Grenadines Yacht Charter

Board at Blue Lagoon around midday. The first leg is an open-water crossing of about an hour, over the Bequia Channel and round the island's north-west point into Admiralty Bay: a huge, well-protected bay with Bequia's only town at its head.

• Port ElizabethBequia's only town. The Belmont Walkway, a shoreline path, runs south from it along the water past the bars and restaurants.
• Princess Margaret BeachA white sand beach on the south shore of the bay, reached by a wooden staircase from the walkway or straight from the tender. Jack's Beach Bar is on the sand.
• Lower BayThe next beach along, for lunch with your toes in the sand over clear turquoise water.

Out of Admiralty Bay, round West Cay and east along the south coast of Bequia, then across open water to Mustique: a private island of about 120 villas that welcomes visiting yachts in Britannia Bay. The island's moorings take yachts up to 60 feet, and larger yachts anchor where the harbourmaster places them.

• Basil's BarThe bar over the water in Britannia Bay, open daily from noon to 10 pm. Wednesday is Jump Up night, with dinner from 6 pm and the band from 9:30.
• AshoreVisitors can usually walk the village, the shoreline south to the salt pond and the salt pond trail. For about three weeks over Christmas and New Year, and two weeks each at Easter and in August, yacht guests keep to that area.
• Macaroni BeachThe island's best-known beach, on the Atlantic side, with waves better suited to surfing than swimming. It lies outside the visitor area, so it is for the weeks when the island is open.

The longest leg so far, and usually a broad reach: south-west past Canouan, then in by the northern entrance with the sun still high for reading the reef. Five uninhabited cays sit inside Horseshoe Reef, in a sand-bottomed lagoon of about 1,400 acres.

• Baradal turtle areaA buoyed area off the cay of Baradal where, in the marine park's words, green and hawksbill turtles can be observed foraging freely. Snorkel in, look, and leave them be.
• Horseshoe ReefThe reef that shelters the lagoon. The park rates its inshore side for snorkelers, with an abundance of fish and coral.
• Petit TabacThe cay outside the reef where the desert island scene in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film was shot. Nobody anchors there now, so it is a tender trip.
• The cays ashoreShort trails on Petit Bateau, Petit Rameau and Jamesby, with iguanas in the scrub and views down the Grenadines.

A slow morning in the cays, then out by the northern entrance and round the top of Mayreau into a half-moon bay behind a strip of sand barely wide enough to keep the Atlantic out. Hurricane Beryl broke through that strip in 2024. It has been repaired, and the beach bars are open again. The bay is small, so the yacht arrives early.

• Salt Whistle BayA curve of white sand with the anchorage on one side and the windward shore a few steps away on the other.
• The hilltopThe road over the hill to the village gives the view east across the Tobago Cays. The old stone church at the top lost much of its structure to the hurricane.
• Saline BayThe larger bay on the south-west of the island, by the ferry jetty. It is where the yacht lies when Salt Whistle Bay is full or rolly.

The long day of the route, and the one that heads back into the wind. It breaks at Canouan for lunch, then carries on north up the lee of the chain, round West Cay and into Admiralty Bay for a last night within an hour of the dock.

• CanouanA narrow, hilly island with a town anchorage in Charlestown Bay and a superyacht marina at Glossy Bay. The lunch stop is whichever side is calm on the day.
• Glossy BaySandy Lane Yacht Club, at the south-west corner of the island. Its beach club, Shenanigans, serves lunch every day and takes outside bookings.
• A last evening in Port ElizabethBack on the Belmont Walkway at sunset, or by tender to Bar One, the floating bar in the bay.

Board at Blue Lagoon around midday. The first leg is an open-water crossing of about an hour, over the Bequia Channel and round the island's north-west point into Admiralty Bay: a huge, well-protected bay with Bequia's only town at its head.

• Port ElizabethBequia's only town. The Belmont Walkway, a shoreline path, runs south from it along the water past the bars and restaurants.
• Princess Margaret BeachA white sand beach on the south shore of the bay, reached by a wooden staircase from the walkway or straight from the tender. Jack's Beach Bar is on the sand.
• Lower BayThe next beach along, for lunch with your toes in the sand over clear turquoise water.

Out of Admiralty Bay, round West Cay and east along the south coast of Bequia, then across open water to Mustique: a private island of about 120 villas that welcomes visiting yachts in Britannia Bay. The island's moorings take yachts up to 60 feet, and larger yachts anchor where the harbourmaster places them.

• Basil's BarThe bar over the water in Britannia Bay, open daily from noon to 10 pm. Wednesday is Jump Up night, with dinner from 6 pm and the band from 9:30.
• AshoreVisitors can usually walk the village, the shoreline south to the salt pond and the salt pond trail. For about three weeks over Christmas and New Year, and two weeks each at Easter and in August, yacht guests keep to that area.
• Macaroni BeachThe island's best-known beach, on the Atlantic side, with waves better suited to surfing than swimming. It lies outside the visitor area, so it is for the weeks when the island is open.

South-west across the longest open stretch between the islands to Canouan, for lunch. Then on round the Glossy Bay peninsula and into the Tobago Cays by the northern entrance, with the sun still high for reading the reef. Five uninhabited cays sit inside Horseshoe Reef, in a sand-bottomed lagoon of about 1,400 acres.

• CanouanA narrow, hilly island with a town anchorage in Charlestown Bay and a superyacht marina at Glossy Bay. The lunch stop is whichever side is calm on the day.
• Baradal turtle areaA buoyed area off the cay of Baradal where, in the marine park's words, green and hawksbill turtles can be observed foraging freely. Snorkel in, look, and leave them be.
• Horseshoe ReefThe reef that shelters the lagoon. The park rates its inshore side for snorkelers, with an abundance of fish and coral.
• Petit TabacThe cay outside the reef where the desert island scene in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film was shot. Nobody anchors there now, so it is a tender trip.

A slow morning in the cays, then out by the northern entrance and round the top of Mayreau into a half-moon bay behind a strip of sand barely wide enough to keep the Atlantic out. Hurricane Beryl broke through that strip in 2024. It has been repaired, and the beach bars are open again. The bay is small, so the yacht arrives early.

• Salt Whistle BayA curve of white sand with the anchorage on one side and the windward shore a few steps away on the other.
• The hilltopThe road over the hill to the village gives the view east across the Tobago Cays. The old stone church at the top lost much of its structure to the hurricane.
• Saline BayThe larger bay on the south-west of the island, by the ferry jetty. It is where the yacht lies when Salt Whistle Bay is full or rolly.

Down the west side of Mayreau to Clifton, where the crew clears the yacht out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The eye of Hurricane Beryl passed over Union Island in 2024 and the town is still rebuilding, but the harbour works and Happy Island is serving again. The night is round the corner in Chatham Bay, the quiet side of the island.

• Happy IslandA bar on an islet built by hand, from 2002, out of discarded conch shells and stone on the reef in Clifton Harbour. Reached only by tender, and back up and running after the hurricane.
• CliftonThe southern port of entry, with kitesurfers working the shallows inside the reef. Mount Taboi, behind the town, is the highest point in the Grenadines at 999 feet.
• Chatham BayA wide bay on the west coast under steep hills, known for its remote beach and its snorkeling.
• Next doorPalm Island, just east of Clifton, is due to reopen as Voaara Grenadines in December 2026. Petit St. Vincent, to the south, is still closed for rebuilding.

Across the Martinique Channel, which is also the border, and down the west coast of Carriacou to Tyrrel Bay, the island's port of entry. The crew clears into Grenada, then the yacht goes back up the coast for an afternoon at Sandy Island and Paradise Beach. Hurricane Beryl came ashore here in July 2024; the island is green again, and open.

• Sandy IslandA strip of sand inside a marine protected area, just off Paradise Beach. The hurricane took most of its trees and much of its sand, and visitors still rate the snorkeling off its east tip.
• Paradise BeachThe long white beach facing Sandy Island. Paradise Beach Club, rebuilt and open, collects guests from the yacht by boat, and visiting crews paint a name board for its wall.
• Tyrrel BayA huge, well-protected bay, popular with cruising yachts, with a mangrove lagoon on its north side to explore by tender.

The one real passage of the route, and an early start. The course bends east toward Ronde Island to stay clear of Kick 'em Jenny, a submarine volcano with a standing exclusion zone, then closes the north-west corner of Grenada and runs down its lee coast. A stop on a mooring at the Molinere sculpture park, then into St. George's for the last night alongside.

• Kick 'em JennyAn active volcano about 200 metres under the sea, five miles north of Grenada. Vessels keep at least 1.5 km from it at all times, and further when it stirs. The captain checks the alert level that morning.
• Molinere Underwater Sculpture ParkJason deCaires Taylor's sculptures, in five to eight metres of water: 75 works when the park opened in 2006, joined in 2023 by the 25 figures of The Coral Carnival. Snorkel them from the tender. A park fee applies.
• St. George'sGrenada's capital, built around the horseshoe of the Carenage, with the long beach of Grand Anse just to the south.