Last week maybe
Chaser 2
Yvonne Chapman
Sat 10 Mar 2007 00:04
Maybe our last week in Bequia, it is
a lovely place, nice people and a popular place for cruising folk. Jon and Kate
have now departed for Martinique and Antigua, so we've had a little more time to
explore the surrounding area ashore.
We tool a cab ride over to the
windward side of the Island the other day, a place called Industry, a small
village, and a scenic drive, if not too comfortable in the back of a pickup
truck. That's what the taxis are here on this Island, a Nissan or Toyota two
seater pickup (like mine) with a bench seat either side in the back, it has a
shade over to keep the sun off and suppose you could say it's air conditioned.
Just outside of Industry, right on
the beach is Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary, run by a Mr King, 'brother' King
they call him. An interesting guy to talk to, a local Bequian man born and
bred. Brother King was a fisherman (now retired at 68) as was his father
before him, he has quite a strong West Indian accent despite being white.
Some years ago he realized the plight
of sea turtles, many being killed for the shell to be polished and sold on to
the tourists and many killed for the meat. Their numbers were decreasing
rapidly, the Hawksbill turtle more than many of the species, although all
are suffering. I guess we all contribute to the depletion of fish stocks, be it
Tuna, Cod, or Turtle. Modern technology of course makes
catching easier, and until a government or treehuggers step in and do
something, it will continue.
Brother King had the fore sight to do
something, Turtles swim ashore, crawl up the beach, dig a hole and lay their
eggs before covering them up with the sand and returning to the sea. 60 days
later they hatch, the young crawl out of the sand and head for the sea, the
vast majority of the young are eaten either by birds on the beach or fish in the
water. Mr King captures these baby turtles and takes them to his sanctuary.
There he keeps them in pens, where he feeds them and changes the water daily. He
keeps them here until they are 4 years old, moving them into larger pens as
they grow. They don't all survive, some attack each other, some die of
natural causes, but the vast majority survive and make it back to the ocean, big
enough to look after themselves. So far Mr King has returned more
than 800 turtles to the sea. He drills two holes in the tail of their
shell, so they can be recognized, we'll keep a lookout when we're snorkeling a
couple of weeks time in Tobago Cays.
I had the 16th anniversary of my 40th
birthday this week, but who's counting, I can't complain about the location to
have it. The kids all rang to wish me a happy birthday and remind us
that we're spending their inheritance.
Rob asked if we had heard the news
from James, we said no, you'll like this one, he said. Apparently while James
for in Valencia, the police, Guardia Civil, CSI you name it raided James house.
It was empty so they broke in, then broke into the garage underneath. It
appears that James unknowingly rented his house to a 'dodgy' person during
the past 6 months. This person who had an alias, has allegedly topped his
friend, ( or I suppose ex-friend) and the police had a tip off that the body
could be buried under the garage floor, because it had recently been concreted.
It was James that concreted the floor
with his mate Pat, James wanted the extra space, so he in filled with all the
rubbish he could find before concreting. Of course much of that rubbish was left
behind from previous tenants, items James didn't want, like old boots, clothes
and a wig amongst other things. So you can imagine the CSI teams faces when they
come across a pair of old boots and a wig, they couldn't get the Kango working
fast enough. Susie was there trying to explain the situation, and
Billy was I'm sure trying not to laugh in the background, as the SWAT
team with their heavy duty machines guns and the CSI gathered everything
together with rubber gloves donned and laid them out on a white sheet, trying to
make a body. Of course they were lacking the vital parts, like bones, so they
gave up and went away. They did put a new lock in the door, but James has to
make a claim through the courts or Guardia to have the floor
reconcreted.
Anyway, back in Bequia, it's a small
Island about 7 miles long, prices are a little high compared other parts, partly
because of the tourists and partly because everything has to be shipped in by
small ferries or freighters. Once a week a small petroleum ship comes in to fill
up the towns supply of diesel and petrol. For us cruising boats that need fuel
or water, we can call on the VHF and have it delivered to the boat by one
of these small home made boat platforms carrying 1000 litres containers, they
will also do your laundry and take your garbage for a small fee. The price
for the diesel is EC$12.75 a gallon, about 3.5 euros. In the street petrol
station its one euro cheaper per gallon. Fortunately we don't yet need
fuel, and the water which is equally expensive we don't need because we make our
own, maybe we should go into business selling our own brand of Peckham Spring.
If you don't fancy taking our dinghy
ashore you can call a water taxi on VHF channel 68, and for a small fee of about
3 euros they pick you up and take you ashore, they are on call all evening for a
return trip. Dem boats and businesses have funny names, Fatman taxis, What's my
name, God give me strength. Makes interesting calling when you call on the radio
'What's my name, what's my name, this is Chaser 2. God give me strength
replying, what's my name is busy! -----
Our VHF makes entertaining listening.
Today we heard a couple of boats talking to each other, it went, 'where are you
this morning? over. I have know idea, came the reply, I know we left where we
were yesterday and spent the night here, over. OK let me know when you find out
and call me back, over, OK I'll ask one of the others, over, ---------- and so
on it went, how these people got there is one thing, how they're gonna get back
interests me.
We were in Kingston again yesterday,
the capital town of St Vincent, where day 'ave de cricket today. The world
cup cricket is very popular here as you can imagine. We have offered a cricket
holiday for the week that England are playing in St Lucia but so far
no takers, it would involve a cruising up and down the islands and back to watch
the 2 one day matches in St Lucia, it works out a little expensive though,
but we do hope to do a 'Share the Sail'experience, sometime this year and next,
just a week or ten days at a time. This would say involve a
couple flying to Dominican Republic and returning from Cuba, or
Trinidad to Venezuela, snorkelling, diving, sailing and drinking the odd rum
punch while watching the sunset over the palm trees, whilst anchored in a bay
with gorgeous white sandy beaches, anyone interested would email us and we make
all the arrangements and meet them at the airport, it would be a beautifull fun
filled holiday, but more on that later.
We're looking at moving on from
Bequia next week, probably spends a couple of days on the island of Mayreau
and the surrounding Tobago Cays, then our adventure really starts with
a few days on Union Island where we will clear out of St Vincent and
the Grenadine Islands, before sailing on to Cariacou, which is a small
Island north of Grenada, where we can clear in through customs, spend a couple
of days sightseeing prior to moving on to Grenada where we'll stay for a while,
all being well.
