We are still anchored in Admiralty Bay, Bequia for a few more days. It is one of the many islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Our current position is N 13.00.66 latitude and W 061.14.49 longitude – if you want to use Google Earth to see where we are at. OR you can go to the "Links" section to locate us.
Below are the highlights of being at Bequia during holidays.
– First time since leaving MN that we paid for an internet connection $30US/week so we could Skype friends/family over internet. It costs us $.02/minute to call via Skype – check it out. This is also why I am updating website before it runs out.
– Attended St. Michaels Catholic service with funny priest from Trinidad and lively bango drum music. Still not as lively as the caribs would like but you know the Catholic way! Also went caroling at an Anglican church but very traditional and mostly caucasian.
– Organized many domino/card games with other cruisers. Participated in a couple sunset dinghy drift socials, very fun. Lots of European cruisers arriving from the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) as believe this year was the largest (240 boats?). The NE Christmas/Azores High winds keep us cool and batteries charged. Two days before x-mas they layed down and boy did the boats arrive in Bequia. Not every culture has similar anchoring protocol so can be a challenge, especially if near the beach.
– Attended a primary school Christmas concert/play. The people are friendly and small villages are competing with each other in their holiday lighting display & celebrations. In addition, the visiting cruiseship’s and cruisers like us have been lighting up the harbor with their myriad of lights. Continue to search for eggs/butter as it’s a commodity.
– They celebrate the 9 days before x-mas by playing LOUD DJ music from midnight to 6am. The bass sounds almost shake the boat and force us to wear ear plugs, close hatches and turn on fan for white noise. Fortunately its not always near our anchorage. The local vocal and steel pan drum bands are delightful.
– The whaling season is coming up in Jan/Feb by Paget Farms – other side of island. The whaling station is on a separate island near there. They use non-motorized small boats to catch and then drag for processing to this whaling station. Some camp there in order to get any meat. This area is also a big fishing area where they use small wooden colorful rowing/sailing boats. I was told that most of the fish goes to Martinique BUT they won’t accept the fish from Bequia unless they are inspected in Grenada. So the fisherman offload to a larger wooden sailboat that takes the fish to Grenada to be inspected prior to then sailing back up to Martinique (as they are fished out). So very few actually stay on Bequia. So they said I need to go to the other side and put in my order once the wind dies down and they will make it happen — its about $8EC/pound.
– We hiked to Spring/Industry to visit Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary, since 1995 Orton Brother King has protected the endangered Hawksbill. We also hiked to past Friendship Bay to St. Hilaire’s Pt where it used to be goat grazing fields so is very lovely with many vistas.
– Watched locals participate in a model sailboat regatta where they follow them via kayak around the bay to tack if they run into other anchored boats. Very entertaining!
– Had BLACK drain oil twice get on our hull. The second time we involved the harbor master/etc. and determined that it was coming from the bildge of a large power boat. So they left the harbor but left us to clean/wax/etc. Rose got haircut from local Barber @ $15EC/$6US so somewhat tense but turned out fine.
Happy NEW YEAR and God Bless the entire world, no exceptions! Live your Dreams……