Before I talk about the town, there’s something I forgot to mention in my last post – we’ve now experienced the Caribbean “boat boy” scenario. Many cruisers have reported that some of the island in the south part of the Caribbean (basically starting in St. Lucia) have young men in boats who zoom out to meet you as you head into a bay or harbour. Boat boys offer a variety of services (help with anchoring or mooring, ice, take garbage, sell produce etc) for a price. Mostly the boat boys are polite, helpful and will take no for an answer. When we arrived at Canouan yesterday, we were greeted by a boat boy who tried to get us to take a mooring ball (which we didn’t want to do). He came back a few times asking if we wanted ice or had garbage he could take to shore for us. He was very friendly and was respectful of our no thanks.
Today as we got into the dinghy, our boat boy was back! He told us which dinghy dock to go to and then followed us in! He helped us get tied up and said he would watch over our dinghy while we were on shore. His name was Shireek (not sure of the spelling) and he was probably in his early 20s. It was funny because we didn’t really need a tour guide but Shireek was determined to show us around. First he told us a bit about the ferry dock and then he took us to a little gift shop close by the ferry dock. This actually was a really worthwhile stop.
Back in 2024, Hurricane Beryl ripped through the lower part of the Caribbean, causing major destruction on several islands, including Canouan. They lost 90% of their housing and the island was in rough shape. The woman who owned the gift shop gave us an excellent overview of the hurricane destruction and the subsequent rebuild of the island. She had really good photos and told us all about this one British man who took it upon himself to help restore the island. He brought in supplies and construction workers to help the locals rebuild the communities. Within 14 – 18 months, most of the work was completed!! Today the island still has the look of a post hurricane environment (small trees, lots of waste material around and a few buildings in rough shape) but it also has recovered a great deal.
After that stop we told Shireek that we would like to explore on our own and he went back to look after our dinghy. We continued to the east side of the island and walked back around to the main “downtown” area (a couple of restaurants and a few shops). We picked up a few items and had lunch at the cafe in the ferry terminal. Our new friend Shireek met us at the cafe and walked back to our dinghy with us! He wanted euros (not east Caribbean dollars) so we gave him some money and headed back to the boat. We had a nice calm night yesterday (no rolling but lots of gusty wind) and are looking forward to another good sleeping night. Our friends Sharron and John remained at Bequia so they’re keeping us updated. We probably won’t see them again this sailing season but you never know.
Crimson Kathryn and her crew 