Saint Vincent and the Grenadines from the deck

Seen from a ship coming in from Barbados, Saint Vincent is all mountain. The island rises steeply out of the sea, green to the summit, its ridges cut by deep valleys and its peaks usually in cloud, and at its northern end stands La Soufrière, the volcano that has shaped its history and last erupted in April 2021. To the south, the Grenadines run away towards Grenada in a long chain of small islands, cays and reefs, low and dry by comparison, with white beaches and water in every shade of blue.

Together they make one country, independent from Britain since 1979, and it is a country most visitors see from the water. Its islands are small and its roads are steep, and the sea is what joins them.

Kingstown

The capital, Kingstown, sits on a bay at the south-western corner of Saint Vincent, hemmed in by hills. It is a working town rather than a resort, with a busy market, arcaded streets of old stone and brick warehouses, and the bustle of the ferries that link the main island to the Grenadines. Above it, on a ridge to the north-west, Fort Charlotte looks down on the harbour.

Its quiet treasure is the botanic garden on the edge of town. Founded in 1765, it is the oldest botanic garden in the Western Hemisphere, and it has one particular claim to fame. In January 1793 Captain William Bligh, on his second attempt after the mutiny on the Bounty, brought breadfruit seedlings from the South Pacific to Kingstown, to grow a cheap food for the enslaved people on the plantations. A breadfruit tree in the garden is said to descend from one of those seedlings, and breadfruit is now an everyday food across the island.

Beyond the town, the drive up the leeward coast passes black-sand bays and fishing villages; at Wallilabou Bay, part of the set built for the first Pirates of the Caribbean film still stands by the water.

In April 2021 La Soufrière erupted explosively for the first time in more than forty years. Thousands of people in the north of the island were evacuated ahead of it, and ash fell across much of Saint Vincent and as far away as Barbados. The north, below the volcano, is the island's wildest country, of rainforest, black-sand beaches and rivers, and the Dark View Falls, a pair of waterfalls in the forest of the leeward side, are a favourite walk.

Bequia and the Grenadines

The first of the Grenadines south of Saint Vincent, and the largest of them that belong to it, is Bequia. Its harbour, Admiralty Bay, is a deep, sheltered anchorage, a favourite of yachts in the season. Port Elizabeth, the little town at its head, has a waterfront of cafés and boatyards, and Bequia has a long tradition of boatbuilding: islanders still make detailed models of schooners and whaleboats, and sometimes full-sized ones on the beach.

Further south lie the islands that give the Grenadines their name for luxury, Mustique among them, and the Tobago Cays, a marine park of tiny uninhabited islands inside a horseshoe reef, where turtles graze in the shallows. None of them is a port on these voyages, but they explain why the Grenadines are a sailing ground first and a cruise stop second.

Cruises that go there

Two of these voyages call at Kingstown, and one at Bequia.

Ambassador Cruise Line's fourteen-night Caribbean Explorer - Tropical Isles flies from Manchester and sails from Bridgetown in Barbados in January. Its ports are Kingstown, Castries in Saint Lucia, Oranjestad in Aruba, Willemstad in Curaçao, Kralendijk in Bonaire, Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe, St. John's in Antigua, Road Town in the British Virgin Islands and Philipsburg in Sint Maarten.

Ambassador's fourteen-night Secrets of the Caribbean flies from Heathrow and also sails from Bridgetown in January, calling at Kingstown, Roseau in Dominica, Oranjestad, Willemstad, Pointe a Pitre, Castries, St George's in Grenada and Scarborough in Tobago.

For Bequia, Fred. Olsen's thirty-three-night Caribbean Christmas Island Hopping sails from Southampton in December. Its ports include La Coruña and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, then Castries, Bridgetown, Bequia, Fort-de-France in Martinique, Roseau, Road Town, Philipsburg, Charlestown on Nevis and St. John's.

A day ashore is short, so choose. In Kingstown, the botanic garden and the view from Fort Charlotte fill a morning. In Bequia, the best plan is the simplest: walk round Admiralty Bay, find a beach, and watch the boats come and go.