Sail Grenadines Info

Just as a heads up — even though the information is a bit dated, I believe it is mostly relevant and useful if you plan to bareboat or charter a sailboat in the Southern Caribbean.

Good Sailing!

 

Rich

Charter company “tricks” with your days at sea

You are thinking that 7 days on the water will be great. That is… Until you get there and go through all their hoops and provision.
Day 1:You board at 5:30pm with some of your provisions, but you don’t have them all
Day 2: You finish provisioning and have a short day of sailing
Day 3-5: You are out sailing and having fun
Day 6: You go to your destination port (often the one you left from)
Day 7: 10am or earlier, you get off

You will want to factor this in to your trip, or negotiate when you are setting up your contract some alternatives.

Sleep aboard the night before your rental
Being able to board in the morning
Late return
One way rental
Number of total days

I know I would want to do anything that kept me sailing and not locked into one port… It is quickly obvious that your charter is not based on 24 hour periods. The charter company does need turn around time and most charters are 7 days, so that is why it is what it is — you might just want to take control of that.

Long Range Boat Wifi – HowTo Part 2

After visiting the Grenadines for 10 days on the water, I can tell you that “open” wifi is widely available.  In just two of these spots were people with personal devices like Ipads able to connect, and even then it was hit or miss with the oscillation of the sailboat.  With my Wifi setup using an Alfa USB Wireless Network adapter and the USB extender, I was able to find and use open hotspots — sometimes at several miles away at every location except the Tobago Cays (but then again I was busy playing in the water there).

I had my latop in the Salon, then the USB extender cable run out a hatch and up somewhere on the mast tucked away.  It got a little wet a couple of times, but it would be wise to either take it down or find a solution to protect the electronics.  I may even make some of these devices and create a kit that people can buy.  I noticed that there are $300-$3000 boat wifi solutions.  I think you can do it for $50 or less, and maybe $70 or less for a whole boat Wifi solution.

Each of the following is a link to the Wifi hotspots I found at a given location.

• Young Island on St Vincent
• Admirality on Bequia
• Saline Bay on Mayreau 
• Macaroni Bay on Mustique
• Clifton Bay on Union
• Prickly Bay on Grenada

A note, there are many pay services available.  Mega, HotHotHotSpot, KC Hot Spot to name a few.  One of them lets you use the internet for free for 5 minutes.

If the security of your data is at all important to you, I would highly suggest a VPN solution especially when you utilize open wifi connections.  All your data is able to be intercepted if you do not.  One such solution is from Golden Frog’s VyprVPN.  This particular company even has applications for IPAD so that every time you hit the internet, it reconnects the VPN.  You can appear as though you are coming from a certain country which also may assist you in getting content from that area.  I found a link to more information on VPNs and a few more options.

2015 Update:  You can now get a wifi device which is weather ready (and it’s cheap)

BVI vs Grenadines

If you are doing the research on where you should sail, charter or bareboat in either the BVI or the Grenadines, I will try and provide some differences that might help you decide.

Maybe we can start with similarities? Both places are beautiful, both have lots of wind (depending on seasonal averages) both have lots of places to eat and provision, both places have good places to snorkel and fish, and in both places, you will always be able to see land.

In St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, you will need to do more with customs. We had to go through customs in order to sail South from St Vincent, and then hit it going out (Union), and then going into Grenada (Carriacou). Each one takes around 30 minutes depending on how busy they are. Be mindful of the time and day you are clearing.

The sailboats which are available in the BVI appear to be newer and better maintained. The recent downturn of the economy has limited the amount of new boats in fleets and it seems like the older boats head South.

There are boat boys in St Vincent and the Grenadines (people who come up to your boat as you are entering a bay or just after you stop to sell you things). There are pros and cons to them, but it is a difference. We did have a guy from Trellis bay come over to Marina cay once selling tshirts and bread… The bread was good 🙂

There is a general feel of safety/security in the BVI, where there is a feel of lawlessness in the Grenadines to a certain extent. Both places know that any negative action towards tourists could cost them a lot of business, so I think that is a motivator against anything going too terribly wrong.

It appeared that there are less people/sailboats sailing around in the grenadines. The highest concentration of sailboats was on the South side of Grenada. The bays there are large and protected and the number of masts is quite impressive.

Coral health appears to be slightly better in the BVI.. The Indians is a pretty neat place to snorkel with lots of schools of fish, turtles, etc. With that said, we saw coral formations that you would never see in the BVI in the Grenadines and you can tell that it used to be unbelievable in the Grenadines with huge coral structures all over the place. I am no expert on coral health, but it appears that it is recovering slowly.

Fishing is different in a few ways. As far as while you are moving/trolling, you are likely to catch a barracuda in either location, and if you are headed to or from Anegada you can catch small tuna, but we haven’t experienced much else in the BVI. In the Grenadines you can hit very deep water and run into Sailfish (we caught a 90 pounder), and besides Blue fin tuna, albacore and other varieties are possible. As far as when you are moored/anchored, we caught all kinds of fish (and released them) in the BVI, and caught pretty much nothing while moored/anchored in the Grenadines.

Navigation is super easy and straight forward in the BVI. It seems like hazards are well marked or out of the way. In the Grenadines, there are Hazards all over the place and they may not be marked well. GPS with charts is required in my opinion. There are certainly hazards in the BVI as we have seen monohulls that ran aground and snapped off their keel just outside of Cane Garden Bay.

In the BVI, you are pretty much protected from large ocean swells by the density of islands, depth, and coral reef in the North East. In the Grenadines we saw 2 to 3 meter swells and one day was forecast for 4 meter swells on the Atlantic side of the islands.

Mooring balls are well maintained and the norm in the BVI, in the Grenadines it is fairly common to have some balls, but expect to anchor half the time. If you prefer balls to anchoring, you should check out the balls (if possible) prior to using. Some of them are in poor repair. They also might work differently than you are used to.. For example, you pull the rope through the top of the buoy at Mystique and The Tobago cays..

To add to the mooring comments, in the BVI you really need to hit your destination bay between 2-3pm to ensure you get a spot. We rolled into our spots sometimes at 5:30pm without an issue in the Grenadines.

Gas prices. It appears that the prices are better in Grenada than on Tortola. My cousin found a website with all the prices on it, and I will put that here when I get the link. We used ten days worth of air conditioning, water making, and motoring and it cost us 900ec. That seemed very reasonable to us.

With all of this said, there are people with much better information and knowledge than I have. We have been in the BVI a few times in December, and just once in the Grenadines in December. Your mileage may vary, but these are my experiences and perceptions.

Day 12 – On to land – Grenada

Today we were packing up and moving to the hotel. Rafael (captain) has to get the boat to Martinique ASAP, so we are getting off a little early. We moved to the fuel dock, and we were surprised how little fuel we used and how little it cost. Just 900ec. Something seemed wrong here, but I wasn’t complaining. We spent part of the napping. Some folks went into St George and fought it out with the cruise ship folks.
In the evening we went out to Carib Sushi. It was pretty good. I am a sushi snob, and this was a 6 out of 10. Tiger roll was yummy.

Day 11

Today was kind of a push day. We expected higher winds, but we only had 8 knots. That wouldn’t be enough to get us to Prickly bay on the South side of Grenada, so we motor sailed. We had a lunch stop at the two sisters islands. It was very pretty here. Most of us were hot, so we jumped in. There was a little bit of a go pro jumping contest off the boat which was fun. Lunch was light and we moved on. Eric caught a few fish, one of which that was bit in half by a shark while we reeled it in. The rest of the day was scenic, but overcast. At nearly Sunset, we arrived and docked at Prickly bay. The dock fee was 60us, and included the use of showers. Fyi -This dock is an anchor out with dock lines on the rear and is undergoing repair. they attempted to get us dock power, but it was not proper power and was causing electrical issues, so we went on generator. Our “away team” found us some snacks before the mini market closed at 6, and we cooked up pork chops.
The bar was having bingo that night, so there was an amazing amount of locals at the bar. We talked with a few of them and some of the fellow “yachtees”. We enjoyed the lighted Christmas tree in the harbour.

Day 10

Day 10 was a light sail over to Hillsborogh on Carriacou. It was fairly windy and Eric caught a fairly large barracuda and let it go. Our captain took nearly 1 hour to clear immigration, meanwhile we walked around and went to the Deli/bakery. We bought out most of the bakery items, and bought a pound of Italian ham. We talked to a very nice worker (owner?) from England. We were on a quest to find some red bull and found “the last 4 cans on the island” at the hardware store across the street. It’s a bit odd here as every store has liquor and some have food. The two grocery stores were across from each other. Both were fairly good sized. One kind of smelled like a litter box..? I would like to spend some more time on this island and in Grenada. The people seem so genuine and welcoming. Our captain moved our sailboat over to sandy island for lunch where a guy was kite surfing.. He was quite good and I took a bunch of pictures. Then I put on my snorkel gear and checked out the situation. I found a very odd/interesting/scary fish down on the bottom. I believe it is a member of the lion fish family. It was turning over shells on the bottom and looking inside for snacks. Other small fish were nearby looking for left overs. Today we decided to go for a fun sail — something that was lacking on our previous 6 days. We headed West NorthWest for about 90 minutes. We caught a few fish including a small tuna which became seviche later in the evening. We took another mooring ball, some people quickly headed to shore to capture A time lapse sunset, and others hung out. Only in the Tobago cays did we not have Internet, and many people checked in this evening while we were waiting for dinner to cook. Our propane stove had been failing us for some time. We changed tanks even though the old one was not empty. It did help, but we didn’t eat until 9:45.

General feel of the southern Caribbean

After sailing the BVI for a few times, you get used to the feel of things around there. We had an awesome taxi guy on Tortola who was helpful and upfront about costs, and we didn’t ever feel like we were being taken by anyone. We had one guy in the bvi from Trellis come over to Marina Cay to sell us wonderful bread…but From St Vincent and South (to union so far), it seems like everyone is fighting over who gets to take your money, and how much can they get out of you. Coming from a country where “the price is the price” (for the most part) its hard to adjust to negotiation for things. Make sure you find out how much something costs before proceeding.. Which is good advice for anywhere really.. I am not talking about food or gas, it appears to be services.. Some of which you don’t need or didn’t ask for. Extra guys show up to help you take your bags to the boat, some guy is helping you get a mooring, taxis, and the like. It’s similar to the guy who washes your windows at a freeway off ramp in the United States without asking.
But then we arrived in Grenada (and its islands) and there is an amazing difference. No longer is everyone asking you to buy something. It seems so much less like a tourist zone, and more like you are visiting ‘just another country’. It is very beautiful here and I am enjoying it immensely.

Large group sailing.

For Catamarans, it is common to find a bare boat that has 3 or 4 cabins from 37 to 47 feet long. There are a smaller amount catamarans that are 50 feet and have 4 normal cabins and then one with bunk beds or is accessible from the topside. I do not include the “coffins” aka crew quarters in this list, because it is not realistic to use these for much more than storage. If your group is larger than 5 cabins worth (10 ish – you may have some kids in there), likely you have moved into a situation where you need a captain. There are catamarans in the 60-80 foot range that can accommodate large groups. Our group is considering a 600 Catlante for our next adventure if we can get a reasonable price. Another option is two or three sailboats, but mooring/anchoring together and lashing the boats together seems less than ideal.

Day 9

Day 9 we left at 8 am and sailed the genniker to union to clear out of St Vincent and start the process for Grenada. Winds had been very light (4 knots) for the past few days which was good for snorkeling, but it’s really hot with no wind. Our stop in at Cliffton on Union was short. Sine we took a ball it was again 40ec for day use, and some people went on a salsa and soda run, and the captain walked to the airport to clear us.
Our afternoon was pretty easy, we anchored at Mopion and snorkeled. A couple of people went to the famous shelter, while three of us snorkeled around the North and East side of the island (not very close to the island though). Another nice wall, a huge amount of current pushing us along. I would guess 2 knots of current. We saw some nice fish and a hole with a few lobsters at 15 to 20 feet. We are getting good at diving deeper and holding our breath.
Since it was so calm, we decided to hang out on the North side of Petit St Vincent until sunset. We moved over to the anchorage and had a wonderful steak dinner.

Day 6

Katie, Chris and I walked up up up and more up to the top of Mayreau to attempt to see the Sunrise… We were a little late, but still got some great shots of the sunrise and neighboring islands and anchorages. We checked out the Catholic Church and walked around town. We saw a lady walking a crab on strings like a puppet, We saw a lot of goats tied up, loose and mostly friendly dogs, and a few cats. It was interesting to see that many residents were awake and some working at 6:15.
We motored over to the Tobago cays and took a ball close to the turtle area. We were immediately mobbed by the boat boys, but they were all friendly and didn’t harass us further. The area is stunningly beautiful and I was the first person with my gear on and headed out to snorkel. Eric and I saw three large turtles, a large stingray, many thousands of fish in a school, a small school of pencil fish, box fish, and a star fish the size of a basketball not to mention lots of great coral. As the tide came in, two things happened. The visibility went way down anywhere near the beach, and the current was very strong. I worked pretty hard to go against it and then rode the current almost all the way back to the boat. Our captain was looking for Willie (one of the boat boys) to take him to the doctor because he has a gastro problem. He returned a few hours later after a visit to the doctor on palm island. We had a fabulous pork loin for dinner on the grill.

Day 8

Day 8 was all snorkeling. We went over to petit tabac and started near the north west side where there is a giant wall of coral and then around the back side. While we saw some really neat things, the coral damage that is seen in the Caribbean is pretty obvious. Large structures formally of great beauty have died and fallen over. We have both pictures and go pro hd video to show what I am talking about. With that said, there are many wonders and beautiful fish to see. We thought we could go all the way around the island, but we ran into a block, so we had to go back around to the middle of the North side to get to the shore where our friends were waiting for us. It ended up being a 2 1/2 hour snorkel, fighting the current half of the time. We were exhausted by the time we were done. Our evening meal was chicken curry and it was fantastic.

Good morning day 7

We woke up to a beautiful morning with a light breeze. Our captain is having abdominal problems, so we need to head to union to switch out captains and do some customs things. Before we left, Eric and I snorkeled around another island and ran into some amazing things (pictures forthcoming). The others went snorkeling in the turtle area again. We motored over to Union and there was not much activity in the harbor other than the boat boy who wanted to collect an 80ec fee for the mooring. We got it down to 40ec because we were only staying for 2 hours. After ferrying most people to shore, Mike and I went over to get dinghy gas (30ec for a few gallons) and then Happy Island to check it out. We were greeted by someone wanting to tie up our dinghy for a tip… we let Him. He was fun to talk to. Most drinks were 20ec. I didn’t take a picture of the drink board, but there was a pretty good selection. I had a painkiller and Mike had a rum punch.. Somehow another round arrived at the table even though we didn’t order them. We did drink them, but the whole experience turned us off from further time and money spent on union. We did overtip the dinghy tie up guy after he pleaded for more. We switched captains and began to head back to Tobago when we ran into Willie (previous and current captain’s favorite boat boy). We wanted to do the lobster and conch BBQ dinner on the beach, but it was uncertain with the captain change if we would make it back in time. He agreed and we met him after sunset for a fabulous dinner. I think the price was 85ec a person for half of a grilled lobster, conch, plantain fritters, potatoes with garlic and something else yummy on it, saffron rice, and a fruit plate for desert. Byob. It was wonderful and very delicious, and I would highly recommend the BBQ with Willie and Beth (cook). You will find Willie by his boat (I will add a picture). He is the one with the flags.
After a short star watching session, we all went to sleep.

Good morning day 5

Good Morning from Mustique. A small trip to town is in order for part of the group and snorkeling for the rest. I believe we are headed to the Tobago cays/Mayreau tonight, but we might shoot for Canouan since we have the time.

Day 4

The night in Admirality bay was pretty rolly with swells coming in sideways. Our highest wind gust overnight was just over 30 knots. I slept ok, but was hoping for a little less swell. A couple of tall ships arrived (2 and 3 mast) and a huge rainbow formed with one of them in the picture. The Internet wifi options from the boat were many, but few worked well without paying. We went into town and had some pastries at the bakery, got a few fishing lures, and did a little more provisioning. We had about 8 boat boys show up in the morning including a guy who took some pictures of our boat and wanted 50 us for the picture (declined). We motor sailed through the cut over to Mustique and sailed the rest of the way. We were racing to beat a squall line in the distance and arrived with about 45 minutes to spare. Craig did some go pro video of the boat functions (raise sail, raise anchor) and then some video from his dslr. I am hoping he caught the flying fish – which were easily twice the size of the flying fish we saw in bvi. We did some swimming and snorkeling and then crazy boat stunts into the water with the go-pro, but there wasn’t any fantastic snorkeling By the beach. we may try to go around the point to see how it is there. Only 8 other boats are in the bay so it should be a quiet night other than even bigger swells coming from the west making it hard to walk on board. The forecast is for decreasing wind and swells, so that might be great for snorkeling in the Tobago cays and a good nights sleep.
As the evening progressed, we made dinner and did a little fishing from the boat. Jamie caught maybe 5 small fish (8 inches long) using some leftover chicken scraps. We kept a couple for bait and sent the rest back.

Day 2

Provisioning and boarding day.
There is a long story that I will devote time to in the end, but it has to do with some last minute boat changes. Because of that, we were unable to see the boat before provisioning. You should know about how much fridge and storage space you have before you buy too much. With that said, we were to meet the captain at 15:00 to clear customs, and so we had a little extra time on St Vincent. We ate breakfast at the Rich View hotel which came with the room – cereal, juice, coffee, toast with tomato and lettuce and met up with our taxi diver to do a little sight seeing and provisioning.
At Our first stop in Kingstown, the group decided to divide. My wife, cousin and myself stayed in Kingstown to exchange money and check out the town. The others went to the botanical gardens and fort at the top of the hill. Kingstown isn’t too touristy especially when there isn’t a cruise ship in town. Lots of a activity there in port and the stores. My cousin and I went to the end of the cruise ship dock to take some pictures which is where too phrases emanated from. “The chicken hole” and “the dock cactus”. You add “everyone knows what a” is in front of that and you get our band of humor. I will include some pictures with this later so you can play along in our joke too.
We headed over to Greaves super market which was pretty nice. We were not on the actual food run, so we just checked it out. My wife bought a coconut from a street dealer for 2ec and he split off the top and gave her a straw. After drinking some coconut water she had him split it open and he even made spoons from the outside of the coconut.. Serious machete skills.. We ate some of the inside too.
We walked a ways and found a department store. Food, textiles, toys, bikes, electronics.. We went to the top floor and found one pool floatie to tie to the back of the boat. Then over to the market we bought local fruit and scotch bonnet peppers and regular bell peppers. Our cab driver called on my st Vincent cell number and we met the group for some ice cream. This was very delicious (picture here). I had raspberry and cheesecake, my wife had raspberry and pineapple. The pineapple was the best in my opinion. You self serve and then it gets weighed and you pay. Good idea! maybe all food should be sold this way.
Our group rejoined and a local said we should eat at VJs.. We headed over there and I had the fish and chips, others had beef and chicken wrapped in a tortilla and said it was quite good.
On to provisioning at the market by the airport. It was a bit chaotic, and so I went next door to the bakery. I bought out the cinnamon rolls, guava rolls and apple flips. You really should get there earlier than 14:00 if you expect anything to be left. Our next stop was to get one more fishing pole and we did that just across the road from the blue lagoon. A decent selection of rods, reels and line. We bought one for 185ec along with a gaff for 65ec and headed to meet our captain who just called my st Vincent cell number. We arrived and half of us went aboard with the provisions, and half stayed because our bags were still at Rich View hotel. Our captain had a cab waiting to take us to the airport to clear customs, and we already had a cab… That would later turn into a financial mess because the one taxi thought he was going to get the fare for all of us. Onward to get our bags and passports and back to the airport. Clearing customs for 11 people takes maybe 30 minutes. We got back to the dock and then some “help” magically arrived. We had to tell them no and they were miffed. We had a nice evening aboard the boat and were ready to sail the next morning.

Day 3

Day 3 began slow. Some people stated up late the night before and we haven’t hit our groove yet. We noticed we were missing tp, paper towels and a blender, so two people went into town and the rest went sailing.. Eric loves to fish and was ready to see what might hit while trolling. We had great wind and our skipper Christof had the Catana 50 going 10.5 knots. Eric had a fish on in about the first 30 minutes and would be shocked to see what he was about to land. Almost 800 meters of line was out and it took 30 minutes to reel in a 40.3 kilo Marlin. Amazing fish.
We headed back to pick up the others, gave the Marlin to the water taxi (he was very happy). We were going to sail around Bequia, but the Atlantic side was too rough, we headed for Admirality. Some people went into town, others played in the water. Eventually we started our rack of lamb dinner and had a great evening.

Night one

We arrived to St Vincent last evening after a brief island tour by air with landings at some of the islands. Kishorn, our taxi driver, picked us up with our massive cargo and brought us to the Rich View Hotel in the dark. We dropped off our bags and headed to The French Verandah for dinner. I had the snapper special which was pretty good. My wife had snapper with caper sauce which was awesome, followed by crem Brule to share. Afterwards we went out to the dock and hung out for awhile which was fantastic.
In the morning we woke up to a beautiful view…

We had continental breakfast at the hotel and we have provisioning to do and then meet up with our captain and head out to sea.

Bareboat Charter Checkout

Charter Checkout is a crazy time.  There will be a person walking you through the boat with a checklist, but you and they have very different goals.

They will show you anything to do with operating the boat and it will be like an information dump/overload if you haven’t done this before.  I would suggest having at least 2 people do this walk-through with them.  You will go over the operation of the boat from head to toe and they will ensure that all safety equipment is there.

You, on the other hand need to be ready for a week (or more) of continuous operation, and you don’t want to have to waste time making repairs or dealing with something which would detract you from your vacation.

This Link (The file came from someone on Travel Talk Online a few years ago) has some good ideas of what you might check before you leave.  Certainly you should check all of the things that break down a lot.  Toilets flushing and not leaking is a big deal.  A smelly mess and one head down is not fun, so check it before you leave. We had a VHF radio that was TERRIBLE the last time we chartered.  People could hear us, but the sound that came back was just garbled even though the other boat was just 200 feet away.

At the height of the bareboat charter season, quite often they turn the boat around in one day.  I have no idea how they do it.  Cleaning and repairs by just a few people for a fleet of boats sounds like mission impossible to me.  During this time they may not be as thorough and you will have to catch the things that are important to you.

Sea sickness

A lot of people have heard of Dramamine, but most people haven’t heard of scopolamine. If you read about the effectiveness of Dramamine, you will see that most people report that it just makes you drowsy and sleepy. If you want to experience everything a sailing trip has to offer, you would want to be active and seeing all that you can see and not below deck sleeping. Scopolamine comes in a patch that you put behind your ear and lasts for around 3 days. Four of eight people in our last trip used it and thought it was effective. I plan to use it on this upcoming trip and I will report back my experience.

A few things to note..

On my last trip, night one was a little rough for me as I was getting used to sleeping while rocking.

Eventually you get so used to the rocking that when you are on shore, you have the sense that you are rocking or should be rocking.

Going below deck while you are moving can be a recipe for disaster no matter if you have the patch or not – especially in your first couple of days. Everything is moving in three dimensions and if you look in a mirror.. That will really mess you up. I give myself an out loud count to 60 to get in and out. My cousin went below deck to go to the bathroom about 30 minutes after we set sail and he said he felt green the rest of the day…

You need to put the patch on 3 hours before you want it to be effective and you need to get it from your doctor.

Other potential anti-nausea solutions are pressure point wrist bands and also ginger.