CANOUAN
( ST-VINCENT GRENADINES)

In the past the island supported just a few inhabitants who survived by fishing and working meagre smallholdings. Most live in Charlestown, an imposing name for a small village tucked into the flank of the hill overlooking Charlestown Bay. This little island of less than 10 sq km is very steeply intersected by hills and valleys but is almost bare. However, the shore has lovely beaches and a reef complex enclosing the whole windward side. As early as the 1970s this was what generated the first tourist ventures, notably a hotel close to the superb South Glossy Beach and the building of a small airstrip on the W side to get clients there. These modest developments didn’t much change the fairly wild feel of Canouan, nor much improve the standard of living of the inhabitants. But, during the 90s, a foreign company began to invest heavily and everything changed.
Bulldozers and mechanical diggers ground into action, planing down hills a bit here, cutting away the scrub there and enlarging the airstrip. On the Charlestown Bay side the elegant complex of the Tamarind Beach Hotel, with its kitschy neo-Creole architecture, was built along the shore, surrounded by a colourful botanical garden. At Carenage Bay with its wonderful barrier reef, a very upmarket resort with a casino was built, with luxury cottages topping its small hillocks or along the shore of the superb windward coast. To cap it all a landscaped 18-hole golf course (naturally essential), faces the waves rolling in from the ocean. The buildings are constantly being developed and improved, and further projects are either underway or completed, including a small private marina and plans to extend the airstrip runway to the E to accommodate larger aircraft.
Until now the Cinderella of the Grenadines, Canouan now seems set on a roll towards the splendours of luxury tourism. The rich clientele seems to appreciate the upmarket services here, and their frequent visits prove that the island’s promotion of its atmosphere of genteel decorum has paid off; and although for many years the locals did not reap many of the benefits of this heaven-sent wave of tourism, they have recently started to play a bigger part in it.

Pilotage
Coming from the N, the approach to the leeward coast has no particular problems.

Charlestown Bay
Enter the bay on about 150° using as conspicuous leading marks the large village dock in the S of the bay or the aerial on the hill.
Caution The NE part of the bay has a shoal fringed with reef (visible).
The entrance pass is marked by two lit buoys, but a night entry isn’t recommended because the lights are unreliable. In an emergency the red aerolight on Glass Pt is a good mark and visible from well out. The preferred anchorage is in the NE of the bay. Mooring buoys (in principle a fee is levied) are available off the dock of the hotel-restaurant. The anchorage gets rolly with a N swell.
Ashore The luxury buildings of the Tamarind take up a large part of the beach. You can enjoy the bar and restaurant, its neo-colonial architecture and glistening new décor buried in the trees. WiFi available. Thanks to the economic growth the village has replaced some of the simple wooden cottages with their corrugated roofs by new concrete buildings. Even so only basic provisions can be bought in the village’s few shops (grocery and bakery). There’s a gas station W of the ferry dock. In the village or on the hill overlooking it, some small restaurants (a lot simpler than the Tamarind), offer local specialities.

Other moorings of Canouan :