Bequia

At 7 square miles, Bequia (pronounced beck-way) is the largest of a string of islands referred to as the Grenadines – and along with the island of St Vincent – makes up the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines. The pace is slow and friendly, the water is warm, clear and turquoise, the hills are lush with vegetation, palm trees sway in the breeze, the beaches beckon and boats of every size bob in the harbour. The sound of the conch horn on shore signals the arrival of fresh fish and the town is littered with small shops and markets offering everything from colourful batiks, handmade model boats and jewelry made from shells, coconuts and whalebone to every kind of tropical fruit and vegetable imaginable. Bequia is the quintessential Caribbean island. It is the brochure come to life.

We were heading straight from St Martin to Grenada seeking refuge in the more southern latitudes from the approaching hurricane season and skipping all the islands in between – at least for now. We’d left St Martin late in the afternoon on Thursday June 6^th and had a good passage.

We made good progress for the first couple of days. Doug spotted some whales in the distance one day and the next day we spent about 2 hours surrounded by a pod of dolphins that must have consisted of close to a hundred. I took a video but it didn’t even come close to doing them justice. They swam just under the surface of the water in formation leaping out when waves crested, racing against the boat and each other.

The fourth day was squally. We spent the better part of the afternoon taking sail in and putting it out again as we moved between squalls. Each squall pushed us back north and between each one we’d regain our ground south so that by the end of the afternoon we’d maybe managed to travel about a mile in the right direction. The last of the line of squalls was a doozie. We saw it coming and it was big so we decided to heave to. Good job we did as the wind topped out at 40 knots. The boat sat quite comfortably while the rain came sideways. If you stuck your head out around the dodger to try to see you couldn’t keep your eyes open. The rain pelted your skin like sleet.

On Monday morning as we were just coming out of the shadow of St Vincent, Doug heard s/v Vivace calling another boat on the VHF. We hadn’t seen Dave and Leslie since they left Puerto Rico, so Doug hailed them on the radio and in short order they convinced us to change course and join them in Bequia.

Since arriving in Bequia we have become social butterflies. Dave and Leslie invited us to the ‘sundowner’ on the beach which introduced us to a new ‘gang’ of cruisers...and as the days roll by and boats come and go the ‘circle’ of friends sometimes grows and sometimes shrinks but rarely does it stay the same for long.

We were ‘folded’ into a group of 10 (so 12 including us) which then shrunk to 8, then 6, then 4...then 6 and then 4 again, but a different 4...and now a new batch of boats has arrived bringing with it cruisers we haven’t seen since Fajardo and George Town...a subset of whom are also friend of the other last remaining couple in the previous group...and along with the ‘long lost’ friends comes their circle of friends and again the group balloons. This nebulous social circle has lead to our inclusion in numerous sundowners – on the beach or in one cockpit or another (including our own). We’ve been out for dinners, lunches, drinks and group hikes. This is aside from our own exploration of the island, a walk to the turtle sanctuary and the old sugar plantation and some snorkelling.

In between social events and exploration we have been experimenting with local fruits and vegetables...passion fruit, prickly pear (which makes a wonderful drink they call ‘soursop’), plum rose (a fruit that tastes like roses smell), coconut, plantains and breadfruit – both roasted and fresh.

So far the only boat job we’ve managed to complete is the job of making the list of boat jobs which - of course – is a list that you can never actually complete.

I remember someone asking me what I’d do to keep myself busy if I retired so young. Wouldn’t I get bored without a job? Well if this is what it’s like to be bored I hope I die of boredom...a very long time from now