Mustique, in the Grenadines - The Island of the Rich & Famous

Monday, November 28, 2011   Mustique,  in the country of St. Vincent & the Grenadines

Shops on Mustique

Dance Aweigh went on to Bequia and we headed for Mustique, to Britannia Bay.

We came in late afternoon on Monday, never lowered the dingy - just lazy.  Tuesday we explored around and would have left in the afternoon, but decided to stay & check out Basils Bar.

Damn guidebooks again.... Cited as “unique among the Grenadines; privately owned that has developed into holiday homes for the rich and famous....Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch, Princess Margaret, Bill Gates & many more, live here.

Cited as beautiful and unspoiled (will give them THAT!) and exclusive.  Translate that into expensive...

Edge of fishing village, overlooking mooring field

Guidebook quotes required mooring balls at $75EC for three nights for our size boat.  That turned out to be $75 USD...Weird, USD is not the currency here, making us feel somewhat  baited and switched.

We learned that an island tour is $50 USD and lasts about 1/2 hour.   I’m told one cannot see much as the fancy homes are behind walls, etc. so we passed, feeling the value was not there and the price a lot more than other island tours elsewhere.

A few cute shops with not inexpensive resort wear and jewelry are around the water’s edge, taking only about 10 minutes to stroll from the dingy dock through it all.  

The grocery store, billed as 'import' was nearly empty of supplies.

Tossing live conch into the 'pool' to keep them til time to eat.

Our highlight was wandering through the local fishing village as men working, cleaning fish, drying fish on a rock ledge, mending nets and whatever else it is that fishermen do.

The buildings are fairly small, but colorful.  Peeking in, I realized this village is like a domitory - bunk beds in the small building and not much else.  There is no way locals could afford to live on this island, so I suspect the fishermen work the area for some number of days and then go back home to the nearby island of St. Vincent or maybe Canouan or others.

Ah, so many conch!  Why didn't Basil's Restaurant have ANY on the menu...'out, Mon'

Fisherman cleaning his catch

Fish drying in the sun - for what, we don't know.

Huge turtle shell, being used as a sink to wash fish in.

Mending fishing nets...They do know how to sew!

Basil's Bar & Restaurant

The biggest disappointment was Basil’s Bar....This place did NOT live up to the hype nor the BIG ad they’d taken out.

Cited as “Voted in the World’s top 10 bars’ by Newsweek......Huh - wonder what year or century??

The place is tropical, quaint and sits out over the Caribbean Sea, overlooking the anchorage/mooring field.

We ordered special island drinks - both made with lots of limes that turned out to be not so great...not good at all.   Upon questioning the waiter as he tried to get us to order another round, trying to find another lime type drink that might taste better,  we learned that ‘No, Mon, we are out of Limes’.   Excuse me - but we just had basically pure LIME drinks..... ‘Oh, lady, we used LEMON’.   Let me tell you, not the same.

My dinner of tuna tartare (snack portion) tasted as though the fish was either old or had been frozen, then thawed.  Not good, sorta slimy.  Andy had a couple of tiny previously frozed shrimp in his shrimp, conch and fish crepe and no conch.  Remember that pool FULL of live conch just a few paces up the beach from here...Huh..????

The place was DEAD, Pricy and would we would not go back.  And, I'm generally one to love everything about any place I've been,  but somehow, this place doesn't do it for me.    The BBQ and ‘jump up’ advertised for Wednesday nights at Basils is $50 USD for the meal. We had planned to stay for it, but given all of the above, we decided to depart a day early, skipping the  BBQ.

Day Charter Boat coming into the mooring field

We quickly figured out why the required fee was for a 3 night stay.  This is also the WORST place for rolling we’ve ever been in.   Our 2nd night here was as miserable as the first as to no sleep, rocking & rolling badly.   No other boat has stayed more than one night since we’ve been here.   I  suspect they charge for 3 nights minimum to keep up their revenue flow, knowing many will pull out early.  Reviewing the guidebook again, I noticed one comment about the rolling..."when you tire of the rolling, there are a couple of good hotels you can check into.."  Come on!  Tell it like it is, please!!!!

I wonder how many charter folks get seasick just watching the sailboat masts sway left and right wildly.  Watching Finally Fun from shore was scary - she was pitching so badly I feared for our contents!

Mustique

Win some.  Lose some.

Would never come back.

Mustique (mus-teek) means mosquito in French.  We felt stung, big time.