We went for a walk from one the southern end of Mayreau to the northern end – about a mile. Up a hill and then down back to the ocean.

On the northern part of Mayreau is Salt Whistle Bay. A nice little bay with many moorings and about 2 dozen boats. Very small shops, restaurants, and locals selling t-shirts hung on lines between palm trees on the beach.

At the northern-most tip of Salt Whistle Bay is a outdoor restaurant with booths made of stone and thatched roofs. I don’t know if the sign is legible, but it says “Ask for our lobster BBQ”. I posted this because it is a nice picture, but also because it reminds me of my oldest daughter, who is getting quite fond of “Lobster on the beach”, so much that I think it becoming a habit. And an expensive one at that.

BTW, that’s Chris on the beach beyond the dinghy tied to the palm tree.

This is the view off the front of our boat in Saline Bay.

Other than the occasional cruise ship and/or super yacht, the loud horn when the ferries show up, or the fact that it is popular with day-trippers this is a fabulous spot. And, frankly, all of those”complaints” pale in comparison to the upside.

We went walking on the island today with more pics to come, but this is good for now.

On our walk earlier today, we spotted a rastafarian restaurant called Righteous & de Youths. Righteous Bob happened to be sitting near the door and greeted us. He told us about his rooftop seating area where we could sip a cocktail and watch the sun set. This establishment had been written up in our guide book and, since Bob was so personable, we decided to give it a try. When we arrived, Righteous Bob again greeted us and asked his 6-year old grandson, Mario, to show us the way up. A group of four French sailors were up there and we joined them. About five minutes later, Bob made his way to the rooftop and started playing the bongos and singing. He asked me to try to play with him. After a minute, he decided that I wasn’t the best accompanist so he asked Steve to give it a try. Five or ten minutes later Steve was replaced by Mario. We had a really enjoyable time talking with Bob, meeting several members of his family, and learning about a bit of the culture on Mayreau.

We left Clifton after one night after checking in because it was just too crowded. The first pic above is Clifton from the East. You can see a lot of boats in a small, compact area and you can also see “Happy Island” on the left-hand-side of the shot. Happy Island is an island appearing out in the middle of the ocean (it is really just the end of the reef protecting Clifton) that is about 50 feet in diameter with a bar taking up pretty much all land space – pretty funny.

The second pic is the continuation of the first pic to its right (attempt at a panorama). This area is about 4-5 feet deep, protected from the waves, and completely open to the ocean breezes, so it is a kite-boarders paradise. There were several people kite boarding when we were there, one was even on a foil-board.

All in all, it was an interesting town and the restaurants actually looked enticing, but it was just too busy and too many people hustling.

So this morning we left. We are going to Saline Bay in Mayreau, the next island north of Union Island in the Grenadines. Also, the Tobago Cays are just to the east of Mayreau and are the real crown jewel of the Grenadines as they are a protected marine park with lots to see underwater, so that will be next.

I’m actually sitting in Saline Bay as I write this and it is very nice. More later.

Yesterday, we cleared into customs at Clifton on Union Island.

This picture is us waiting at a bar to be cleared by health authorities, customs, and immigration. We were clearing in along with about 5 other couples. I was convinced that the couple that spent the most money at the bar would clear in first, but after about an hour, we all got cleared at the same time.

Here we are about a mile offshore from our next stop.

Don’t know much about Union Island, but it looks fairly uninhabited.

As we were waiting to clear out of Grenada customs in Carriacou this morning, some guys were doing repairs to a wooden fishing boat.

They hammered the planks and then used a planer, chisel, and hatchet to smooth the edges.

We watched them for over an hour. I thought it was interesting. Still doing boat-building like they did thousands of years ago.

At Union Island’s Clifton Bay anchorage we took our dingy into the dingy dock. In order to tie it up, we had to go under the walkway amd push the dingys around until we fit. It is the most crowded dingy dock that we have seen yet. This dingy dock is very convenient to town and where we had to go to clear customs.

Every once in a while, the fish surface as schools, and, when they do, the birds (mostly Pelicans, but others also) come calling.

Today they were doing this frequently right next to the boat. A little unnerving when the birds all appear to be converging on your boat repeatedly.

Today was kind of a slow day – I got the old battery monitor reconfigured in the morning and then got both sump pumps fixed. The afternoon went slowly.

So I thought I would post some pics of fish around our boat. There have been schools of small fish every day around the boat – some of the schools are enormous – thousands. The birds dive bomb the fish which is quite entertaining and every once in a while the schools will all jump out of the water together – quite a sight!

Oh, and the last pic is a good underwater shot of the boat. Keel, rudder and propeller – times two.