Clifton Harbour, Union Island

Wednesday started early with a tender over to one of the islets at Tobago Cays where we were anchored so we could walk up the small hill to see the view from the top. We took Indefatigable our tender over to the white sand beach and pulled her up before heading off up the path. Grass to my head height (no comments please on the altitude of that thanks) surrounded us as we made our way up the path, with bursts of colour provided by the local wild flowers and many butterflies. We were soon up to the edge of the summit, but the thick and rather spiky vegetation persuaded me not to go much further, Kevin managed to get to the top but said that you couldn’t really see out of the thick growth there. We therefore contented ourselves with the photo’s posted in yesterday’s blog and went back down to the beach to the picnic area there to enjoy the view before heading back to the boat for breakfast.

We both went for a snorkel to say a last goodbye to the turtles for now before we dropped the mooring to head back to Union Island. We had decided it was time to head to Grenada to finalise arrangements for the wedding and do a few boat jobs, so we needed to check out of customs / immigration for St. Vincent & The Grenadines, which I did without too much trouble despite the fact we had apparently only cleared customs and not immigration at Wallalibou on entry, not that anyone explained that at the time.

We completed a few jobs and then decided complete our last task of Union Island which was to visit Janti’s Happy Island recommended to us by Tim we met in the Cape Verdes. Six years ago, Janti an enterprising local decided he had a solution to the growing pile of conch shells left by the local fishermen. He decided to use them to build a bar on the reef at the entrance to Clifton Harbour. It started as little more that a mound on which a very informal rum bar was started and is now a full building with I understand restaurant facilities and a lobster pool! We took our tender over and did the same as everyone else entering that evening, caught the reef which shallows very rapidly just infront. However, we were soon tied up and Janti came over and showed us photos of the progress of the build over the years he had been here. He is a really nice guy and wished us well on our wedding, he too is planning to tie the knot this year, his fiancé works alongside him behind the bar.







We had a couple of beers, as more and more dingies arrived over the evening. As it grew dark the candles came out and everyone moved on to rum punches. Janti was kind enough to provide ours on the house to wish us well for our big day. A really great place with a great atmosphere and one of the busiest bars we have been to in the Caribbean so far.