On to Bequia
Ile Jeudi
Bob and Lin Griffiths
Tue 23 Apr 2013 16:47
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13:00.14N 61:14.59W
Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 April 2013
Distance Run 17 nm
I went ashore to take some more photographs of the
film set and, with not much left in the bay to see, we left to sail south to
Bequia.
Most of the islands are in a north-south line and
the wind tends to blow from the east or north east. That means there is
usually a wind shadow on the west side of the islands and clear wind in the gaps
between the islands. In fact the wind usually accelerates as it
passes between the islands. This meant that for the first 7 or 8 miles we
motored because of insufficient wind. Once we cleared the lee of St
Vincent we could turn the engine off and in the passage between St Vincent and
Bequia we had another very good sail. The rain stayed away and we even had
some sun for a while.
As we approached Bequia Lin just noticed under the
sails a dinghy travelling at speed across our bows and told me to quickly 'hang
a left' (nautical term) to avoid a collision. Eventually we could see it
was the local photographer who had been taking pictures and was now moving to a
spot where we could see him. Relieved that we were not about to run a
small boat down we carried on towards Admiralty Bay in Bequia - checking the set
of the sails to make sure they didn't look too bad in any pictures!
We anchored off 'Princess Margaret Beach' in sand
and clear water. As the nickname suggests this was a favourite beach of
Princess Margaret when she used to stay in nearby Mustique. She would be
shocked to see it now. It's still a beautiful beach but it is no longer
remote. We reckon we were last here about 12 years ago on a charter
boat holiday and the number of properties built over the beach and around
Admiralty Bay generally has much increased. It is still a beautiful
outlook though.
I went ashore to clear in through Immigration,
having already cleared Customs in St Vincent yesterday. The process at
both locations was relatively painless and we are now in 'St Vincent and the
Grenadines' - from which you will gather that the Grenadines islands are part of
St Vincent and have nothing to do with Grenada.
In late afternoon we took the dinghy ashore to the
beach and had rum 'sundowners' at the new beach bar. Very nice and exactly
why we have come to the Caribbean. In the evening we went to
'Macs' Lin had a very nice 'mahi mahi' and I had some lobster in a
wrap, the first in many years. Lovely.
The next morning we were approached by the
photographer in his dinghy who presented us with a memory stick of some of the
pictures he took yesterday and one print, already framed, for 'approval' - and a
price list. He said he would be back in an hour to see if we would like to
buy any of the pictures. The framed picture was a clever touch and a good
'hook'. In fact the whole presentation showed a level of
professionalism we have seldom experienced in the Caribbean. Of
course we (really I) fell for the package and bought the lot after
knocking him down a bit.
We then upped anchor and moved across to the north
side of the bay. It is a bit trickier to find a sandy spot to place the
anchor on this side of the bay but it is more sheltered from the northerly
swells. We had lunch and went ashore to discover that the new supermarket
'which should be ready by the time this pilot book is published' wasn't.
In fact it hasn't been started. Hey ho. Then in to 'town' which is
much as we remembered it. We checked out the various provisions, much of
which was very poor and dashed into a cafe to hide from the rain and did some
internet stuff. When it stopped we returned to the boat when it rained a
lot more!
Some of the pictures taken yesterday:-
Thundering along nicely at just over 8
knots, which is a good speed for us. St Vincent in the background.
We still hadn't seen him at this point:-
 Now we had seen him but didn't realise he was a
photographer:-
 The aft deck is dry and protected but the foredeck
is nicely soaked from the spray. Solar panels angled to the
sun:-
 Accelerating in a gust:-
 Bequia in the background:-
 A typical long term cruising yacht - the stern
filled with fenders (no room in the lockers), red fuel cans on forward deck,
white dome for satellite phone antenna and wind vane steering gear on the stern
(not in use):-
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