Thursday, 1 March: 1st day of spring in Romania. Happy Martisor day everyone. Just where did February go to? Isn’t time supposed to slow down in retirement?
We had a bit of a bouncy night anchored next to Palm Island. But it was a pleasure going out into the bright moonlight to check the anchor every now and then. Oana still has 5GB left on her SIM that will run out at lunch time today, so we quickly edit the drone video from Union Island and upload it.
Then we set off ashore again for a take-2 of drone above Palm Island. This time we are greeted by security who told us we could only walk on the beach, not in the resort. 100m down the beach we “accidentally” end up walking into the resort, where we can take-off with the drone. The drone flight goes well. We are very quick to get it ready, then repack again. Glad we bought all those made-to-measure packing boxes from eBay-China, last November.
We wonder back through the resort after chatting to some of the guests, then once back on Cloudy Bay we are quick to download and view the footage. And again we are super impressed with the results. Watch this space for another video clip.
Oana lifts the anchor and we depart Palm Island and head towards Petit Martinique, the last of the Grenadian Grenadines to visit. The pilot tells us to head between 2 reefs, with the one on the left having a palm clad beach umbrella on it. Pfff, we say, surely that will be long blown away since this pilot was written. But as we approach, to our surprise there it is, just as described, sitting alone on a small sand bank that is only about 50cm above the water.
As we approach Petit Martinique the water goes from blue to brown and we sense that, like it’s neighbour Carriacou, this will be a very local island. We anchor and briefly go ashore, and in total contrast to Palm Island this one is very undeveloped, feeling like you are stepping back in time. After a short walk we get back to Cloudy Bay and move the 1 mile over to PSV island ( Petit St.Vincent ) and anchor in just 3m of clear blue water. This is more like it!
Glen BBQs the red-snapper that we bought yesterday and we have lunch with a view over a coral sand beach. After a wonderful sunset we go ashore to explore the resort. The main restaurant is very nicely placed on the hillside overlooking the bay. The candlelit tables out in the bright full moon make a perfect romantic setting. But we don’t do romantic, especially at US$130 each for the set dinner menu! So we head to the beach bar, known as Goaty’s, for a drink and nibble. We try conch fritters – this is the first time we have had this very Caribbean delicacy. But the bar is very quiet, so we head back to Cloudy Bay for our own version of rum punch… which Oana seems to be getting better and better at making each evening :).
Just before bedtime we check the decks and find Cloudy Bay oddly positioned. The wind is blowing opposite to the current, so the boat ends up at right angles to both. Well, the pilot does mention that boats can pirouette in this anchorage due to the current, and that’s what appears to be happening. While we are checking this out, we declare this is the brightest full moon we have ever seen, as it lights up the shallow turquoise water which we are anchored in. Amazing. Let’s see if the GoPro manages to capture it.