Earth’s ultimate gift to the cruising sailor
Story by Todd Duff, Photos by Gayle Suhich
Across the sometimes-boisterous Anegada passage from the Virgin Islands lie the popular cruising destinations of St. Martin/St. Maarten and the French island of St. Barts, which almost all Caribbean sailors visit at some point. After my boat-parts shopping list has been filled from the excellent chandleries on St. Martin, we usually make way toward our favorite nearby anchorages at Anse De Colombier on St. Barts or in the tiny bay on the southwestern coast of Île Fourchue. A beach landing at either and a scramble to the top of the nearby hills will provide you with a view of your boat that may become a lifetime memory.
Just a day’s beam reach to the south of these islands, the less visited nation of St. Kitts and Nevis beckons. While the anchorages there may be a bit rolly in winter months, the authentic island lifestyle, imposing historic fortifications and well-preserved colonial ruins make these islands well worth the visit. And if you’re ashore in the evening or early morning, you’ll likely encounter at least a few of the island monkeys which live in the interior but come down into the settled areas searching for food. The monkeys on St. Kitts, by some estimates, outnumber the human population!
Tacking upwind, or if you arrived from Europe, you’ll find Antigua to be a magnet for some of the world’s most beautiful sailing yachts. During the peak season, English Harbour and nearby Falmouth Bay host hundreds of boats from all over the world. Barefoot cruisers abound and chances are you’ll run into some old friends there … or if not, you’ll likely make some new ones. From English Harbour, a hike to the top of Shirley Heights is a must-do for a chance to see a green flash sunset and to photograph your boat at anchor far below.
While Guadeloupe offers much to the visiting sailor, the tiny archipelago of Îles Des Saintes, just to the south, is where we always try to stop. With several great anchorages and a quaint and quiet small town, it’s a terrific place to unwind and relax before continuing south to another of my favorite island nations, Dominica.
Mountainous and ruggedly beautiful, it hasn’t changed much since I first anchored in Prince Rupert Bay in the early nineties. If anything, it’s gotten better over the years as nautical tourism has become better understood by the locals. And if you love long, challenging hikes, amazing natural beauty and exploring well-preserved colonial fortifications, this island could become one of your favorites too.
A sometimes-boisterous daysail to the south, the mountainous, well-populated and strikingly beautiful island of Martinique is an imposing landfall. Again, great hikes abound: the most challenging is scaling the summit of Mount Pelée. Perhaps equally well-known for its violent volcanic eruption in 1902 or as the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte’s Empress Josephine, Martinique also offers superb shopping and provisioning as can only be found in the French islands. There are many great anchorages, and our favorite reprovisioning port in the entire Eastern Caribbean is Le Marin on the southern coast, where you can take your dinghy up to a floating dock behind one of the best grocery stores in the islands and roll your shopping cart right down to the boat. We always stock up on superb French cheeses and decent, inexpensive wine. Getting there from the north usually requires short tacking past the precipitous Diamond Rock, famous for its seizure by British forces during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s. Sailing close by, it is astounding to imagine what it took to scale the heights, drag cannons and munitions to the top and hold out against attack for seventeen months.
Just a short daysail to the south lies the historically significant and precipitous island of St. Lucia. From its excellent harbors of Rodney Bay in the north, well protected Marigot Bay and the world-famous Pitons anchorage to the south, St. Lucia provides unparalleled photography options and is often the first or second landfall for vessels arriving from Europe. Rodney Bay has one of the best haulout facilities and cruiser friendly marinas in the former English islands, and many cruisers make St. Lucia their base from which to explore farther afield.
Continuing south brings us to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. While the main island of St. Vincent is often bypassed by vessels traversing between St. Lucia and the Grenadines, there are in fact several great anchorages along this oft-forgotten coast. Our favorite is Wallilabou Bay which was the setting for some of the most memorable scenes in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. A stop here can be a lot of fun, especially for the younger members of the crew who may enjoy wandering through the crumbling movie set ashore and imagining themselves as pirates in their own right, back in the day.
A bit farther to the south is another of my favorite places: Bequia, which was originally settled by the Arawak peoples from South America. With the first French settlers arriving around 1750, Its excellent harbor, fertile volcanic soil, and abundantly prolific fishing allowed Bequia to grow into a successful trading port which ultimately became best known for its whaling and boat building.
Scattered across the next 40 miles to the south are the enchanting islands of the Grenadines. One could easily spend several weeks or more in this area, which is shared with the nation of Grenada. While almost every sailor visiting this group of islands makes a stop in the stunningly beautiful Tobago Cays, we find ourselves gravitating to the islands of Union and Carriacou, which to us offer a much more authentic island experience and provide secluded anchorages. Since the passage of devastating Hurricane Beryl July 1, 2024, which left widespread destruction, Union and Carriacou will remain in stages of rebuild for the foreseeable future, but in an effort to help them regain their footing, stopping by and spending some of your cruising funds there will surely be appreciated. We have always found the lovely people of Union and Carriacou to be among the friendliest in the entire Caribbean.
The Kick-’em-Jenny Passage between the Grenadines and Grenada proper can be a spirited sail, but should you luck upon a gentle period, a day stop at Corn Store Bay on Ronde Island is worth considering. There is decent snorkeling, a couple of trails on shore and a small, seldom visited fishing settlement on the southern end of the island.
Grenada has of course become perhaps the most popular summertime terminus for many Caribbean cruises; and during the peak of hurricane season, the fjord-like bays on the southern coast harbor hundreds of cruising vessels from all over the world. Sometimes affectionately referred to as “Camp Grenada,” its anchorages do offer a lot to do, and at times Grenada can indeed take on the feeling of a large summer camp for adults. With several large boatyards and a skilled service industry, many cruisers perform refits on their boats during their summer hiatus.
Trinidad, just ninety miles to the south, was for decades known as The Place to get major work done on yachts. Although in recent years more facilities have popped up in other relatively hurricane-free areas of the southern Caribbean, Trinidad, with its major yachting center around Chaguaramas, still has a lot to offer with expert services and first-rate boatyard facilities. And the nearby sister island of Tobago is a much less visited sleepy neighbor with miles of pristine beaches and a welcoming, less hurried populace.
Travelling westward, the strikingly beautiful coast of Venezuela may one day again become a safe place to visit, but since our pirate encounter there in 2010, we now leave this country abeam, well offshore.
The Dutch islands of Bonaire, Curacao and Aruba have in recent years become more popular as alternative places for waiting out hurricane season but are also terrific stops in their own right. Bonaire is an enticing island rich in history, but Spanish Waters on Curacao is our favorite and is perhaps the best all-weather harbor in the entire southern Caribbean. Only a two-to-four-day sail from many of the more popular islands to the north, with a hurricane approaching from the east, Spanish Waters has for decades been the “bailout plan” for many crewed charter yacht captains.
Colombia, once on the prohibited list for most insurers has, in recent years, become a much safer and more frequently visited destination for cruisers and with the new yacht harbor at Santa Marta and the popular historic harbor at Cartagena, offers excellent bases from which to explore inland while waiting for the right conditions to pass by the often-boisterous area off the Rio Magdalena when traveling east or west.
Next stop heading west is usually Panama and the remarkable and unique San Blas Islands, which provide the opportunity to immerse yourselves in an entirely different culture. Scattered over ninety miles of its sparsely populated northeastern coast on the Caribbean Sea, dozens of tiny islands, with many areas well within barrier reefs, provide sailors with challenging yet rewarding exploration. Although most cruisers tend to congregate in the western group of islands around the Lemon Cays, Holandes Cays and Coco Banderas, heading farther down east will provide a much more authentic experience by visiting less frequented settlements and isolated anchorages.
While many Caribbean cruisers who sail as far as Panama go on to transit the canal and head into the Pacific, some continue west to the Bocas del Toro area which is, year by year, becoming more popular as a cruising ground. From there, heading up to the Colombian islands of San Andreas and Providencia makes it possible to round Nicaragua’s somewhat dangerous reef-strewn coast well offshore to make landfall in the Bay Islands of Honduras. Our favorite there has always been Roatan. With its many bays and fantastic reefs, one can easily spend a month or more here, and stopping by Isla De Utila on your way to Guatemala’s Rio Dulce is a must do if for no other reason than to sample its funky backpacker bars and exuberant party atmosphere.
“The Rio,” as this well-traveled fresh-water river is known to cruisers, has become a permanent hangout for many sailors and has dozens of relatively cost-effective options for leaving your boat long term while traveling inland or abroad. And Guatemala, of course, is home to many of the archeological remains of the once vast Mayan civilization with dozens of well-preserved sites and possibly hundreds more yet to be discovered. Just to the north and all within the second largest barrier reef in the world, Belize and the southern areas of Mexico’s Yucatan offer an entirely different type of cruising. Easy, short hops and eyeball navigation are the order of the day and of course its offshore atoll-like reefs are unique in the Caribbean basin.
After transiting the stunning reef-strewn coast of Mexico to the north, many a Caribbean circle cruise ends with a few days of sailing up to Florida. Because they are not on the normal sailing routes when heading either east or west, most cruisers bypass Jamaica and the Cayman Islands — a shame, as both nations are well worth a visit. Grand Cayman has a well-protected all-weather anchorage accessible from its North Sound and has decent shopping and, along with its smaller neighbor islands of Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, offers fantastic diving opportunities. Jamaica, with its nicely spaced harbors along its north coast, offers the possibility of “day hop” cruising while heading to the east or west and is of course a huge island full of historic significance and has perhaps the most archetypical Caribbean culture of all the island nations within the basin.
There are few if any places on earth that offer so much history, cultural diversity, and geographical wonders within relatively short distances of each other all situated in such a perfect area for sailors. Easterly tradewinds blow most of the year and except in the far northwestern areas, winter cold fronts are virtually unknown. Caribbean sailors are, in my opinion, the luckiest cruisers in the world. There is so much to discover, new friends to meet and challenges to be realized that it’s no wonder that so many sail into these extraordinary waters and choose to stay, year after year. Pick up your anchor or cast off your docklines and head out. There are infinite possibilities and still untold stories to experience. The Caribbean is Earth’s ultimate gift to the cruising sailor.
This is the second part of “The Best of Caribbean Cruising” by the author; find Part One, “The Timeless Destinations of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands” in the April 2023 issue of Compass. Duff is the author of Bargain Boats and Budget Cruising and the action adventure Kidnapped from the Caribbean, available from www.seaworthy.com or anywhere books are sold.
