Bequia with reggae.

Oriole
Sun 24 Mar 2013 16:47
Admiralty Bay, Bequia, St Vincent and the Grenadines.                                                                    13:00.53N  61:14.312W
 
The winds became light again last week and we waited until Sunday to nip down to Rodney Bay, St Lucia, and then straight on to Bequia on Monday.  However down the bottom end of St Lucia, where we were expecting to find a good sailing breeze, we had to motor until at least five miles clear of the island before the wind filled in.  After that we had 15-20 knots on the beam with the usual wind acceleration as we approached the north end of St Vincent, where the ganja grows copiously on the steep mountain slopes under the auspices of the blind government eye. 
Bequia seemed full of friends as we arrived, with five yachts with whom we are particularly friendly and a couple from Noss Mayo with friends from Plymstock staying ashore.  It has been a mad social scene and our livers and waist lines have not benefitted but we have tried to burn off the worst of the excesses with some vigorous exercise, swimming and walking.  With more friends coming north the problem is not going to go away for a few days yet. 
This week's rant is about the nightly noise in Bequia, where various bars and clubs in turn and sometimes in unison play really loud amplified reggae and other unrecognisable sounds until the not very early hours of the morning.  Even the locals are starting to complain about their disturbed sleep, so hopefully this problem will be sorted before too long.  Bequia, however, is not alone and increasingly, with the availability of  inexpensive amplification systems and the West Indian love of loud music, anchorages up and down the islands are becoming noise blighted.  Fortunately there are some notable exceptions and here the French amazingly come in for some praise and Antigua and no doubt some others are still tastefully quiet!!
 
 
The whale boat in Friendship Bay ready to go.
 
The local whalers, who are allowed to catch four whales each year, caught two last week.  The rules state that this has to be done under sail with hand harpoons and is a really dangerous game.  One of the whalers showed us some photographs of the whale they caught last week sounding alongside the whale boat in a mass of spray, wave and lashing tail.  As he put it, "One can lose one's life at any moment".  Whatever one thinks about whaling, this very small scale hunting is a great tradition for this tiny island.  There are accounts of the harpooner jumping onto the back of the whale to deliver the coup de grace!  The butchering however is a bloody procedure. 
Our SSB radio net which John runs has been very successful this year and we have had daily clear conversations with friends from as far away as the Bahamas and Trinidad.  One boat approaching St Lucia from the Canaries heard the net 900 miles out, but sadly could not make himself heard.  This old technology communication system has given us a lot of fun and has brought together many new friends, with eight to ten boats joining in every day at 0730.