St Vincent & The Grenadines

One fine morning we upped anchor and headed for Bequia. With a clean bottom, we were reaching speeds of 8 knots! Flying!! The seas were a bit rough to begin with but calmed as we got closer to land. As we arrived, a squall passed by. Thank goodness it was short lived, and we had got our main down and headsail in before it hit. 

 

The bay was busier than before, which is to be expected. The season has started after all. There was a break-in on a boat, a few days prior to our arrival, so we decided to just be careful whenever we went out and locked our boat. (Update - Bequia became a hotspot of break-ins on boats. Apparently there were two youngsters who were breaking in and have since been caught.)

 

I really like this island. The hills are dotted with houses which makes it look like a jigsaw puzzle. The people are friendly and the boat boys aren’t too bad once they realise you don’t want anything. Or perhaps it is the sight of the Saffa flag, or just the fact that they can see we are cruisers and probably won’t splurge on a mooring ball. A couple of businesses send boats out advertising their wares. One guy comes around every morning with fresh pastries. We didn't indulge this time round.

Love this view

 

We had a lovely walk to the other side of the island, something we didn't do last time we were here. It was a bit of a steep climb to begin with but we persevered and made it round to the other side. We saw Friendship Bay. Jim and Claire went on to walk the loop which entailed bundu bashing through grass and then going down a very steep road. Laura had developed a blister on one heel, so we turned back. I don’t think I would have managed those hills, let alone Laura. The scenery was beautiful and reminded us of the wild coast back in South Africa. There wasn't much traffic and the people we came across were very friendly.

Love the look on the goat's face!

These two children were going to Friendship Bay and we struck up a conversation with them. They talk so fast and in a strange dialect, it was hard to understand what they were saying. They were very cute though.

Marching along, blisters and all

The bus stop

Faye found her spot!

The next few days passed quietly, with a bit of weather watching, rain, wind and sunshine. We discovered that some prices have gone up since we were last here. Beers on the beach are much cheaper than Jacks Beach Bar and Restaurant. At Jacks they add on a tip and tax on the $6 beer, so you end up paying nearly $8 for a beer and the luxury of sitting in a chair. We slum it and sit on the sand and pay $5 a beer and $4 for a bitter lemon. Bargain! The restaurant prices seemed to be more than out of season prices. Oh well, dinner on the boat it is. It was safer to eat on the boat anyway with all the break-ins happening at night when people were ashore.

Kittens at Jack's Beach Bar

A new cruise ship came in most mornings and left under stealth mode in the middle of the night. I spoke to a lovely lady who was selling trinkets from her stall on the main road. She said the cruise ship passengers weren't buying her goods. She was hoping things would improve later in the season.

Lights from the cruise ship

 

We had another leak in our dinghy which hopefully Andrew has fixed. We also developed another leak in our high pressure hose in the water maker. Andrew took it apart again and hopefully it is fixed.

 

My sister, Róisín asked me a good question: why do we have so many things to fix? Well, our boat is quite old and even though we did a lot of replacing of wires, pipes etc., there are things we didn’t replace, one of those being the high pressure hose. Our dinghy is two years old, so should not be giving us hassles. Granted the Caribbean sun is very harsh, but still, it is a dinghy for goodness sake and should be able to withstand the sun. Wear and tear on a boat is expected, so the rip in the foredeck was also kind of expected. We have big gusts of wind, sometimes up to and above 30 knots which puts pressure on the cleats and ropes holding the anchor to the boat.

 

It is a bit like a holiday house at the seaside which needs repairs more often than your house at home. Our house is small and battered often by the sea, rain and wind.

I have been making lots of bread

Laura made delicious banana bread muffins

Faye, Claire, Laura, and I went for another walk up to the fort. It was a lovely walk but very hot. There isn't much left of the actual fort except for a few canons. Legend has it that the canons fired shots across the bay and split the land.

Another hill to climb!

A few days later, Claire, Faye, and I went for a long walk around the other end of the island. There wasn't much to see and the bay looked very polluted. It was nice to get off the boat and get the legs moving!

I have been so inspired by Claire and her baking endeavours, she bakes everything from pizza to bread and focaccia. Pizza is just too expensive to have in a restaurant so we made our own. Sadly cauliflower is not in season, so we had to do a wheat base. It was delicious non the less.

We spent far too much time in Bequia waiting for the weather to be right before making the dash to Martinique. Sailors will know that we are governed by the weather and it's best to wait for that good weather window than trying to sail in either stormy conditions or no wind.

In the next installment, we arrive in beautiful Martinique, where we have heard that wine and cheese is not only plentiful but also affordable!