Bequia 1 Photos

Swiftwing
Tue 5 Feb 2008 11:24
 
We were going to sail to Blue Lagoon, at the south end of St. Vincent, but the wind came round onto the nose so we bore off and sailed the eight miles across to Admiralty Bay, Bequia. St. Vincent was covered in rain cloud and Bequia had none, another good reason to abandon the trip to Blue Lagoon. Swiftwing is in the middle of the picture.
 
Admiralty Bay fom the south. Again Swiftwing is in the middle of the photo. The lighter greem areas are coral sand. The houses on the opposite bank are part of Port Elizabeth, the main small town. The total population of the island is 6000.
 
  
Closer view of the coral sand bottom.
 
 
We took an island tour in an air conditioned taxi @ £12 an hour.
 
All aboard. There were no roads here until a few years ago. They are very narrow and made of concrete.
 
 
We went to a turtle sanctuary, one of only two in the world, or so we are told. The other being in Cuba. These are Hawkbill turtles which are almost extinct. They are bred in captivity and released from the various islands that have good sandy beaches. They live to be 200 years old and come back to their place of birth after 25 years to lay their first clutch of eggs. They are released into the wild after five years, by then they are big enough to sort out all their enemies, except for man. 
They are fed red flowers as a treat; they certainly seemed to like them.