Thursday March 20^st ,  2014

Bequia, St Vincent and the Grenadines  ,   13.00.5N 61 14.4W

Today's Blog by David (Time zone: UTC – 4.0)

Are we nearly there yet?

Two years and three months since we left St Lucia we are tantalisingly close to crossing our wake off Castries, St Lucia. Ironically,  the last 100 miles have been the slowest – we made good only 7 miles today, after a lie in and a couple of snorkelling stops.

We are now at anchor in Bequia - a quaint  island just south of St Vincent.  

62 Miles to go.  The champagne is on ice.

Security

Idyllic anchorage though this is, it is not without its disadvantages. For example, in planning our journey here, Noonsite, (which is the Wikipedia of Cruising) offers the following advice:

“Reports to Noonsite of theft from yachts at anchor in this part of the Caribbean (in some cases armed robbery) have increased over the last 2 years. Be sure to lock all hatches when leaving the boat unattended and in particular during the night whilst sleeping on board. [Their emphasis]  Bequia Coastguard are now patrolling at night, however their resources are limited and cruisers need to remain vigilant. Noonsite continues to receive reports of burglary/attempted break-in, from yachts in Bequia”

So we will sleep well tonight!

The Grenadines

Curiously, ‘the Grenadines’ refers to all of the islands south of St Vincent excluding those that form part of Grenada itself.  So in the last few days we have been to  Union Island, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Canouan, Mustique and Petit Nevis and now Bequia where we will clear out of this country and head for St Lucia (missing out St Vincent itself – Noonsite’s advice is even more colourful on St V, declaring more than one anchorage there  a ‘’no-go zone’ for cruisers – and anyway I had a bad experience there 20 years ago! )

Tobago Cays

These were much better than  remember them. We were more adventurous so went to the outer reefs, The Government have declared it a Nature Reserve and drawn attention to the wildlife – particularly turtles -  to which we were oblivious last time.   The Boat Boys (the ubiquitous guys in motor boats who come to ’help’ yotties all over the Windward Islands) are also more considerate and will bring fish, lobsters, bread etc. to your boat and even organise a barbeque ashore for you (for a price, of course).

The water was very clear

And the Turtles very obliging

From Tobago Cays to Canouan, where we had an excellent meal in the Tamarind Hotel (only to run into a couple from my home village!). It was a single overnight passage stop en route to Mustique.

Mustique

Mustique is everything it is cracked up to be – beautiful and reassuringly expensive, starting with a mooring fee big enough to deter the fainthearted.  But it is picturesque:

The Fish Market

The Bakery and the Boutique

One cannot go to Mustique without a visit to Basil’s Bar.  Basil specialised in live music – in the olden days it was devoted to Jazz, but many musical celebrities of all genres (from Jagger to Previn)  stayed on the island and would pitch up for an impromptu performance.   Wednesday might was the “Jump Up” – an all you can eat Barbeque (which was excellent) and the band (these days all electric and BOOM boxes) kept playing until the last person left; quite when that was we did not stay around to find out!

On to Bequia today via Petit Nevis for a snorkelling stop where we found: 

A Moray Eel (unusual in snorkelling – it’s the wavy spotted thing in the top of the photo) – and

A Box Fish (so called because it is box shaped! – also an  unusual snorkelling find)