Excerpt from Patricia Schultz's Bestseller Book: Natural Glamour, Not Commercial Clamor SAILING THE GRENADINES Lesser Antilles

Revered by yachtsmen and sailor wannabes, the thirty-two islands and hundreds of dotlike cays that form the archipelago of the Grenadines are one of the most beautiful yachting destinations in the world. Strung like a necklace of gems across 40 miles of pristine waters between St. Vincent and Grenada, they're blessed with powdery white-sand beaches and coral reefs that are among the most amazing outside the Pacific. Many islands are uninhabited and accessible only by boat. Some have tiny populations, mostly descended from African slaves (such as privately owned Mayreau, with 180 residents), while others, like Bequia, are larger and are quietly awakening to tourism, offering a limited sampling of inns and a barefoot, small-town ambience.
Daily schooners, ferries, and passenger-carrying mail boats sail south from St. Vincent (locally known as "the mainland"), servicing the half-dozen populated Grenadines. But the ideal way to go, for those in search of a different, picnic-perfect, beach-ringed isle day, is to charter a crewed yacht…