Roddy and Maggie's Day Out (31 December 2010)

We had been looking at Mustique every day and hearing the bling rattling from our terrace in the villa, so decided today was the day to find out what all the excitement was about. Rather than take a mundane ferry (no way to arrive n Mustique sweetie…..) we take the Friendship Rose (http://www.friendshiprose.com/), an old Caribbean schooner built here in Friendship Bay. Gill was expecting (check out the website) a flash modern boat that looked like an old one, but sadly got just the old one…. But that’s not fair, it was a classic wooden schooner with billowing canvas sails. Alvin, our beck and call boy had collected us and dropped us off at the dockside. Gill had a real battle with her courage, could she bear to get onnthe thing bor should she wimp out? Luckily common sense prevailed and she tried to concentrate on the fact that these little things took tea and spices distances that far outweighed the leisurely two hour crossing to the millionaire island of Mustique. So we board the tender and clamber up the wooden ladder and on to be greeted by breakfast of freshly cooked croissant, orange juice and coffee. I bet the “king’s shilling” seamen never got that! But the breakfast was a lot fresher than the crew, ancient seafarers, but they did a good job, a young guy who couldn’t speak but worked the hardest of the lot and a girl who sat with her head covered in a towel seasick the whole way… The few other people on board were a mix of a couple of Brits and some Americans, one of whom was the skinniest person we have ever seen – taking size zero to a whole new level. Her body looked totally impossible, bones and skin, but she seemed very proud of it, flaunting away in her bikini....
And off we go. We start quite nicely (and you need to bear in mind, Gill is writing this one, not Ant….) We sail past the “Moonhole”, a weird area that was built some years ago from the rock as a resort – you can still stay there apparently, but no water, no electricity….
Then we turn the corner and the airstrip appears. So far so good, a little choppy but not too bad. And then we start to cross the open ocean bit on a port tack (Ant’s input here….) and the walls of water appear and here's the video to prove it  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUzXNRGazm0 .  Ant is happily looking out saying how nice the colours of the waves and the ocean are, Gill is hanging on for dear life thinking why the hell did she not wimp out at the dock…. Eyes tightly closed she just hopes to get through in one piece. Aeons later, (actually about 30 minutes), the waters start to calm down as we enter the leeward side of Mustique. Suddenly everything looks better, the sea is turquoise again and Basil’s Bar appears in the distance. Thank God, rum punches at last. So we moor in the sea admiring the FOF Yachts mainly from the UK – these hedge funders again, sleek, slick big yachts, bobbing about awaiting their owners’ pleasure.

Much needed champagne after a choppy crossing to Mustique

And then a very pleasant surprise, before we take the tender to get off to go ashore, we are presented with champagne and cheese and biscuits.. lovely. Set us up for what was to come. We have three hours or so to check out Mustique. First impressions aren’t good. It’s so manicured it’s like the Stepford Wives meets the Truman Show. A cutesy village of a couple of tiny and very expensive shops. A mooring office with a notice telling you it’s $500 a night to moor your yacht in the sea and a traffic jam of golf buggies. No one walks here – except us. We set out to see the Cotton House, the iconic Mustique hotel, which our toothless Friendship Rose captain had indicated was “just up the hill”.  Red faced with the heat we struggle on until some local guy in a buggy took pity on us and offered us a lift. We gratefully clamber up into the back and are taken to the hotel. It was weird, beautiful but felt like we were The Grove in Hertfordshire on a sunny July day. Real grass, mown in stripes…. We go to the bar which we think was the original hose, beautiful with polished wooden floors and sit on the verandah. In for a penny we thought and order two refined mojito’s, basically a mojito topped up with champagne. $55, yes $55 US dollars later, we paid the bill……

enjoying our $55US drinks at the Cotton House

But they we nice and this was Mustique after all with the history of Princess Margaret, Roddy Lewellyn and Lord Glenconnner (whom Gill met last time she was in St Lucia ) etc And of course (and this is Gill), they do a lovely loo at The Cotton House and that’s a real benefit when travelling. We were channeling PM all the time and Gill was very careful about the hot water in said loo. We were also channeling Wills and Kate who have visited here….. Just call us Lady Gill and Lord Ant…..

A pirate in the Caribbean

Getting over the shock of our drinks bill, we decide to go for it anyway and call a taxi to take us back to the dock to the world famous Basil’s Bar a great little bar perched over the sea in the tiny village. Rum punch was good…

Ant in the surf at Mustique with Basil's Bar in the background

And of course Ant had to stop at the on little boutique for a couple of purchases on the way, but he has been starved of shops.


So back to the Friendship Rose for lunch - and wine. Ant then went off for a while for a snorkel. We had been to Mustique, and glad that we had, but were strangely disappointed in what it offered. Now we like a posh place with the best of ‘em, but pretty as it was, it seemed unreal. Posh but unreal.