Before we leave the Grenadines for this time, we want to sail to Mustique. It is a privately owned island where several famous people have houses. In normal cases, boat guests are welcome to the island, even during the pandemic. However, they had a major outbreak of corona after Christmas and New Year’s weekend with subsequent restrictions. Now it has not been possible to get completely clear information if they receive visiting boats or not. So we sail there a bit on a chance, if they do not allow us to land, it is close to sailing to Bequia.

When we were about to leave the Blue Lagoon on St Vincent, there was hardly any swell at all and very few breaking waves on the reef. For safety’s sake, we have hired the guide, it is cheap insurance compared to the alternative of going aground. Flying Penguin will not sail with us to Mustique, they will return to Bequia.

We sail east of Bequia, a route that is completely unprotected from the waves of the Atlantic, and we are reminded of how big those waves are. We get a nice sailing down to Mustique and after a few hours, we can take a buoy in the bay outside Basil’s bar. We try to use our special boat hook which is made to attach a rope to a loop, it works perfectly.

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Best places

As visitors to the island, we are limited to the beach by the bay where the buoys are and the small community just north of the bay. In the center of that area, lies Basil’s Bar!

We have heard that Basil’s Bar on Mustique is a must-visit when you are here and here you can always see famous people. There is another restaurant up in the hill in the community, but it was closed every time we went there to eat.

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You can be on the whole beach in the bay where you can anchor and here are several nice places to swim and sunbathe.

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You can also snorkel on the reefs in the bay. As in many other places, it is forbidden to catch lobsters, only fishermen are allowed to do so during the fishing season.

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One day as we walked into the village we saw two land turtles, an adult, and a small cub. The little one walked in the middle of the road where cars sometimes drove. We moved it off the road, but it’s probably only a matter of time before it goes out there again. If land turtles are like those that live in the sea, then the chicks will probably have to fend for themselves.

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In the open part of the island, there is a small café and a small shop, a police station, school, and post office.

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We were almost the only boat guests on the island during the 5 days we stayed there, so we had Basil’s Bar almost entirely to ourselves and we saw no celebrities, at least none we recognized. Always fast service, a little lonely maybe. Usually, we like that a restaurant is close enough crowded, but during a pandemic, it is the opposite, we are glad that there are not so many people around us.

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Island tour

If you want to see other parts of the island, you need to hire a guide who shows you around the island. Here is a resort, a small airport, a small shopping center, a small fire station, a small hospital m.m. Everything looks very orderly and well maintained. The island has a permanent resident population who live in the small community on the hill in the north and they work on the island or are fishermen.

There are a number of larger and smaller properties on the island. Most are owned by private individuals, some are owned by the company that owns the island and are used by those who are responsible for the operation of the island. Each larger household has its own staff employed to take care of the property and those staff often live in houses on the same property.

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Up next

Next time we sail down to the Tobago Cays one last time, then it’s time to start thinking about where we are going after the Grenadines.