Driving in Bequia is typical of the islands we have visited. Here’s how it is. Use of horn is frequent, generally to indicate a vehicle’s presence or as a greeting, rarely in anger. Shouting to and from vehicles is common, road rage is not. Priority at intersections is not always clear. Pedestrians expect cars to avoid them rather than the other way around. Driving is a social activity, with open windows, slowing down or stopping in traffic lanes to buy mangos or to chat with people driving in the opposite direction. Because roads are so narrow, delivery trucks halt traffic to unload. Blocked drivers just wait calmly. What else could you do?
The fish market at Bequia is always a show. A blown conch shell announces arrival of the fishing boats onto the beach, and the fresh catch is sold within minutes.
The complex of fish market, vegetable market and “boutique” stalls was funded by the taxpayers of Canada.
Pleasingly, breadfruit came into season while we were in Bequia. This one was roasted on our coal pot, but rolled off the grill and escaped into the bay while being turned. Never fear. Catherine swam to recover it and finished the cooking.
Cooled and peeled, it was made into a delicious “salad” (red bowl) to go with rice, green beans and mahi-mahi steaks from today’s visit to the fish market.
The red meat market operates on the street one day a week. Freshly butchered pork and beef is available, along with frozen whole roasting chickens. The tenderloins, sirloins and filet mignon all go to the local restaurants, but nice chops, chucks and ribs are sold on the street at a good price.
Buy it early in the morning and cook it soon, because it is not refrigerated!
There seems to be a concentration of live aboard cruisers with young children at Bequia.
Many of these kids live full time aboard cruising sailboats, or are here for the winter months. These boat urchins are home-schooled, and have the beach and the bay as their “backyard”.
What a wonderful range of experiences these kids have! It seems so much more appealing to be swimming and running on the beach in the sunshine than to be logging hours per day of television in a darkened room. The S/V Picton Castle is a school ship, mixing academics with sailing experience
This brief video of dancing kids may whet you appetite for more steel drum music which is in the longer video later in this blog.
.At Bequia we attended football games (known as soccer in some parts of the world) on a Saturday. They are energetic youngsters happy to ham it up for photos. Girls and boys participate in equal numbers.
The cricket match on the next day was also fun, with beers 3 for EC$10. (approx Canadian $4). We still do not fully understand that game.
Maria's French Terrace in Bequia (http://www.marias-french-terrace.com/ ), with WIFI, has live music several times a week, so naturally we timed our internet sessions to coincide with the live music whenever possible.
The internet is very useful to us not only for communication (email, skype), but also for preparing income tax returns (we downloaded tax programs and tax slips), banking, weather forecasts, and researching for our cruising. We do not receive or send any paper mail between November and May. We no longer subscribe to a cellular service.
We celebrated St Patrick's Day at Jack's Bar on Princess Margaret Beach, Bequia with Guiness and Heiniken (it's not an Irish beer but at least it's in a green bottle. On that day he was Peter O'Gallagher!
Catherine is still practicing her fiddle because she knows that perseverance is the best substitute for talent. This was one of her earliest efforts for this tune. So, you get to hear a master artist in her formative stage. Sorry for the wind noise in the audio on this video.
Click it and be amazed!
On Mar 23 we departed Bequia and sailed to Petit Nevis (12 58.4’N 61 14.9’W). Here are ruins of the former whale processing station, including remains of the steel pots for rendering blubber.
Whaling is still carried out in The Grenadines, limited to hunting from small sailboats. We observed the hunt in progress while we were underway from Petit Nevis toward Mustique, and it appears to us that the whales have a pretty good chance of surviving. S/V Limbo in the collage above is the style of boat used for the whale hunt and also for the island regattas. The owner of this particular boat is proud to be a frequent winner. He said, “It’s not bragging if you actually did it!”.
We made a brief stop at Charles Bay, Canouan (12 42.5’N 61 19.7’W). We appreciated the dinghy dock of the Tamarind Beach Hotel and their internet access (http://www.tamarind.com/ ).
The island tour of Canouan by taxi was enlightening. There has been massive resort development (Raffles for US$980/day in winter months!). The employment offered has been welcomed, but the change in the character of the island causes some to be uncomfortable. For example, the expansion of the airstrip to handle jet traffic involved removing one large hill to bury one large coral reef, and one long white sand beach. Mount Royal was to become a nature preserve, but is now incorporated into the private resort. Strangely, the resort, although appearing completed and looking very posh, presently has very few guests (http://www.raffles-canouanisland.com/ ).
Saltwhistle Bay of Mayreau (12 38.8’N 61 23.3’N) is truly beautiful picture postcard perfect. The resort that has been here for 30 years seems to fit right in, and is still only 8 small villas, 6 booked when we were there (http://www.saltwhistlebay.com/ ).
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Windward Bay of Mayreau (12 38.2’N 61 23.3W) was our refuge during a period of large ocean swells propagating down from a powerful winter storm off the coast of Nova Scotia. We found a nice concentration of edible seaweed growing here. Yummy!
Ocean swells do not enter Windward Bay because the anchorage is surrounded by miles of shallow coral reefs and “flats”, all part of the Tobago Cays Marine Park (http://www.tobagocays.com/).
Petit St Vincent, also a privately owned island with resort charging the same rate as Raffles has one of the loveliest beaches that we have been fortunate enough to visit (http://www.psvresort.com/ ). We walked, ran, waded, sat, soaked, and lounged in hammocks in great enjoyment over several days.
Click on this video to see catherine (AKA Demi) in her daily beach run.
The anchorage at Petit St Vincent is clear turquoise water over a bright sand bottom and is irresistible for swimming.
Peter (AKA Scrawny) could not control himself (nor did he try!).
Later we put half of a red snapper and local butternut squash on the coal pot. The snapper had been marinated since morning with a lemon grass recipe, and the squash stuffed with brown sugar, real Irish butter and pecans.
Together with Catherine’s ginger flavoured coleslaw, they made a lovely dinner in the cockpit.
Chatham Bay of Union Island is always fun for us. The beach is lovely. Seckie and Vanessa continue to operate their comfortable beach bar, and also a water taxi and tour service (www.myunionisland.com/seckietours ). We enjoy patronizing their bar/restaurant and also socializing with them outside of business hours, when we can serve drinks to them!
We had a magnificent 40nm day sail from Petit St Vincent to Prickly Bay Grenada on April 3. This was a broad reach with warm wind ENE 15-18 knots and sea 2m ENE swell under bright sunny sky. Doesn’t get any better than that!
On our first Friday back in Grenada we lucked upon a happy hour with very professional steel drum band. We now know that they are a regular feature of Friday happy hours at the Prickly Bay Marina. We will attend again!
Click on this video to see why!
This is almost the end of our cruising for this winter. We are scheduled to haul out the Charlotte D on April 14 and hope to fly back to North America on April 21 to enjoy the spring and summer months in Cape Breton.
peter and catherine, aboard s/v charlotte d in grenada.
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