An 8-day Sailing Trip to This Part of the Caribbean Became My Family’s Most Adventurous Trip Yet

It didn’t take lengthy to determine why St. Vincent and the Grenadines — a dreamy chain of 32 sparsely populated islands within the southern Caribbean — is understood for a number of the world’s most difficult crusing. On the second day of our crewed constitution, my household and I launched into an eight-hour journey from Marigot Bay, St. Lucia, to Bequia, the Grenadines’ second-largest island. Very quickly, our 45-foot catamaran was cruising by way of eight- to 10-foot swells. Our captain, a six-foot-three St. Lucian named Johan Gangardine, defined that on a scale of 1 to 10, these seas have been a 5. “When the Atlantic and the Caribbean converge,” he stated, “it’s like a whirlpool.”

As St. Lucia’s mighty Pitons started to vanish right into a misty haze, the seas fell calm. We had overpassed land, as typically occurs on this a part of the Caribbean, and we regrouped aft to soak up the huge fantastic thing about all of it. Bottlenose dolphins jumped alongside the boat, white-bellied boobies darted for his or her catch, and {hardware} clanked as ropes blew within the stiff breeze. 

We sailed previous sprawling St. Vincent, coated in verdant peaks, cloud forests, and a stratovolcano that final erupted in 2021, earlier than anchoring off Mount Wynne Seaside, a secluded slice of black volcanic sand, the grains of which resembled caviar. That afternoon, we continued on to Bequia, the place we stopped at Princess Margaret Seaside, one of many island’s best. The next day we pressed on to Mustique, a ritzy personal isle that’s house to celebs like Mick Jagger and a yacht-friendly restaurant, Basil’s Bar. 

Our final goal, although, was to succeed in the Tobago Cays, 5 tiny islets within the southernmost Grenadines the place, Gangardine promised, we’d discover secluded white-sand seashores, pristine snorkeling websites, and a marine sanctuary the place we may swim alongside inexperienced turtles. “So the place are the Cays?” requested my spouse, Pleasure. With a eager maintain of the helm, his response was easy: “Additional.”

That seek for journey was precisely why we had come. It was our third Caribbean constitution with the Moorings, which pairs households like mine with crewed yachts. Our first two journeys have been within the British Virgin Islands, the place line-of-sight crusing, protected anchorages, and calm seas make the vacation spot properly fitted to inexperienced persons. However with our sons aged 10 and 12, my spouse and I needed to push the bounds and do some true open-ocean crusing, and this eight-day journey within the Grenadines was the logical subsequent step.

After spending the evening in Mustique’s Brittania Bay, we awoke to rainbows, plural, and the smells of recent brewed espresso, warming croissants, and scorching bacon — due to our chef, Magdalena St. Croix, a 63-year-old St. Lucian grandmother who has labored on yachts for many years. Instantly after breakfast, we set sail for Canouan, a three-square-mile island the place Gangardine promised to plunk us into his favourite cove for snorkeling. He’d then drop us at Soho Beach House Canouan, a classy resort the place we had a seafood lunch: conch fritters, prawn dumplings, mahi-mahi with tapenade and recent lime.

After lunch and as soon as once more underneath manner, the captain set two fishing strains to trawl off the strict. Then, immediately, the whirl of a fishing reel: “Fish on!” yelled my older son, Jackson. Certain sufficient, the captain reeled in a 20-pound tuna, which he expertly filleted, then sliced into sashimi that Chef Maddie served to us earlier than dinner that evening. 

“It’s all a part of the journey,” Gangardine stated.

Like all the perfect captains, he was gifted at underselling the excessive factors, whether or not a shock catch or a beloved anchorage. Take, for instance, Salt Whistle Bay, a wonderful cove on the island of Mayreau. Gangardine advised us we’d be going to “a seaside,” however this place felt like a textbook Caribbean paradise. Dotted with rum shacks and windblown coconut palms, it immediately turned our new favourite spot.

That’s till we lastly reached the Tobago Cays. This group of small, uninhabited islands, shielded from the ocean by a wholesome barrier reef, has globally vital mangrove methods and sea-turtle nesting websites. Naturally we examined the waters, which at the moment are protected as a nationwide marine park.

“Dad, look! A turtle!” exclaimed my youthful son, Tyler. Floating over thick beds of seagrass off tiny Baradal Island, we spied inexperienced turtles flapping their fins and swimming gracefully. The expertise got here on the heels of a surprising snorkel at close by Horseshoe Reef, which teemed with tropical fish and wholesome coral. 

The 4 of us replayed the journey that evening over a lobster dinner at Huge Mama’s BBQ, on the islet of Petit Bateau. With lengthy stone grills underneath a wood cover and weathered picnic tables shaded by coconut palms, it’s as shut as you will get to an precise restaurant on this a part of the Grenadines. Other than one different group of boaters, who have been additionally digging their toes into the sand, we have been the one guests. “It’s like one other world,” Pleasure stated. I needed to agree.

A model of this story first appeared within the December 2024/January 2025 difficulty of Journey + Leisure underneath the headline “Journey Awaits.”