CANOUAN

After leaving Mayreau we sailed up to Canouan (Can-a-wan) into a big bay with plenty of space to anchor.  There was a lovely resort right on the beach and we were later to discover it is part of the renowned Soho House franchise.  Soho House have hotels and clubs worldwide that cater to the more cased up customer as well as the celebrity client. Interesting fact, they do not accept memberships from any of the Real Housewives of…... shows!  But they did allow blow ins like us to have a drink and dinner.  Their drink coasters on the table showed a “no camera’s” logo on it, so what a blow no selfie for us that night. 

We went ashore for a look around and could see that this Island had also suffered from Hurricane Beryl.  There were very small mini marts but no real supermarket to speak of and some fruit stands.  We did meet a couple who had said “Hello” to us whilst perusing the limited supply of fresh produce.  They were sailors as well from the UK and later that night, whilst sharing a drink at Soho house we discovered that they spend three months on their yacht and then Michael goes back to work for three months as a captain on a 5 masted sailboat that is chartered out to guests.  

We carried on walking through the town which inevitably meant going up.  Both ends of this island are owned by private entities so access is limited but nevertheless we started walking up and came to a three-way intersection where a small bar was in the perfect position to see the windward side of the island.  We were meet, out on the road by a very welcoming guy, asking us to come and have a drink.  His name was Jovi and we said we would keep walking for a while but would drop in on the way back. We continued up and the view of the windward side of the island and the southern side were stunning.  The airport was on the southern side along with a rather large marina that was by and large deserted. 

On the walk back down, we passed a local who we stopped and had a talk to.  He had spent quite a lot of time living in America and had only returned to the island to set up a club called “Planet Hollywood”.  We asked him how Beryl had affected him and he was rebuilding his home and his club.  He was a pretty informed guy and interested in telling us about his views on the politics of his region.  I think we may still be there listening if he had his way. 

Back to the small bar with a great view at the three-way intersection.  Our mate Jovie was nowhere to be but there were about 5 locals having a drink.  They were obviously interested in our story and we in theirs.  Again, these guys were very politically aware of the situation in their region.  This was where we were told about Bequia and how it’s the best island, according to one guy who was from there.  

One guy was drinking rum and having been to a rum distillery in Grenada I asked him what brand the rum was, thinking it may have been the same as the one in Grenada.  He replied, “its very strong rum” and I was like, okay, but what brand is it?  And moved closer to see the small bottle and it was indeed “The Very Strong Rum” brand.  Original! 

We got back to the dock where earlier a local had grabbed our dinghy line to tie up for us and said, I’ll look after it for you.  It wasn’t the best dinghy dock and without much choice we paid him to watch our dinghy.  Money well spent! He was nowhere to be seen when we came back to the dinghy.  Lol 

The next day we went adventuring in the dinghy around the point to the new marina we had seen from the hill the day before.  As I had mentioned, it was practically deserted with maybe 10 boats in total.  The marina also had apartments and villas and restaurants etc, but it all looked deserted.  On the ocean side of the marina there was a restaurant and beach club setup.  There was a cruise ship in the bay and the small tender boats from the ship were continually ferrying passengers to and from the ship to the beach club.  The only people we saw walking around the marina where the staff. Small point of interest is you are a fan of the “Below Deck” series, the latest Below Deck Down Under was filmed in and around Canouan.   The next day we left to head to Bequia (Beck-way)