nothing. Therefore, we made the call to sail back to Bequia the next day, trying to use the favorable wind to get in one good day of sailing. We were not disappointed. Sailing north with the wind on the starboard quarter on a clear sunny day was insanely cool. We shared the watches, though the auto-helm did the steering. The highlight was when a large pod of dolphins came at us from the northwest, then swam along with the boat for about 30-45 minutes. I’m pretty sure I saw a series of whales surface and blow in the distance as well. It was the time of the humpback whale migration, so it’s possible. The whole experience was surreal. I had never seen anything like it, it was like we were living in a National Geographic special.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Johns

Eventually the dolphins continued on their journey and we anchored again in Admiralty Bay without incident. The next day we chose to explore the island and went to the local Bequia Heritage Museum located near Friendship Bay. Bequia is one of the few islands of the Caribbean that is allowed by international treaty to hunt whales as part of their culture. They are allowed to use the traditional open boats and hunt with the same harpoons their great grandfathers did. The museum discusses the history of Bequia, but also their culture has in relation to whaling. Bequia also happens to be a great place to study whales and Sarah’s aunt is a cetologist and has a home on the island. Once the people at the museum found out who she was, it was like she was visiting royalty. Even the taxi drivers knew who she was from that point forward. 

As our crew flew home, we ended our vacation at a locally owned resort, with private bungalows. It wasn’t bad …

Admiralty Bay, Bequia, SVG