Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a multi-island nation in the southeastern Caribbean: the main island of Saint Vincent plus a string of smaller islands stretching south toward Grenada, collectively called the Grenadines. The timezone is Atlantic Standard Time, UTC-4, year-round, no daylight saving. The IANA identifier is America/St_Vincent.

Pirates and film locations

The Grenadines, particularly Bequia, Mustique, Canouan, and the Tobago Cays, have been popular with yachters and filmmakers. The Tobago Cays, a protected marine park of small uninhabited islands surrounded by coral reefs, served as a filming location for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006).

This is not entirely incongruous. The Grenadines were, in the 17th and 18th centuries, genuinely frequented by pirates. The Eastern Caribbean’s islands and anchorages provided cover and provisions for vessels operating outside colonial law. The romantic version of this history is what Disney filmed; the actual version involved violence, exploitation, and opportunistic brutality.

La Soufriere

The northern part of Saint Vincent is dominated by La Soufriere, an active stratovolcano that erupted significantly in April 2021, requiring the evacuation of roughly 16,000 people from the northern communities. Ash fell across the island. Ships and aircraft evacuated residents to neighboring islands.

Saint Vincent experienced previous major eruptions in 1902 and 1979. The 1902 eruption killed approximately 1,600 people and occurred the same week as the catastrophic eruption of Mount Pelee on Martinique, which killed roughly 30,000. The double Caribbean volcanic disaster of May 1902 is one of the deadliest in recorded history.

The clock ran through it all at UTC-4.

Garifuna heritage

Saint Vincent has a particular cultural heritage in the Garifuna people, a mixed population descended from indigenous Arawak and Kalinago peoples and enslaved Africans who escaped from shipwrecks or fled to the Vincentian interior. The Garifuna fought British colonialism for decades in what is called the Carib Wars, led by a leader named Chatoyer.

In 1797, after the last major Garifuna resistance was defeated, the British exiled approximately 5,000 Garifuna to Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. Their descendants now form Garifuna communities across Central America and in diaspora communities in the United States. March 14, the anniversary of Chatoyer’s death, is a national hero’s day in Saint Vincent.

For developers

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