Saturday 17-March: Although we feel we have pretty much seen Mustique now, we decide to have an extra day here, so that we can taste the evening “BBQ & Dance” hosted by Lisa at The View restaurant where we were at last night. So leisurely day it is. It’s actually very nice to have breakfast without any fixed agenda to prepare for the day.
We catch up on communications and calls to family, then go ashore to take a proper view of the little shops, bakery and fish market around the dock area. What we thought was a food store (Mustique Great General Store) turns out to only sell crates of the best wines, and the other shops are boutiques aligned to the general type of guests who would be in one of the houses on the island. Nonetheless, interesting. The fish market is shut, but we watch as about 20 fishermen haul a fishing boat (aka 225HP speed boat) up the beach. And Glen chats with one of the fishermen about what type of lure they use to catch Mahi-Mahi, our favorite fish so far.
Back on Cloudy Bay we are puzzled why the seagulls have suddenly taken a liking to our dinghy. As soon as one landed on it, others followed. No matter how many times we shoo’ed them off, they immediately landed back on it the moment we were in the cockpit! Odd, because the last 2 days we didn’t have this problem. And the problem is not them standing on the dinghy, but the fact that they seem to always do one poop per landing. And seagull shit is not easy stuff to remove! Eventually we give up and have a snack for lunch watching these cheeky birds, then head off on the dinghy to do some snorkeling and sightseeing.
At the south of the island we find a reef that is not so pretty, but does have a multitude of colourful fish. We also see a large barracuda, swimming gently with its toothed mouth open, waiting for an unexpected prey (NB it was a barracuda that ate all Nemo’s brothers, sisters and Mum!). We also see a spotted stingray and a turtle. There is absolutely no one around here and where we anchored the dinghy waves are fiercely breaking over the reef quite close by. So we only snorkel close to the dinghy in case there are any strong currents which could catch us.
We then sped all the way to the north of the island, passed Britannia Bay, where the moorings are, passed by Cotton House beach and up to Mick Jagger’s house, where we loiter for as long as we can to see if we can spot him!! Ha ha, we would make brilliant paparazzi! But no sign of him. We go slowly back to Britannia Bay, taking in each of the incredible houses as we pass. One is clearly in Indian TajMahal style with exquisite gardens. Others are colonial style, with amazing patios.
Then it’s back to Cloudy Bay for showers and a cuppa-tea under the full sun-shade which makes things wonderfully cool. At 7pm we are hyped up about the BBQ and dance at The View, the local restaurant, so we head ashore and climb the long climb up to the venue. Hmmm we should have guessed …. there is hardly anyone there and the food is expensive for what is basically a home-made BBQ; certainly nothing special. By 8:30pm there are only locals left there and the music becomes very local and loud. The DJs here have an annoying habit of grabbing the mic 2-3 times per song and shouting some rubbish that no one understands. Wish they’d just shut up and play the music! So we gracefully pay our bill and retire back to Cloudy Bay. We vow that we won’t waste any more money eating or drinking out unless the food is good and atmosphere fun. Because, we both agree, the best food and rum punch is always served generously from the galley of Cloudy Bay 🙂