Between St. Vincent and Grenada lie rocks, cays, islets and is- lands, like a string of pearls stretching over 60 miles. Of these, nine are inhabited: Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, Mayreau, Palm Island, Union Island, Petit St. Vincent, Petite Martinique and Carriacou. Each island has its distinct person- ality. They share excellent shel- tered anchorages, hillsides sloping to beaches of white sand, and trans- lucent, sapphire seas rich in coral reefs and other sealife. Their climate has two seasons – under normal condition.
Carriacou is 34 nautical miles north of Grenada. The island is seven miles long by three miles wide and covers about 13 square miles, making it the largest of all the Grenadines. Crossing from St. 300 _ Carriacou George’s takes 90 minutes. Hillsborough is the only town on either Carriacou or Petite Martinique.
Petite Martinique lies five miles east of Carriacou and is home to 800 people. The sea provides employment for most of the island men. Fishing, water-taxis, ferries, container ships, boatbuilding and smuggling are all part of the tapestry of life on the island. Importing and exporting business is accomplished bypassing customs because of the distance to St. Vincent’s Petit St. Vincent. It’s only a five-minute boat ride. Anything from champagne to refrigerators can be had on the island at an affordable price.
Petit St. Vincent Resort, the only place to stay on the island, was one of the first to open in the Caribbean and is ranked highly as a classic. When Jamaica was still virgin territory to all-inclusives, Hiltons, and Ritz-Carltons, Petit St. Vincent Resort was opening its doors to those who desired remoteness, with the benefit of turquoise waters, coral reefs and white sand beaches. What better place to escape corporate life or begin a new life in wedded bliss?
Union Island is distinguished from a distance by its pitons rising Sharply out of the sea. On a clear day they can be seen from Fort Charlotte on St. Vincent, or sailing north from Grenada they are easily Spotted. Mounts Parnassus and Taboi are around 1,000 feet above sea level. Their slopes proved ripe for cotton production during the 18th century.
Palm Island has a single resort on it, but day-trippers can visit certain parts of the island. The modern story of Palm Island began when John Caldwell leased the mosquito-infested swampland formerly known as Prune Island from the government. The 135-acre plot with four low hills at the perimeter was surrounded by white sand beaches and circled by coral reefs. It had been used as a leper colony way back in time, and then planted with cotton like so many of its neighbors. The government bought the island in 1910 and proposed building salt ponds after World War II.
At only 1½ square miles, or approximately 700 acres, Mayreau is the smallest of the inhabited islands in the Grenadines. A population of 200 inhabitants share some of the most beautiful beaches in the West Indies.
Canouan is like a marker in the sea dividing the northern from the southern Grenadines. Looking south, you can make out the silhouettes of the islands all the way to Grenada. Looking north, you see the other Grenadines, with St. Vincent looming behind them. From the sea, Canouan sticks out of the water like a humpback whale arching into a dive with its dorsal fin suspended in the air.
The second largest of St. Vincent’s Grenadines is only three miles long and less than two miles wide. It was given its name by the French, who found it swarming with “moustique” – mosquitos. Sugar played a major part in its history, with seven plantations at the height of production. Yet by 1820 there were only two estates, Cheltenham and Adelphi, with 325 slaves. With the end of slavery, Mustique was all but abandoned. Today, only the sugar works of the Endeavour Estate remain standing, along with its Cotton House. A royal grant in 1835 passed ownership of the island to the Hazell family of St. Vincent. For the next 120 years fewer than 100 people inhabited the island as subsistence farmers and fishermen.
What are the Tobago Cays? A group of small islets surrounded by a large horseshoe reef in some of the most pristine waters of the Caribbean. They were purchased by St. Vincent’s government in 1988 and designated a National Marine Park. Little has been done specifically to protect them – due, undoubtedly, to a lack of funding. Moorings have been provided, a few leaflets printed, and there has been an effort by local dive operators, yacht charters and sailors to educate both visitors and local fishermen.
Bequia’s attractive buildings and bus shelters have a seafaring motif on their gingerbread trim. Houses are painted in pastel colors characteristic of the Caribbean. The blending of these soothing shades with exotic flowering trees and shrubs counteracts the dryness and hardness of the land. Infrequent rainfall is the only source of fresh water. The parched earth yields some fruit trees and enough vegetation for sheep and goats to graze.
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