15th October 2025 | Odometer: 73.9nm | St Vincent & The Grenadines
Ryan had a life goal to change countries via boat – and now he can say he has done it!
After checking out of Grenada, we took down our Grenada courtesy flag and ran up the yellow quarantine flag then headed North.
Union Island is the Southernmost island in the chain that forms the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines. It has quite a dramatic skyline and is fairly unusual in that the harbour is on the windward side of the island (not the leeward).
The passage from Carriacou to Union Island a short passage; but with a swell coming right onto the starboard beam (right hand side) of the boat it was rolly and a little uncomfortable. We realised after that we should have gone upwind/downwind a bit more and zigzagged the path to make it more of a comfortable trip. Oh well, lessons learned!
Coming into Union Island would be incredibly tricky without Navionics and GPS! The reef bounding the harbour is only just at sea level, and the surf rolls and crashes over it. It’s hard to tell if you are looking at open water or only just submerged land. Thankfully, being quite windy there was enough white caps and foam over the top it made it easier to pick out the danger spots. Obviously Navionics helps a LOT too!
We pulled in and paid for a mooring ball for the night, it was so windy we were grateful for the help of one of the harbour workers to tie our lines on and get settled. He gave us directions into the customs and immigration folks in town.
Heading into the town was quite the dinghy ride! It was bouncy and rough, with swells and strong winds blowing us towards the shore. We had been worried about where on earth we could tie off the dinghy in these conditions, only to find that the dinghy dock was this unusually cool little man-made lagoon.
They have built a sea wall out, with a bridge over the top and an arched entrance way… once you are through you emerge into a calm, protected lagoon with lots of dinghy tie off points. A fantastic solution to the prevailing conditions. The challenge was getting into the archway! We approached cautiously, and watched as large swells rolled through the arch lifting the water height at least half up the arch on each swell. The wind was howling and we could hardly hear each other at all… after a shouted conference and a bit of a self-pep talk to each other… we timed the waves and rolled through on the downswell into a sudden calm on the other side. We both breathed a sigh of relief and had a nervous laugh… what an ENTRANCE!
Ryan is so good at keeping his cool in those situations whereas I get so anxious I just want to run away from it! But once you are in, you realise, ok, that was doable and we can handle that. But that first time, sheesh! My heart rate goes up, feels like I can’t breathe and afterwards is a bit of an adrenaline come-down. Ryan laughed at how chaotic the entry was and says to me – want to go back for the go pro so you can film that for the blog? Sorry folks but no way hahaha.
The locals at the bar overlooking the dinghy lagoon must have a good bit of entertainment watching newbies coming in through there and watching their reactions while they tie up!
It was an easy walk to the customs and immigration office, set amongst a beautiful courtyard surrounded by flowers and vines. The staff there were super friendly and shortly after we were checked in. We had now officially arrived to St Vincent & The Grenadines!
We went for a short walk through town, and were saddened to see the complete and utter destruction Hurricane Beryl had wrought last year. Every single building lost its roof and most their top floors. All the buildings were barely one or two rooms still habitable. There was dust everywhere from the bricks being unloaded at the port.
A few tattered remnants still lingered with ragged awnings and canvas strips laying around which gave glimpses into how things would have been before. The colourful street markets, the bright bars, and the many shopfronts that would have lit up the main street. We walked up the main street in its current form and poked our heads into a few stalls, but honestly, with only food being available, we didn’t want to buy anything as it felt like anything we bought would just be taking the meagre offerings available away from the folks who lived here.
The folks around greeted us and were friendly enough. A very few tried to sell us the usual things (you want ice? you want laundry? you want fresh fish?) but overall they seemed to be very much still in recovery mode with the majority of people engaged in construction or clean up work. We didn’t take too many photos here either as it just felt wrong.
We headed back to the boat for a chill afternoon and watching the sunset from the roof. We both felt incredibly privileged and blessed to be in our comfortable boat with food, water and windows with glass in them.
Although it was really exposed to the wind here, the ocean looked gorgeous and the reefs and water colours were stunning. There are a few reef bars out along the reef and they looked quite picturesque against the continuous blue water-to-sky backdrop.
Somehow, even though everyone walks slowly, when the boat boys want to get somewhere they always want to go fast!
We knew we had a few days of a big weather system approaching (Hurricane Melissa – before it got a name) and needed to shift around to somewhere much more protected. We were chatting about whether to go to Mayreau or the leeward side of Union Island when… Ryan’s crown fell off his tooth. 🤦
Completely unexpected, and while eating a vege pasta of all things! It just… fell off! What to do now?
Mayreau Island
Despite the open anchorage, we actually had a pretty comfortable night in Clifton Harbor. Waking up to pristine weather the next morning we decided to go to Mayreau (the next island up) to get into a more sheltered bay and then decide what to do about Ryan’s tooth.
We thought the short journey up from Union Island to Saline Bay in Mayreau would be relatively easy going, but boy oh boy. It was quite a bit more rolly than expected as we went upwind. When we turned downwind to come down into the leeward side of Mayreau it improved quite a bit – I guess this is where the saying “fair winds and following seas” comes from!
This video is not for anyone who gets motion sickness but this was a bit of what it felt like.
On arriving into Saline Bay, we enjoyed a delightful swim and gorgeous beach views.
After putting it off long enough, we finally decided to look into what to do about Ryan’s tooth. After a bit of googling, we realised a few things.
- we absolutely had to get the tooth fixed ASAP.
- The nearest dentist was either going back to Grenada or going much more north to Bequia.
- The weather system rolling in was looking like we were going to get some really high winds on Saturday (it was Thursday).
We decided to just bite the bullet and do our longest trip from Mayreau to Bequia the next day. Bequia has a really protected anchorage, the island hadn’t been destroyed in the hurricane, and I’d been able to ring the dentist on the island who said she could take a look on Friday afternoon.
With the decision made for the Friday trip, we then took some time to relax and check out the island of Mayreau. But before heading off to explore… We were so happy we had dry bilges now with our new bilge pump for the stern gland – way less work for us. In celebration I decided to open up the bilge just to be sure it had worked as we expected through the rolly seas… D’oh!
Hmm where did this water come from? We realised neither of us had checked if the bilge was dry after installing the stern gland bilge pump. That must be it! We then spent a good hour or so emptying out the bilge…. Let’s leave it open to dry for an hour or so….
An hour later…. there was water in the bilge again! OH NO! What was leaking? Cue several hours of ripping everything out of the brig and getting in and out of the bilge in the saloon and all over the boat. The hot water system is leaking. Sigh, ok so we isolated the water supply to the hot water system and cleaned it all out again. No hot water is not that big of a deal.
Mayreau was also very destroyed by the hurricane, with lots of destroyed bars and buildings around. The town was not looking good, but the locals had been busy repairing many of the bars and shopfronts. The island’s main income is from yachts and tourists in the busy season (Late Nov -> April) and there was a lot of effort going into making sure they could be ready to make money in their peak season.
We both felt more hope for Mayreau to succeed at this endeavour as we walked through the town. We did the 20 minute walk to the northern end of the island and were accompanied by a friendly pair of dogs who trotted along with us and checked in with all the other island dogs along the way. The walk is on the main road, a single lane track with gorgeous views all along but culminating in an overlook of Salt Whistle Bay (also known as Carnash Bay) which is truly gorgeous.
That night, we were treated to a spectacular show of spotted eagle rays circling next to the boat. We spent a good hour at least watching three rays circle and glide along the surface. They are so sleek and graceful; with the slightest motion of their wings they flow effortlessly through the water. Mesmerising.
You must be logged in to post a comment.