Saturday 24th March - Bewitching Bequia
12:00.59N 61:14.57W
24th March 2012 – Bequia Tuesday 20th March was another day of wind from the ENE as we
set out northwards for Bequia. Once
we’d got Arnamentia pointing prettily, Bob got out the fishing rod. Before he’d even finished adjusting it,
there was bite – a small barracuda, a couple of feet long – so that was supper
sorted! A couple of hours later saw
us making landfall in
One of the diving centres, Dive Bequia, has an excellent reputation, so Carol signed up for a couple of dives with them – her first since getting her Open Water qualification. Polly (from Cowes!) was a confidence inspiring dive master/instructor who helped Carol begin to sort out her buoyancy problems – she suggested losing some weight – the lead kind not the other – and on her second dive she felt far less like a yo-yo and so used less air and could stay down longer. Whilst Carol was enjoying the delights of the coral reefs just outside
Princess Margaret Beach, Bequia – now known as Tony Gibbons beach – who he? An interesting aside to this tale. The first thing Sofie had to do once she’d made contact with Jon & Bob was to ferry them about half a mile round from the restaurant to where Arnamentia’s dinghy had been parked at one of the dinghy docks. They got into this very dilapidated looking RIB which had a reasonable amount of water sloshing around in its bottom, bit of slime around the place – you get the picture. But, it set off, three up, going like a dingbat. OK, it had a hard bottom but how, we enquired, was it possible that this thing went so much faster than ours given that it was powered by a 6 HP outboard engine – ours by a 5HP engine? With a wry smile Sofie explained that the apparent condition of the dinghy was all artifice anyway. Moreover, the engine was actually a 9 HP engine – they’d merely turned the decal upside-down to make the whole package as unattractive to thieves as possible. They ain’t stupid, these guys. And, as for being resourceful . . . Again we bumped into Jack and Jo Brinckerhoff and they invited us for sundowners aboard their trawler style motor vessel. Oh, steady on, chaps. What is this? A walk in engine room with a work bench and absolutely everything easily accessible? The engine, the auxiliary generator, the watermaker, the fuzes, batteries, filters (all of them), the whole shebang. Aaargh! Just don’t seem fair somehow! Of course, the rest of the boat was absolutely immaculate. And, the stowage! And, of course, none of that available is taken up with bulky stuff like sails and rope and blocks and all that. But, y’ cain’t go further than your diesel tanks will take you. So . . . Come the morning of Saturday 24th March it was time to be gone
again. This time we were bound for
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