A Minted Location day guide
Dock & Dine in St Vincent & the Grenadines
In the Grenadines the dock-and-dine question has one answer, and it belongs to a marina.
Sandy Lane Yacht Club has four venues on its own dock at Glossy Bay — Shenanigan's Beach Club & Restaurant, Foxy Jacks, a bakery on the plaza that "operates each and every day", and Scruffy's, described as the crew bar. You are already berthed when you use them, which is the whole mechanism: the moorage transaction is the marina's, and the marina's own reception, fuel dock and pump-out are on the same water. If you want to eat ashore in this chain without a tender ride, that is the option.
Everywhere else, dining works the way it always has here: take a buoy, and go in by tender. The bars along Bequia's Admiralty Bay waterfront, the beach places on Union Island and the restaurants ringing Britannia Bay are all reached from the water rather than from a guest dock. This is the most-sailed cruising ground in the Windwards, and the mechanism for going ashore is a mooring, a fee and a dinghy.
In the Tobago Cays the authority even prices the dinghy side of it: its schedule puts a barbeque ashore at $25.00 for one to ten people and $45.00 for eleven or more, which is the closest thing to a shore-landing tariff anywhere in the chain. On Mustique the fees office is "opposite the Jetty", garbage bins are at the jetty, and holding tanks are not to be emptied into the island's waters.
So the working instruction for the Grenadines is: take a buoy, pay the fee, and use the tender — or berth at Canouan. The chart below runs the chain south to north, from Clifton up through the park and the Cays to Canouan, Mustique, Bequia and the Blue Lagoon entrance, because that is the shape of the cruising ground.
The stops, as their own docks describe them
| Spot | Where | Arriving by boat |
|---|---|---|
| Sandy Lane Yacht Club's dockThe one place in St Vincent & the Grenadines where a dock and a restaurant are the same address. Sandy Lane Yacht Club lists four venues on its own marina — Shenanigan's Beach Club & Restaurant, Foxy Jacks, a bakery on the plaza that "operates each and every day", and Scruffy's, its crew bar. None of them needs separate boat access: the fuel dock, the pump-out and the reception are on the same water. If you want to eat ashore in this chain without a tender ride, this is the option. | Glossy Bay, Canouan | You are already berthed; the moorage transaction is the marina's |
| The Grenadines' beach barsDining across the chain works the way it always has: take a buoy, and go in by tender. Across Admiralty Bay, Britannia Bay, Clifton and the Cays the way ashore is a mooring, a fee and a dinghy rather than a guest dock, and in the most-sailed cruising ground in the Windwards that is simply how it is done. The park authority even prices the shore side of it: a barbeque in the Tobago Cays is $25.00 for one to ten people and $45.00 for eleven or more, the nearest thing to a landing tariff in the chain. On Mustique the fees office is "opposite the Jetty", the garbage bins are at the jetty, and holding tanks may not be emptied into the island's waters. | Bequia, Mustique, Union Island, Mayreau and the Cays | Take a mooring and go in by tender |
Dockage notes are what each restaurant publishes on its own site — space is first-come and dinner-hour rafting is real, so hail ahead. Where a venue states nothing about docking, we say so rather than guess.
Planning more than lunch?
We represent buyers wherever the right boat sits — shortlisting, surveying and sea-trialing on the buyer's side of the table. Tell us the mission and we'll tell you which boat, and which berth, it calls for.