A fun week (and some) in Bequia

On April 12th, we arrived in Admiralty Bay in Bequia, after a 4 hour slog with wind on the nose the whole way from Carriacou. Fortunately, the seas weren’t too choppy, so I kept my breakfast. When we arrived, Didi (on Blessings) was there to help us with a mooring ball. We were right off town, close enough for me to swim to Whaleboner, one of the local bars (where I later took a picture of Billy Ruff’n under the giant whale bone entrance). After cleaning up a water intrusion in the anchor locker, we got the dinghy ready to go in town.

We went to lunch at Rendevous restaurant, where we found an interesting mix of locals and sailors, there for the typical island fare of chicken or fish with beans, rice and salad. We sat with a father and son that had come over on the ferry and were vacationing from St. Vincent. 

After lunch, we found the Digicel store for a top up on our Wi-Fi puck and we discovered the one true gourmet shop in town; Doris’ Fresh Foods. Doris knows her customers and advertises the well kept store in her home, as the place for “yacht provisioning”. She has items we’ve been looking for since we last saw them at a Whole Foods market but at similarly steep prices. For instance, we found Starbucks coffee (for $20/lb), chicken thighs, apricots, my favorite crackers and some excellent cheeses. 

That first evening in Bequia, we were invited over to Mark & Lynn’s boat Roxy for sundowners with Doug & Marjory (s/v Frolic) and chatted well beyond sundown! The next day, I went climbing with this intrepid group; 1000 feet of vertical to Peggy’s Rock. It started with steep steps, then turned into a steep road and finally a steep (and very rocky) creek bed, before it leveled out to the most beautiful view I’ve seen to date! It felt like I was looking over the bay from an airplane.

After the climb, the gang met up with our partners that didn’t climb, for a very nice lunch at Jack’s on Princess Margaret Beach. I recommend the quinoa salad! In true selfie form, Andrew took a picture without asking anybody to look.

While I was toiling on the mountain top, Andrew was trouble shooting an engine problem with Tyrone (of Caribbean Diesel Marine Engine Services, now our favorite mechanic in Bequia), and found a crack in the mixing elbow that may have been the culprit when our engine acted recently. Tyrone was to get it to the welder to be welded over the weekend and then he would come back and install it on Monday. Not bad for island time work!

After a dinner of sausage, shrimp, peppers and onion with leftover rice on board, we went to bed that night with the sound of steel drums coming from Frangipani, a restaurant about 100 yards away from our boat.

On April 14th, Andrew, Mark and I climbed up to Fort Hamilton for a more accessible view of the harbor. Later, we met up with Mark & Lynn at Sweety Bird Garden Cafe for lunch. There wasn’t much of a garden and it actually looked more like a dump, but it smelled good so we sat down to share a chicken roti and a turkey platter. Not bad (but not the best any of us have had in the Caribbean). 

That evening, Andrew and I signed up for The Fish Fry at The Fig Tree. It’s a nice spot, down the walk that borders the beach. We were expecting Caribbean music and loads of fish, but instead we got 3 guys playing country music on a mandolin, banjo and guitar and the fish medley no longer on the menu (yet it was still called a Fish Fry… Whatever!). No worries, they make an excellent Callalou soup and curried fish and the proprietor, who’s daughter Lafayette runs the VHF net for cruisers, graciously greeted us at the table, as she does every one of her customers.

On Tax Day, I took laundry in to Andy’s (below Maria’s Cafe) even though Daffodil’s will pick it up from your boat and wash, dry and return it, but it costs 2 times as much, so I decided to do it myself. I put the dirty clothes in the washers and went shopping at the many nearby boutiques. One of my favorites, the Garden Boutique (not to be confused with The Garden Cafe) offers batik items handmade by the island ladies. Expensive, but of course, I couldn’t resist another dress. 

While our clothes dried, I heard singing as I walked past the Anglican Church and saw many of the locals gathering in their Sunday best (on a Saturday), as a funeral was going on. Later, I would observe the mourners from upstairs at Marie’s, parading down the street behind the casket, in silence.

That afternoon, Andrew and I went to Plantation House for a very pleasant lunch of burgers & pizza as we  relaxed on their deck by the beach. That evening, we swapped leftovers and finished the meals for dinner.

On Sunday, I dressed up in my new dress and decided to go to church. I met some nice locals, including the lady I bought the dress from, who came up to take a picture with me. The church was beautiful and clean inside with stained glass windows. Two of the windows had the name Armstrong with dates of birth and death for their family members. The service was led by a deacon and readings were shared by the local women. There were probably a dozen and a half women, some children and two men in attendance. When they asked me to introduce myself, I gave my last name and after church, one of the ladies came up to me to ask if I was related to her friend, Ron, who’s name is in the window.

After church I played dominos with the Salty Dawg crowd at Open Deck while Andrew continued to mess around with boat stuff. Dinner that night was Sheppard’s pie which had been in the freezer since Prickly Bay.

On Monday, Andrew and I dropped off wire for Tyrone to rewrap the elbow and then, after we had breakfast, we took him back to the boat to install it. He finished around 2:30 and we sat and chatted with him for another 45 minutes. We learned that he started out a mess hall scrub on a ship at age 17, and having an interest in the engines on board, he eventually went to mechanics school in New York. After that he worked on ships and travelled all over the Caribbean for about 20 years. Ten years ago, he decided to come home to Bequia and open his own shop. What a pleasure it was getting to know him and doing business with him!

The next day, we paid Didi for the mooring ball and Tyrone for his efforts and slipped the mooring for Friendship Bay, another spot in Bequia where we planned to anchor and go ashore to the Bequia Heritage Museum. We weren’t even out of Admiralty Bay when Andrew noticed the oil gauge was low. We did a 360 and went right back to the mooring we had just left to call our favorite mechanic. He came out with a pressure gauge that didn’t fit so we made a plan to go over to another guys boat (that he was caring for) the next day, to see if we could find the appropriate fitting. Meanwhile, we are trying to figure out what we’ll do if we have an engine problem and not just a gauge problem.

The next morning, Andrew picked up Tyrone to take him to the other boat and I tried to make myself useful filling the water tanks with water from Miranda’s water boat. While Andrew and Tyrone worked away at the engine, I decided to get out of the way and catch the public bus to Friendship Bay. It dropped me off at the closest stop to the museum (according to the good people on the bus advising me), where I had a beautiful view of the bay in the distance.

I walked the rest, probably a good mile, up and down twisting and turning roads and finally arrived at The Bequia Heritage Museum, a small establishment to preserve the boat building and whaling heritage of the Bequians. It is set overlooking Friendship Bay with two small buildings across from an operating whaling station. The first building has a half dozen boats including a wooden canoe, whale boats and support tenders. The second building has artifacts including bottles, clay pots, tools and pieces of artistry from the earliest settlers until now. Two ladies presented the material in the different buildings and between them we (I met new Salty Dawgs from s/v Evening Star there) spent two hours with them; enjoying stories and songs from the one young lady’s childhood and the immense amount of knowledge the other lady had about the islands’ history.

I walked back on the beach path with Sue, Denny (and his sister) from s/v Evening Star. It was much easier and took half the time, even without the bus ride. In the meantime, Andrew and Tyrone eventually discovered we had a gauge issue and not an engine issue (thank God!) so we celebrated that evening with Roxy, Kalunamoo, Evening Star and s/v Bebe at The Breadfruit Tree, the best chicken place in Bequia. The next day we were headed off again, barring any other plans the universe might have for us.