Union Island is volcanic in origin, with steep mountain ridges. It is 5 km long by 2.5 km wide and we arrived here in Clifton Harbor on June 21, 2011 after leaving Bequia and sailing in 8 –10ft. seas, south to our destination.
We had thought of stopping in Tobago Cays on the way down but the weather, wind and waves were not cooperating on this trip. Now that we are here, it will be an easy sail back this way from Grenada and we’ll be sure to make another trip to see the sites and especially snorkel the Cays.
One of the highlights and reasons we particularly wanted to make a stop here is to visit Janti’s Happy Island. It is a small man made island out of conch/lambi shells. Janti was helping to clean up the town and decided to build himself an island out of used conch/lambi shells – so he did and opened it up to the public as a great bar and bbq place called Happy Island.
The pictures below are, happy island from afar and close up, followed by our taxi driver/boat boy Angelo and happy island owner – Janti, and Ron and Angelo working on cleaning and pounding Lambi (conch).
We arrived knowing that the weather was only going to get worse for us in the next few days – with squalls and winds up to 40knts – pretty gusty. We had made arrangements to stay at a dock at the Anchorage Yacht Club, where dockage is free as long as you eat in their restaurant. That’s easy since the restaurant is reported to be very good!
We anchored for a few hours off Happy Island, and watched the kite surfers fly by us. We were anchored right up against a reef and the winds whipped directly at our bow. Checking the weather again, we decided to head to the safety of a dock a day early and start celebrating Ron’s birthday.
We were met at the dock by Angelo/Des – who is the local expert and water taxi driver extraordinaire! He helped us anchor the boat, brought fresh Conch/Lambi, brought us to Happy Island, enjoyed dinner with us at the Anchorage Y.C. and then brought us to a local dance club in the evening. All of this involved RUM by the way and Ron was happy to sleep in the morning of his birthday and wear off all the rum libations of the night before.
You will see pictures of Happy Island, Angelo(blue Shirt), Janti (owner of Happy Island – green shirt), Capt. Jack Sparrow, and our new friends from Paris – Olivier and Judith, as well as town pictures of union, the Anchorage Yacht Club bar and restaurant, a local goat to add to our animal collection and of course the friendly nurse sharks.
svmollybloom 