Bequia - update
Bequia – update Maybe Bequia should be called Winduia, or maybe Swelluia, possibly both. We are nearing four weeks at anchor in Admiralty Bay and I don’t think either of us has had a proper night’s sleep yet. Why not move on I hear people ask? Our answer is because there’s nowhere else to go that’s any better and we don’t want to be overly early in Trinidad.
Not an untypical day in Bequia Now, don’t get us wrong. The ‘energy’ of Bequia is still pretty good. It’s a nice island to look at (when you can see it through the squalls) and the people here seem gentler than they seem to be on other islands. The Bequians descend primarily from North American and Scottish whalers, so there is very little slave history involved here. The people were also excellent boat builders in their time and many a decent schooner was built on the shores of Bequia. Today very little, if any, boat building remains with the exception of perfectly handcrafted models – some of the finest we’ve ever seen, but sadly well out of budget (and we don’t have any room onboard to display one! – Mate). As the only Grenadine with easy check in and out facilities, Bequia is a port of call for pretty much everyone heading north or south through the island chain. Even now in the off season it is busy, busy to the point of crowded in fact. The whole place seems to have been taken over by charter catamarans, in fact it’s not unusual to wake up one morning look out and see a ‘towering block of flats’ next to you, sometimes dangerously close. We have had to ask two boats to move further away and one other was pretty uncomfortable but not dangerous so we had to accept it.
Looking one way…
Looking the other. Nice… What has happened to boat design? I decided to engage in a five day programme and polish the hull in five stages. This requires a) flat enough water so I can be in the dinghy with my polish and b) no rain/squalls. The five day programme is currently on day 21 – say no more! Added to this, for a very small island, Bequia has more ferries than you would believe. There is a green and yellow one that charges in at speed (in a cloud of spray) and you cannot be in the water when it comes, being alongside in a dinghy for example, you’d strain – possible break – your arm hanging on. Added to this, there is a new blue ferry (the fast ferry) – fast it is – it’s worse than the green one. The mate, logical as she can be, obtained a timetable for these ferries with the intent of working out when we can and can’t do things (between ferries, swell, wind and rain there is very little opportunity to do anything here). I, on the other hand, thought mmm, where are we in the world? Do we think a timetable will be of any benefit? I’ll leave you to decide who got it right… At least the water barge seems to know when the ferries are coming as when the barge is alongside they’d cause serious damage during a ferry ‘surge’ as the two boats roll together (as the problem ferries are catamarans then you get the joy of the mega wash twice! – Mate). Maybe we should work around what the water barge timings are instead. We have, though, managed to do a few nicer things in our time here. We went over to a beach, called Lower Bay, and it was lovely, possibly because one had to make an effort to get there instead of just landing on the local beach, which is packed with charter catamaran people heading for the local beach bar with its ‘so called’ happy hour. Anyway, Lower Bay was lovely, we had it largely to ourselves the mate was very happy too until a lizard fell out of tree and nearly landed in her lunch – obviously it didn’t fancy my corned beef sandwich.
Enjoying Lower Bay beach
Ever seen a view up inside a palm tree? We also visited Bequia’s floating bar, which the mate loved.
What brown legs you have sir :)
The mate in her swing seat – getting her away from the bar proved hard work!
Pierre II (P2 - our faithful dinghy) waiting patiently at the floating bar. Stargazer in the distance (2nd from right) on a non-busy day Yesterday (it is the 4th August today) we had our 11th wedding anniversary; we managed to get ashore and had a nice walk along Bequia’s boardwalk, which is a walkway along the southern shore of Admiralty Bay. The mate found the most expensive cheesecake in the world at 24 EC$ (about £7) but it was very nice even if the shop assistant clearly didn’t want to be working on a Sunday.
On our 11th anniversary
The mate loves whales. Here is our Bequia courtesy flag, just for her! We are now keeping a very close eye on the weather as it is starting to get into prime hurricane season territory. We intend to stay where we are for another week or two and then make Trinidad in three relatively easy hops. The weather models are difficult to predict sometimes and so we’ll make sure we are full of diesel, water and have sufficient food at all time in case we have to ‘up sticks’ asap. There’s no chance of getting off today to do any of that though – we know why by now – the wind is howling and the chop in the harbour is too great. So that all said, we might not update the blog until our arrival in Trinidad – we are due there 25th August, latest… |
