When only a beach bar will do

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
When the kids were little, my 17-foot Dauntless whaler pulled inflatable tubes and hosted fishing trips. Years later, its purpose is more about the dock-and-dine options in San Diego. A bit indulgent, but there’s nothing quite like restaurant patrons watching you walk up from a boat.

Call it the boating lifestyle, and good training for that Caribbean bareboat vacation when only a beach bar will do. In this report by David Lyman in Caribbean compass, he provides his favorites in the Lesser Antilles:

We all have a favorite beach-bound bar, where we pull up the dinghy, hop out, and walk a few steps to mingle with people we know and who know us. It’s reminiscent of that Boston pub, Cheers, where everyone knows your name. You feel comfortable here; we are among friends, even if the place is full of strangers. At least the bartender will know your name, and if not, he’ll at least know what you’ll have.

Almost every island in the Eastern Caribbean has at least one of these beach bars, some no more than a knocked-together shack — the less pretentious, the better. We are sailors, not tourists. We live, if but for a few weeks, in one anchorage before sailing on to the next island to find a similar beach bar.