Happy New Year

Karma Daze
Chris and Penny Manley
Tue 31 Dec 2013 14:12
Back in Bequia for the new year celebrations after spending three days mixing with the rich and famous on Mustique.  Well we would have been but visiting yachts’ crew are restricted to Britannia bay and the village and are not allowed to go and gawp at the rich visitors.
 
We had a reasonable sail across to Mustique and a better one back.  The wind was gusting to 25 knots and the open sea between Bequia and Mustique a bit lumpy but it is only a short distance so not too bad.
 
The anchorage in Britannia bay has about 30 buoys provided by the company that owns the island.  The charge is 200 EC$ (about £50) for one night but then you can stay for 2 more consecutive nights included in this price.  We stayed 3 nights the plan being to go to a posh restaurant for Penny’s birthday.  We had wanted to go “The Cotton House” but they were fully booked, so we went to “The Firefly” instead.  The restaurant is at the top of a hill over looking the bay, but they will come and fetch guests from the waterside.  We had a very nice if expensive meal, and a reasonable intake of alcohol.  This may explain why we slept better this third night.  The anchorage is exposed to northerly swells which can make it very rolly.  We had been woken on each of the 2 previous nights at about 03.00 with the boat rocking wildly from side to side.  This lasted for about 2 hours and then calmed down to a more gentle rock.  A similar thing happened mid-afternoon.  Many boats only stayed only one night as wherever boats anchored or picked up buoys in the bay was subject to the swell.
 
So it is nice to be back in Bequia just bobbing around and not having to stow everything away.  We are waiting for “Daffodil” to bring us some water,  they have already collected our laundry.  Daffodil Marine Services is a local company that collects and delivers laundry to and from your boat, and can supply diesel and water.  They seem to be doing quite a trade with all the boats that are in here for the New Year.
 
So Happy and Prosperous New Year to you all.  Next blog in 2014.