After a number of years of not visiting the Caribbean I made landfall in Grenada recently. It is still reeling from Hurricane Ivan, obvious from the blue tarps hung like tapestries from the many homes that are roofless. My mission was to get to Carriacou and join Illusions, an Island Packet 29 previously owned by an old boating buddy who died on board last August. His wife Debbie needed to ‘go sailing’ with crew, plus some singlehanding tuition and encouragement.

Waiting with a crowd for the high-speed ferry Osprey, I meet Mary, off to Carriacou also, to take freelance pictures of the launch of one of their famous wooden sailing work boats. Osprey is in for repair and a much slower temporary ferry manages to get us there in record slow time against strong head winds and large swells. However the destination is worth the journey – Carriacou is still the pristine cruising ground she was. Not inundated with the accoutrements of modern tourist ‘necessities’, the island is for islanders and cruisers. Getting from Hillsborough to Tyrell Bay is a short bus ride, costing around US $0.75, in a packed van. The half-moon bay is just as it ever was, but for a small eyesore. An investment group is ‘in process’ of building a large marina and condos, though most think it will not be completed.

Soon after arrival we leave aboard Illusions for Saline Island, at the southern end of Carriacou. It’s a little nook and not in the cruising guides – a couple of tight turns between a few high rocks, around the reef and you’re alone on a private, uninhabited, as good as it gets, island. The beach, snorkelling and holding are the best.

A few days there to unwind, and then around the north end of Carriacou to Petit Saint Vincent and Petit Martinique, which share a harbour but not much else. PSV is private, so bring money to visit, or go to slow-moving PM and poke around, you may find something unusual. Its small population exists on fishing and smuggling. Needless to say, what you may find in the few small stores is ‘different’. As always, caveat emptor.

As the weeks go by we return to Windward on Carriacou for the launching of the new boat. Black sand, a loud, wonderful local band, food and drink for all, and pulling ropes to get this 40-footer wet. It takes what I later find out is a short time to launch such a boat – three hours – as some, they say, take days because of tides and possibly too much rum. It’s the island and its people at their best. Love and community bring this new baby – pretty as any yacht, sans rigging, to be installed in Martinique later – into her world the way it has been for centuries. Jimmy Buffet says that when tourism comes, the people become slaves. Let’s hope for the sake of the locals, and the cruisers who wander in each day (US $2.00 for barbecued chicken and a bottle of rum), that these people stay free.