Petit St Vincent
Our writer gets a taste of rum, relaxation and environmentalism on Petit St Vincent
Spirits and sustainability in an island paradise
It took a while to reach our destination. A flight from London to Barbados, followed by a 60-minute island-hopping tin plane jaunt and half-hour boat ride, and my friends and I were greeted at the pier by husband and wife management team Matt and Anie Semark, resplendent with a tray of Piña Coladas. Drink in hand, we were each driven by Mini Moke (a deceptively nippy open-top buggy) to one of 22 private villas. Our collective sighs of relief could have lifted the island out of the sea.
Petit St Vincent, or PSV, is a 115-acre droplet of land and luxury resort at the southernmost point of the Caribbean’s St Vincent and the Grenadines. Its life as a resort has its beginnings in 1962, when US Air Force colleagues Hazen K. Richardson II and Doug Terman bought a yacht to charter. Their first customer promptly decided to buy an island. Richardson and Terman searched for the perfect spot, until PSV appeared on the horizon. After buying the island from a woman living on neighbouring Petite Martinique, Richardson stayed on as manager and eventually became owner in 1985. After his death, PSV was bought by businessmen Phil Stephenson and Robin Paterson in 2010, with the island joining the Small Luxury Hotels of the World portfolio in 2013.
In a time of restriction and worry, somewhere to satisfy your craving for refreshing isolation is hard to come by. Across the Caribbean, governments trying to protect their vital leisure industries introduced ‘bubble’ initiatives, whereby resorts and islands could make a case to be given an official Covid-19 pass to invite guests back to the region. After a series of stringent checks and an impassioned pitch from the owners, PSV was given the green light to reopen for business.
In reality, it wasn’t going to be hard for PSV to attain this bubble status: the way the island is set up is ready-made for any type of isolation. “The initial design and ethos of the island really did help the decision,” agrees Matt. “We are the only resort in the Grenadines that boasts a completely private island experience, with the absence of villages and real estate homes: our guests have the entire 115 acres as a playground and two miles of private beaches.” Add to this a subtle flag system for communicating with staff, and you have an island almost designed to survive a pandemic.
You can see too why the island has a 55 per cent repeat guest rate over the year
– a grain of tranquility floating in the Caribbean would be a hard place to beat for the rich and stressed. PSV’s detox experience does not limit itself to physical isolation, either, with no mobile signal or WiFi anywhere on the island apart from outside the main office and around the bar. Drinking a neat rum at the beach bar on
PSV is an almost indescribably blissful moment: a few measures of St Vincent’s own Captain Bligh XO, or a Martiniquais Clément Cuvée Homère as the sun rolls along and the silhouette of Petite Martinique embeds itself in the mind’s eye. Petit St Vincent is a haven of luxury, peace and social responsibility: the modern-day holy trinity of travelling.
For Matt, the chance to escape the rigours of daily life is the secret to PSV’s charm. “Even before the pandemic the majority of guests came here due to these same criteria. We have an incredible repeat guest rate, and many of these guests I’ll rarely see during their stays, due to their preference for privacy and seclusion.
Our guests generally lead very busy and demanding lives that keep them apart from their loved ones for large amounts of time, so coming here allows them the chance to reconnect with each other.”
It was obvious during my pre-lockdown visit that privacy and chosen isolation are central tenets of PSV’s character. Due to the limited number of villas on the island, you could easily go the entire day without seeing another soul.
I discovered during one such moment of isolated bliss that, apparently, having rum on tap throughout the day isn’t conducive to reasonable decision making. Marni Hill, PSV’s highest point, is a must-visit site offering a breathtaking 360-degree view of the Caribbean. Warning signs at the bottom advise guests to wear sturdy shoes, take a bottle of water and complete the walk in daylight. So, after a day full of hammocks, swimming and drinks orders, a friend and I decided to tackle the summit barefoot, with a Mojito, at dusk. Regret soon turned to wonder as we hobbled to the top, seemingly kings of the island below, until we realised the downward slope would rid us of any misplaced superiority in quick order. The Mojito glasses survived; the soles of our feet didn’t get off so lightly.
But PSV isn’t just a resort for the rich and famous. Proceeds are reinvested in the local community, with a major focus on protecting and improving the health of the Caribbean’s marine life.
The highlight of the island’s conservation efforts is the coral reef regeneration programme. In collaboration with the
Philip Stephenson Foundation and CLEAR Caribbean, pieces of Elkhorn coral are collected from around the island to be installed on a number of tables anchored 10 feet underwater, near former coral outcrops 150ft from the shore. These coral nurseries are proving a sustainable way of restoring the reefs to their former glory, and partnerships have been agreed with other islands in St Vincent and the Grenadines, along with St Lucia, to expand the nursery network.
Matt is passionate about the project’s chances. “I am glad to say that this is something that is already picking up momentum in many countries around the world: with the reefs declining at an alarming rate, we all need to ramp up these types of assisted coral regeneration projects.”
For the clearest view of PSV’s conservation efforts the island’s dive centre is your best bet, founded in 2014 by Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of legendary naval officer, conservationist, marine biologist and co-creator of the AquaLung, Jacques-Yves. According to JeanMichel and his team of dedicated researchers and explorers, “Our mission is to explore our global ocean, inspiring and educating people throughout the world to act responsibly for its protection, documenting the critical connection between humanity and nature, and celebrating the ocean’s vital importance to the survival of all life on our planet.
“PSV’s owner and his general manager were already in the planning stages of opening a dive centre on the island, so after a few talks we all decided it would be fun to work together on the project.”
The island strives to be as sustainable as possible on dry land, too, with an organic chef’s garden and 400 chickens producing the eggs on top of your thoroughly recommended morning Benedict. An indigenous iguana population has been reintroduced to great fanfare and success, an on-island reverse osmosis plant creates clean drinking water, and the accompanying water bottling plant ensures that plastic pollution is kept to a bare minimum. Local farmers are also supported with start-up and improvement donations, ensuring as much quality produce is available locally as possible.
All of this results in a tiny Caribbean island that offers not only an unbeatable sense of peace, but some of the most important projects to protect our oceans.