Bequia

Beautiful Bequia

On Tuesday morning, at 9am, (this seemed to become our normal leaving time!) we upped anchor and headed for Bequia. It was a long, very bumpy sail which took a lot longer than we expected. We arrived in Bequia at around 5:30, tired and battered, bloodied but unbowed as Grandma would say.

Calypso and The Lune

We dropped anchor in Admiralty Bay where Port Elizabeth is Bequia's only town and there is a region called Pretoria on the island.

After a restful night we put the dinghy in the water and headed ashore. We needed to do some washing and provisioning. We found the laundromat and had to wait a bit for the owner to arrive which she eventually did with a baby on her hip. Island time!

The courtyard where the laundry was

Local Dojo - literally in a shack

Easy number plate to remember

Someone's home

The town has a main road with little market stalls near the waters edge with bigger shops on the opposite side of the road. There are a few boutique shops but they are very expensive. We were looking for a present for Laura for her birthday but we weren't really prepared to pay a fortune for a dress.

Main Road

Main road

Pavement on the left, street on other side of the flowerbed

Bayshore Mall was not quite Cavendish

I should have been more prepared for birthdays with presents brought from home, but I honestly thought I would be able to import things via Amazon. We discovered in Granada that you can't just order on Amazon and get it delivered to your nearest marina. You have to have an agent to get anything in from the States. Before we left Grenada we had ordered a Wi-Fi extender which arrived a few days after we left. We had used an agent and although it added a bit to the price, it seemed to be seamless, so we may use them again - read: import new lithium batteries!

Laura enjoying the shopping

When we mentioned that we felt the price of goods were high the shopkeeper said that the government puts huge taxes on anything that is imported, hence the exorbitant price tags. She suggested we buy clothes in St Vincent. 

Supermarket

Fruit and vegetables are sold in stalls and pop-up shops along the road. They all have more or less the same food and the same prices. We found the backstreet stalls were cheaper. The avocados are coming into season and they are huge and not too badly priced.

We spotted some fishermen cleaning their catch and went to see if they had any to sell. We ended up leaving as a tour operator, who was trying to get us to go on an island tour, and the fishermen started having a huge fight. We weren't sure why but it sounded like the tour operator had said something offensive to the fishermen!

Local fishermen

The supermarket, Knights, doesn’t have much in the way of fresh goods but is pretty well stocked for other things. There are at least three Knights supermarkets in the town, each one selling slightly different things. We managed to provision before we left by going into each one and buying some meat in one, eggs in another, and lots of fruit and veggies from the road side stalls. You get the picture!

This is the route back home after shopping in the town on the Belmont Walkway. We left our dinghy at the dinghy dock at Jack's Restaurant. Some of the restaurants and shops along the route were closed for the summer and will reopen after Hurricane Season.

Passing shops and restaurants

Beautiful artwork on a fallen branch

The sea lapping at the stones on the water's edge

Dodging the crabs as they scuttled back to the water

Main thoroughfare 

Up a steep path

View of the bay

Down some steps from a dizzy height

Walked along a cement path

Dinghy dock at Jack's

We decided that it is more expensive here than down in Grenada. We made a mental note to stock up well next time we are down there before heading north again.

Marinas and yacht clubs are a source of fascination and interest to any yachtie, so we walked miles in order to find the Bequia Yacht Club. It is in a beautiful location but sadly was closed. It had been sold by a Canadian to an American. The American was going to use the dock but won't have facilities or a restaurant there anymore.

Bequia Yacht Club

Always good to find Cape Town

The view from the club restaurant

Sailors is a lovely, reasonably priced restaurant run by a singing chef. He doesn't sing while he cooks but sings in the evenings as part of the entertainment. Not sure who cooks while he sings we never went back in the evening, so never found out. His food was very good.

On the way back to the boat we popped into a place called Papa’s, which in the guide book has $$ which is supposed to be reasonably priced but it is very $$$$. Papa showed us around his restaurant even though it was closed. It is beautiful and the menu looked delicious, steak and burgers! As there are three of us, eating out gets pricey, especially when the main meal is 35EC or more, so we generally avoid the expensive restaurants. Sadly the owner of Papa's passed away soon after we left Bequia. His restaurant is closed until further notice.

View from Papa's

On another exploration of the town we found a warehouse called O Kings, that sells drinks in bulk. We went back later and loaded up with beers, sodas and tonics in crates. We can get a refund on the empties next time we restock.

Girls on a mission

We woke the following day to a beautiful morning. For once we could see clear sky without the haze of the Sahara dust. Andrew and I spent the morning cleaning the boat and doing some running repairs. Our hatch cover on the anchor locker broke on the passage here. It was already hanging by a thread and it came off during the crazy passage with the huge bumpy swells that we were banging into. Andrew saw it on the deck and managed to salvage it before it went overboard. I cleaned the inside of the boat and sprayed surfaces with vinegar and water. Apparently this helps to prevent mold. 

We spent a lot of time during the following week swimming at Princess Margaret Beach in the evenings. Happy hour drinks were sourced and we often had people join us in the surf for a swim. We met a lot of Americans who spend their time going up and down the Windward islands, avoiding the storms. One couple, Carol and Tom, live in Orlando, Florida and Laura was very interested to hear that they live so close to the parks that their kids and kids' friends used the park as their playground. She would have loved that!

Local beer

Local Rum

There were a couple of other places we ate at. Mac's Pizza was good although the pizza's were expensive, the burgers were cheaper and good! Jack's Bar had excellent Wi-Fi that we could get on the boat. (Shh don't tell them) and their drinks weren't bad. We didn't eat there.

Cocktails at Jack's after a paddle in the pond

Laura and Andrew at Mac's Pizza

We had a lovely evening on the Lune one night. After supper we played a few rounds of Right, Centre, Left (go back a few episodes for an explanation) and then we introduced Dave and Sandy to Anthony's music game. I'm not going to give any secrets away, suffice it to say that lots of rum was consumed and there was lots of fun and laughter.

Delicious braai and salads

The Lunigans

Lune selfie

Nothing is simple on a boat especially when there is a problem. And when there is a problem, it generally explodes into a massive problem, or not.

It rained the whole day on Tuesday so we spent the day down below pottering around. Andrew decided to make some water. The water maker had started making a funny noise the last time we were making and we had just switched it off hoping it was nothing serious. When Andrew turned it on again there was no pressure going to the water maker. We turned it off and sat chatting through options of what could be wrong. We didn't come up with any bright ideas until the next day. A new day and a clearer head, Andrew remembered that he had changed the filters and hadn't turned the lever back the correct way. So lever back in the correct position and voila, water can be made! Sometimes it is a simple fix!

Vis

Joren and Simone arrived on their Trimaran, Vis. We had a lovely evening with them having drinks at Jack's bar. They are heading back to Grenada to haul out and then they are heading back to The Netherlands to see their kids.

Our favourite rum punch by far was at the bar called Bar One. It is a platform in the bay.

Sip, Float, Relax!

Serious discussions

Dave

Good rum punch!

Love this sign on Bar One wall

Apparently in the high season the cruise liners come into Bequia in their droves. The lower beach is closed off and the locals are not allowed to go there and bother the visitors. We had one big luxury super yacht in the bay. We never saw anyone other than the crew who went ashore with their massive tender and the dog. After a short walk on the cement path he was taken back to the yacht.

Spot the Woolworths logo

It wasn't all eating and drinking ashore, or boat cleaning! We did spend time relaxing and reading our books, or on the internet!

Chill time

There have been a few dodgy incidences at St Vincent recently. A couple of boats have been boarded and the owners severely traumatized and robbed of everything. Even in Bequia we locked up the boat when we are not on board and locked the companionway at night. We might just be overly cautious South Africans, but rather safe than sorry. For this reason we decided not to take our boat over to St Vincent but rather took the ferry.

We spent ten wonderful days in Bequia. The reason for that was because we had booked at Basil's Restaurant in Mustique for Laura's birthday. Read in the next post why we cancel our booking and have a fantastic experience in a beautiful villa instead. But.... before we go to Mustique I will take you to St Vincent on the ferry for an island tour for a day.

P.S. Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of the page. I would love to know that you have visited.

Calypso