Sailing the Grenadines in search of Rolling Stones - Mustique and Mayreau 

Mustique is a private island that has been developed as a playground for the rich and famous. Shania Twain and Bryan Adams both had places on the island.  The last time we were there, about 15 years ago, the local cab driver thought we would know them as we were all Canadians. About half the houses are available for rent when the owners are not in residence.  Mick Jagger is often on the island as well, and during our last visit, our friend Dave had spotted him dropping off his daughter at Basil's Bar, an infamous and popular establishment which is perched over the water on stilts.  The bar is still there, but this visit, Mick was nowhere in sight - however - he was apparently in Bequia for a visit.  I guess poor Mick won't get to meet Pirate after all.

While in Mustique, Pirate spent most days on the bow looking out for turtles. They surface regularly and fascinate her, even more than the island goats.  

After finding yet another patisserie, grabbing yet another espresso, more pastries and even a pizza slice for breakfast, Roger wandered over to see what the local fisherman were catching.  Yes, those are sharks. They had 14 of them and it became a full on family affair to bring them off the boat and onto the shore for cleaning. 

Mustique tends to be a rolly anchorage, but we were in luck, and stayed a couple of nights as it was so calm.  Although the anchorage is beautiful, the dinghy dock was a challenge, as it had been damaged in the surge we had experienced in the northern islands a few weeks ago. It was slated for repair the next day but it was difficult to get in and out at night, so we decided to continue our journey south to Mayreau.  

We had a phenomenal sail from Mustique to Mayreau. With a full main and a full jib, we reached along at speeds over 9 knots as captured by Roger on this pic of our navigational software Navionics on his iPad. The iPad is used as backup to the other two full navigational systems and displays we have on Adventure I but the display is so good we often use it as our primary. 

We anchored in a pretty little spot called Saline Bay on Mayreau. As you can see Roger and Pirate were quite excited as we pulled in.  

A "boat boy" named Freddie came out to greet us and organized a lobster dinner ashore for us that evening.  In the meantime, we walked across to the other side of the island to another "bar at the end of the world" place called Ranch Escapade to grab a drink while overlooking the Tobago Cays, our destination for the next day.  

When we arrived for dinner that night, we were surprised to learn that our dinner was not at the restaurant on the beach, but in fact next door in a 'shed' with picnic tables that did indeed look over the water, but we were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into.  We decided to go with the flow and embrace it.  Our chef, Alvin was a lovely man and served us a beautiful lobster dinner, with rice, baked potatoes, salad and fried plantain.  He told us that he learned to cook from his mama.  The meal was delicious and fortunately we had remembered to bring our own wine, so Alvin dug up some champagne glasses to serve it in. 

 

Next stop, the Tobago Cays. Roger is totally excited because it is a remote set of islands surrounded by reefs with nothing but clear water and huge ocean views. Likely there will be another "bar at the end of the world" but I truly hope no patisserie.