Union Island - October 2009 - Going North

Well, we left Carriacou for Union Island in the morning. We weren't in a hurry because it is only about 8 nm. Had great winds and seas so sailed pretty quickly and when we got to Union we found it relatively deserted. It is really quite early in the season. A lot of people can't go north of Grenada - some even further down - because of hurricane insurance regulations but ours allows us to go up to Bequia before hurricane season is over.

We anchored facing east on the reef that is on the east side of the harbour. In front of us was the little island bar we mentioned in our last blog from Union Island. It's nice there because we get the winds but not the seas and we were mostly the only ones there. We were surprised at the number of charter boats that are out. First of all, hurricane season is not officially over until November and secondly, the "real" cold season has not really started up north. I think I would wait until I was freezing my butt!!

Anyway, it was nice in the anchorage and when we went ashore, we were able to find some really neat things we had not seen before Went up an alleyway that had a sign for Castello's and it was this funky little path that went through gardens and past little shops that were open but had no one there and then a few little bars and a bunch of bird sanctuaries (huge cages). At one of the bars there was a lady who looked transplanted from the 50's. She was about 70 (a guess) and had long dyed black hair with bangs, shorts and a vest and some kind of boots. A guy I took for her husband/partner looked like I imagine Ernest Hemingway to look like - big bushy beard, big belly and glasses on the end of his nose. He was working on a carving and there was also a lot of art work by this "Castello" - maybe that is who the woman was???? The people we talked to indicated it was in demand and it was expensive but I didn't see a lot of talent to it. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. All in all it was a really neat place.

We also went for a walk over the "saddle" of the island on a road that took us to a bay on the other side. We had previously walked to Ashton, a town along the coast from Clifton Harbour, but this time we crossed to the other side of the island. It was quite a pretty bay but the water was way to shallow to anchor. We didn't even see any fishing boats although there were a couple of small resort buildings.

So, even though we had been to Union twice before, we were still able to find new stuff and this is amazing on an island about half the size of Calgary with a population of only about 15,000. Maybe this being the last time we would see this island clarified our vision!

Next stop - Tobago Cays