It's a Small World - Bequia, the Entryway to the Grenadines

Bequia is part of the Grenadines, a chain of small islands that are part of St Vincent.  Lying just 9 miles to the south of St Vincent, Bequia is the largest of the Grenadine Islands, and it means "island of the clouds".   It is believe that the famous pirate, Blackbeard (Edward Teach) had his base in Bequia, so Pirate was particularly excited about her visit here. 

With light winds, we sailed from Young's Cut in St. Vincent arriving an hour or so later in Admiralty Bay, a very large harbour in Bequia.  We found the perfect spot to anchor and set ashore to check out the  town of Port Elizabeth.

Port Elizabeth is a picturesque place with very friendly people.  There are local people selling their wares all along the waterfront - baskets, woodwork and lots of fresh vegetables.  We picked up the St Vincent courtesy flag at the local chandlery, some EC (Eastern Caribbean dollars) from the bank machine and then headed along the boardwalk to Mac's for pizza.  Like most places here, Pirate was very welcome to join us.

As usual, Pirate attracts a lot of attention as we are walking along.  One couple came up to pet her and said they were missing their golden.  Unbelievably, they have a cottage in Muskoka, and their golden is also 5 years old, from Ambercroft Kennels where we got Pirate.  

While at the chandlery, we met Ken and Jane, a couple from Ontario that are sailing on their catamaran which they keep in Bequia.  We met them the first time at the Salty Dawg rally in Dominica, so it was fun to see them again in their 'home base'.  We organized to meet them at Jack's for cocktails at sunset and realized quickly that it is indeed a very small world.  Jane knows our friends, Vicki and Keith, from Cognashene, and remarkably, also my neighbours, the Rivers, from Shelburne when I was growing up.  

Bequia has a heritage of boat building and whaling that goes back more than 200 years, so sailing is very much a part of local tradition.  This Bequia dinghy was flying past us in the mooring field.  It is a double-ended wooden sailboat handcrafted on the island.  

Bequia is very much oriented around servicing the local yachting community.  If you call Daffodils on 67 you can get someone to deliver diesel, gas, water or ice to your boat.  And you can drop off your laundry too, for it to be completed the next day.  What a novelty.  Knowing that we were heading to more remote islands, we decided to fill up on diesel while we had the opportunity.  This is the gas station boat boat pulling away after our delivery. 

Roger took the opportunity to go wreck diving, while I went to Maria's Cafe to grab lunch and do some blogging.  Here is the view as I sit at my computer.  Roger had a great dive and saw large schools of barracuda, while I sat for lunch eating barracuda on a lovely salad. 😁  Barracuda might look nasty, but they are very good eating.

The restaurants at Bequia are very good.  On our last day there, we went to brunch at the Fig Tree restaurant. We didn’t find any traditional breakfast items on the menu, but the food was delicious and a gentleman played ‘modern’ music on violin.  A special treat.

Roger did another dive that afternoon, but this time to rescue our BBQ grill that had jumped overboard 😉.  After a successful grill retrieval, Roger used the rest of the air in his tank while he cleaned off the ‘sludge’ on the bottom of the boat and removed the barnacles that were growing in the through hull fittings.  

So with a clean boat, provisions, laundry done, ice, dive tank refilled and a full gas tank, we headed out the next day to Mustique.  Maybe we might even see one of the celebrity residents like Mick Jagger ….