:Where Worklife Matters

Though not as developed as Bequia, Clifton Harbor has
stores, water, ice, etc. It’s also the last chance to clear
customs and immigration when heading south from the St.
Vincent territory to Carriacou which is part of Grenada. The
dock isn’t much. It’s easier using the dinghy or water taxi
from the anchorage unless you have to take on water. The
customs and Immigration offices are at the airport, which is
a short walk from the harbor.

One of the best secrets of Union Island is Chatham Bay
around the other side from Clifton. It’s back to nature there
with far fewer visitors than the Tobago Cays. There’s only
one water taxi called “Shark Attack”. James, the operator
also makes carvings out of local wood there. The snorkeling
was excellent despite an algae bloom. There were eagle
rays, a nurse shark trying to hide in the algae and an 18 inch
fish called a flying gurnard that shuffles along the sand and
spreads it’s huge pectoral fins like wings when startled. We
were more startled than the fish to see the display.
The next stop was Canouan Island but not before putting
Paul in charge of the passage and having him also do his
man overboard drills. Bareboat Charter students are
required to demonstrate two different return methods to
complete the standard. Paul did three… a quick stop, a gybe
and a figure eight.

The Moorings is now operating at the Tamarind Resort in
Charlestown Bay. I ran into Michael Schantz, the CFO of The
Moorings who told me about plans to develop a marina with
a breakwater to make boarding the boats there easier
than it is with the pier now in use. Canouan is in a nice
location in the middle of The Grenadines and can be
reached on an American Eagle flight from San Juan. We
had dinner at one of the Tamarind Resort restaurants,
which has a wood fired pizza oven. The pizza and calzone
were great.

It was a close hauled sail from Canaoun back to Bequia to
position ourselves for a morning return the next day to
Sunsail. There was a fresh breeze of at least 20 knots so
we double reefed. It would have been perfect except
that I neglected to check the hatch over my forepeak cabin. I
had earlier dogged the hatch in the upper position to let in
some air so everything in the cabin became very wet by the
time we discovered the situation in Bequia. Fortunately, it
was a sunny afternoon so we were able to get the cushions
dried out. Also, Daffodil was there to take our wet linens and
laundry to wash, dry and bring back before dinnertime. It
was a bargain at $10 U.S. for each 10 pounds of laundry…
weighed dry, not the way we gave it to them.

The final passage was a relatively short beat of 8 miles back to Blue Lagoon in St. Vincent. We left early in order to
get the boats back in time to check in, have lunch and make
a 2:10 p.m. flight back to Barbados, the connection point for
St. Vincent instead of San Juan. Sunsail was very efficient in
helping us get checked in and there was plenty of time to
spare. We spent the night in Barbados at a beautiful beach
hotel. Then, the flight in the morning got us into San
Francisco by 5:00 p.m. via a Miami connection.

All in all it was an excellent trip with everybody agreeing that
it would have been nice if we’d had a few more days. That’s
the way I like it to go. Of course, I’ll be doing another trip in
just a few months. Our Tahiti trip is in September. That’s
why my job is the best job in the world.

Bob has been organizing and leading group bareboat
charter trips since 1987 and is currently doing 2 trips a
year to locations in The South Pacific, Sea of Cortez,
The Caribbean, and The Mediterranean. (Destinations
vary annually based on active interest) You may contact
him at bob@spinnakersailing.com
or visit Spinnaker Sailing at
http://www.spinnakersailing.com.