Monday, February 4, 2008

Report from S/V Charlotte D in Bequia

Bequia is part of the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, 7 sq miles and 6000 residents. The “Charlotte D” was anchored for 10 days in Princess Margaret Bay of Port Elizabeth at 13-00N 61-14W in 4 m of clear, turquoise water over a hard sand bottom. Some interesting links are www.begos.com/easterregatta, http://www.bequialandandhome.com/ and http://www.turtles.bequia.net/





Our cruising friends Wayne and Trish (S/V “Rhythm of Life”) were already here when we arrived, so there was soon an enjoyable Happy Hour and dinner aboard the “Charlotte D” with their guests Gordon and Deb temporarily escaped from frozen Ohio. Catherine produced a delicious curry with our fresh caught Mahi-Mahi and our friends brought a garden salad and local baguettes. Of course, there was plenty of draft beer, wine and St. Vincent Rum, “Captain Bligh”.



We just had to rest on the beach the next day. You can see the riding sail of the “Charlotte D” in the background of Catherine’s feet. After a couple of beer, Peter and Wayne created some original beach art. There was some interest from passers-by, but no sales. This beach is also the location of “Can’t Remember the Name” beach bar and restaurant, which we think has the best callaloo soup in Bequia. Also on the beach front you might happen upon lessons on the steel pan.


















There was a taxi trip (back of pickup truck) to Moonhole (you may remember a National Geographic coverage).




The natural arch is behind Catherine. Soon she had to rest in a hammock with a rum punch where she was visited by a pet tortoise named “Albert” that actually rocked her hammock for a reward of a hibiscus flower.

We had a lovely time at Sailor’s Café lunch of Roti, mahi-mahi sandwiches, callaloo soup with Hairoun – the beer of St. Vincent. This was followed by a stop at the model boat-building shop – no power tools!

A major highlight for us was the Bequia Market, a building project funded by the people of Canada (so happy to see part of our tax dollar not going to war machines). Jean Claude is one of the colourful Rastafarian vendors at the Market. There is an enormous variety of produce available including one particular plant not usually eaten. Princess is the egg and hot sauce lady. The pictured selection that we took back to the boat included eggplant, passion fruit, christophene, breadfruit, sapatee, yams, guava, pigeon peas, paw-paw, avocado, mango, pumpkin, watermelon, cabbage, onion, potato, grapefruit, sour oranges, pineapple, bananas (known locally as “figs”), cucumber, lemons, and tomato. There were also the fresh herbs shadon beni, dasheen and parsley. All this produce is grown in St Vincent, often wild. It would be impossible to starve around here!



Most of our meals are eaten aboard (fixed incomes you know) and recently featured the above veggies and fruits presented creatively with our fresh caught tuna and mahi-mahi. These fish are nice BBQed, sweet potato-crusted pan fried or sautéed with coconut scampi butter sauce. Yum!

Internet access is good in Bequia (high speed Wi-Fi). Maria’s internet café offers also a great view and wonderful mango smoothies. Close under the balcony the local boats are beached. The men in the shade are re-building a 75 hp Yamaha outboard using the bottom of an overturned boat as their workbench.



Our visit to Bequia was timed to coincide with their annual Blues and Jazz festival ( www.bequiatourism.com/bequiamusicfest ). The venue is beachfront naturally, so we attended by dinghy. The music varies from quite professional to “emerging stars” with more ambition than talent. The beach activities at the festival were dancing in the sand and typical beer-fueled silliness, as you can see by the empties in the pockets and the display of “six-packs” of another kind. Isn’t that what everyone was doing on January 25th? You might have noticed Wayne’s T-shirt. His ancestry includes Native American, giving him a refreshing perspective beyond the mainstream (fighting terrorism since 1492).








Of course, the cruising life is not all parties. Besides trying to stay cool and avoid sunburn, there is always boat maintenance. On this layover we repaired a crack in the hard dinghy, replaced split diaphragm of a bilge pump, installed a new yoke on the flushing lever of forward head, brought the KISS wind generator back to life by locating and repairing a loose connection on the diode block, installed new pencil zincs for the propulsion engine and genset, and contracted out a repair of our sunshade to the competent Chris at the Bequia Canvas Shop. Fortunately, all these jobs went quickly and Peter was soon back sailing the dinghy around the anchorage or flying a kite.

We departed Bequia on January 28 and sailed 97nm north to Martinique, from where this posting was made. More about that passage eventually.

Stay tuned, Eunoia and Madeare, aboard S/V “Charlotte D”

“Winning is the least useful thing that can happen in any conflict. Either there will be peace for all, and all gain, or there will be no peace, and all lose. Conflicts must be transcended in order to be resolved.” Ursula Franklin