06-01-2011: Bequia

Bequia (pronounced Bek-way ) is the Northernmost of the Grenadines. 

The Grenadines are a part of St Vincent, not Grenada. 

So, we motor-sailed 72 nautical miles from Rodney Bay to Bequia. 

Took us 11 & a half hours. 

And if you're counting,
we've travelled 2,186 nautical miles so far. 

Here's Admiralty Bay, where we anchored off Princess Margaret Beach.
The town is called Port Elizabeth:

Having left St Lucia & entered the Grenadines,

we had to do the Customs /Immiigration thing again.

It was Sunday & lunch time, so first, lets get rid of trash.

Here's the Northern dinghy dock, near the trash dumpsters.

The queen waits patiently while I dump a couple bags:

Bequia has a long tradition of boat building & whaling.

Here's Friendship Rose, built in Bequia.

She's anchored by the Customs dinghy dock

waiting for a charter to Mustique:

Here's the queen waiting for Customs to open:

Lunch at De Bistro:

Knight's Supermarket has some basic stuff.

Closed Sundays:

Met a great "old timer" - Doc.

He does tours of the island:

Off we go in his jitney:







Nice view of the recently overturned barge in the bay.

It overturned in St Vincent.

They towed it all the way to Bequia:

They finally rolled her back upright with 2 tow boats,

pulling against 2 anchors.

Doc took us up to Fort Hamilton:

Then across the island.

He says foreigners have taken over the Eastern side.

Some very nice homes in the hills overlooking Industry Bay:

The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary

gets new-born turtles from the nest & raises them,

releasing them when they have a better survival chance than "newborns":

Great view of the bay from Mount Pleasant.
Don't forget to click photos for more zoom:



Friendship Bay, on the other side:

The roadsides are covered with beautiful flowers.

Doc calls them "Pride of Barbados":

Bequians are allowed to kill 4 whales per year.

Most years they are lucky to get one.

Anyway, when they get one, here's where they slaughter it.

Sempler's Cay:

They don't build any big boats here these days,

but they do build models.

We had Winfield Sargeant do some work on our hull & stainless.

Then we toured his brother's model shop:



Back to Port Elizabeth.

There are a bunch of restaurants along the waterfront.

Here's Gingerbread:



Cool walkway along the water-side of the restaurants:

We were anchored off Princess Margaret Beach.

So we had to do happy hour at Jacks Bar.

Sharon & Jack - thought of you guys!



Relaxed on the beach

& did some swimming:



Topped off our diesel & did laundry

- Daffodil delivers to your boat!

Guess it's time to move on.

Tomorrow it's Mustique, where we'll check out

the lifestyles of the rich & famous!