Sailing through the Caribbean Grenadines

Mayreau: Great Sailing, Hiking over to Saline Bay, an Empty Beach, and an Old Catholic Church on the Hill

We had a really incredible sail over to Mayreau. We had the wind at a nice angle off our stern and were just cruising down wind to our destination. They call this area the "Windward Islands" for a good reason. So far on this trip we have had great sailing winds every day. Much more intense then the BVI but quite to my liking.

We anchored in Salt Whistle Bay on Mayreau. The beach is quite nice there but there really isn't much else besides the exclusive resort which posted "No Trespassing" signs. There were these really cute local girls playing around the dock. The one girl with the big afro was particularly cute. I walked across the small peninsula and along the beach when I saw these gay guys doing their own personal photo shoot. It was quite amusing!




		This catholic church at the top of the hill was very well kept. If you walked around the back it had a view of the surrounding seas. A lady was braiding some orphaned girl's hair in the back and I talked to them for a while. Every one I have come in contact with on this trip has been very friendly and easy to talk to.
	I saw this sustainable project sign on my walk through town. The island also has a health clinic which I would have like to check out but it was closed for the holidays. I got a real kick out of the spray painted sign on this abandoned house project near the island's school.

All the homes have collection systems for storing their run off rainwater but I was very impressed with this particular person's gardening technique in the arid hot climate. There is huge potential for wind turbine power on all the islands but I didn't see any. I suspect that in the years to come the island will be dotted with windmills. They would be silly to not take advantage of the consistent strong winds here. They call them the windward islands for a reason! Sherry and Bill stopped off at a bar to grab a cool drink. The hike up and over the hill from salt whistle bay to the other bay is pretty steep and the sun is intense here. When I finally got down to the beach it was like a ghost town. There must have been 200 chairs piled along the beach with not a soul in sight. There were also huge sections of tables and cabanas just past the palm trees that were completely empty. I later found out that cruise ships would come by and unleash hundreds of sun bathing tourists upon the sandy beaches for a day.

Next we headed over to the Tobago Cays.