Clifton Bay Union Island

Looking ashore at Clifton from BV   

Clifton Bay was certainly much a more windy anchorage than we had been used to but, without any land to windward of us, it was a steady wind. That was quite good for us because it meant that our Duogen in wind generator mode could actually be of some benefit. It needs about 15 knots or more of wind to add value and we had that. We also were experiencing [Ed: At last!] much clearer blue skies and so, with the combination of the wind generator and our solar panels, the batteries got up to something like full charge for the first time in a few weeks. We’ll need some chandlery purchases to sort out that charging issue properly given that we expect to nearly always be at anchor in the Caribbean [Ed: and probably for a lot of the way up the eastern seaboard of the USA]. However, right now we are a long way from a good chandlery and so for the time being we shall just hope that the grey cloud days have gone and the dry season, with its blue skies, has properly arrived so that our current solar panels can keep the batteries’ charge up at where they should be.

Reading about going ashore in Clifton we noted that we should head for the dinghy dock. In Clifton this is a little more interesting than normal because instead of the dinghy dock being a rickety wooden pier, there is actually a mini harbour. There is even a little bridge that you have to drive under to get there – all jolly good fun, given that the access ‘tunnel’ is little wider than our dinghy!

Looking out to the anchorage from the dinghy dock    

The town has a definite Caribbean feel to it and it is very pleasant. The buildings are painted in bright colours and the people are friendly and interested in saying hello to new arrivals. We found a visitors’ centre where we got details on regulations and fees for taking a yacht into the Tobago Cays, our next likely anchorage, and then we wandered around getting a feel for what was available in the way of food shops. There were actually far more food shops and bakeries than we had expected which was useful …

… but also, around the central green, there were lots of brightly coloured wooden stalls selling excellent fresh vegetables and fruit. The quality and variety were much better than we had seen on Carriacou and, indeed, in some of the shops in Grenada [Ed: and Barbados] which was worth noting for future travels.

We popped our noses into the small chandlery/hardware/Yamaha outboard engine agent’s store with a view to getting a courtesy ensign that was something larger than postage stamp sized one we had. However, we politely declined their very inflated price. Instead we got a perfectly sized St Vincent flag from the souvenir shop directly below it. Five minutes with a needle and thread back aboard BV and we had a proper nautical hoist and toggle attached to it. That saved us lots of Eastern Caribbean dollars which we promptly blew on luxuries when ‘Doctor G’ arrived alongside us.

‘Doctor G’, the lobster man (L) and the lobster thermidor we cooked   

‘Doctor G’ is one of the many suppliers (‘boat boys’) who look after yachts at anchor. If you don’t want the strain of going ashore yourself, they will run anything you want out to your boat. Whilst we didn’t need ice, bread, fruit or vegetables we did quiz him on what fresh fish he could supply. “We can’t come to the Caribbean and not have some spiny lobster”, Nicky had said at one point and so, since he had some to sell and we had no food in the fridge that desperately needed eating, that was what we ordered. An hour or so later a very happy ‘Doctor G’ returned with our lobster and shot off with the ‘silver’ that had crossed his palm. The lesson learned for us was to check the weight of the lobster before paying because somewhere between Doctor G’s boat and BV, the lobster had been on a very effective diet! (Note to self: Caribbean spiny lobsters don’t have big claws and so are much lighter than European ones). A further ‘chat’ with Doctor G was definitely in order but fortunately, our purchase was quite large enough to make a very good-sized lobster thermidor.  Better, a couple of later discussions with ‘Doctor G’ yielded a second lobster the following morning to balance the books, which meant that dinner that night was also sorted out and the average price was back down at a much more respectable level. But, despite the unpleasantness of the ‘deal’, the lobster thermidor was delicious and the subsequent ‘lobster barbecued with a garlic butter sauce’ was almost as good so, whilst we won’t [Ed/Financial Director: can’t] be living on lobster every day of the week, the 2-day blow-out was excellent!

Clifton Bay, Union Island