Four Days and Five nights in Bequia

After four travel days out of five, we spent four days and five nights in Bequia…in Admiralty Bay, actually and the adjacent town of Port Elizabeth. The Bay is a triangle of water, about a mile on each side, and open to the west, from which direction the wind  almost never blows. The town is in the deepest eastern corner of the triangle, and is a very native town, clustered around its ferry dock. We were close to the southwestern edge, with lots of room between boats.

One night while we were asleep, our anchor appears to have dragged about 400 feet before resetting. We moved it back to where we had put it and it held the rest of our stay. If it had not reset, the next stop, drifting westward, would have been Nicaragua, except that we would have woken up before we drifted that thousand plus miles.

 We made new friends there.  One set of friends was not actually new: Mike and Audrey, who charter Serenity. We had them over for the first mango pancakes of the season, not as good as normal with whole wheat flour and no-sugar syrup, but still not bad. We had another shared dinner on their boat and joined them at a “Jump Up” at Frangipani restaurant. A youngish five member steel band played mellow mood music at first and then hot Reggae dance numbers. We believe the name "jump up" has to do with the music. They had a huge buffet of salads, starches, breads and another of deserts. Between these courses they brought each diner a saucer with a slice of grilled tuna or beef steak. The kitties were happy that Audrey did not finish her tuna.

Our final communal dining experience in Bequia included Mike and Audrey, who alas, we will not see again until they visit us in New York, and our new friends, John, Dora and Romeo, of “Windrifter”,  a Westsail 42 of 1967 out of Portland Maine. They have lived aboard for about three years, the first two in Portland where the boat’s heaters were very necessary, and more recently down here. Actually, it was Romeo who caused us to meet.  Roger spotted him on Windrifter and confirmed with binoculars that he is a feline  – in fact an elegant ten year old Maine Coon Cat, who has adapted well to the floating lifestyle.  So we had to dink over and introduce ourselves as fellow cat lovers. The six of us humans convened on ILENE after dinner and shared some wine in the cockpit before moving down into the cabin to share a delicious, sugar free banana bread that Lene had baked with bananas (purchased from a vendor on a surf board earlier that day) and whole wheat flour; and tea or cocoa. 

 From the left: John, Dora, Audrey, Mike and Lene. A very pleasant three hours but Windrifter was setting off at 4:30 am  for the northern end of St. Lucia so the evening could not last too long.

We also took on 14.2 gallons of diesel fuel from a floating barge with tanks, pumps and a meter;  rather little after almost a month of  daily 55 minute engine runs to chill the refrigeration system’s plates, plus use of the engine almost every exit and entrance into port. From the same barge we took 65 gallons of fresh water to fill the starboard tank; a security blanket for Lene. (Lene is happy when the boat is clean AND there is plenty of water) This was from the same people who took our dirty laundry and had brought it back washed, dried and folded: Daffodil Marine.

It rained a lot in Bequia and one day we simply lay about reading. But the last day Roger finally installed the stainless steel “picture frames” on the starboard fixed side ports – designed to look nice but more to seal out the rain. We will see if that works during the next torrential storm. Roger also smeared some of the flexible sealant around the mast boot to try to keep rain from entering the boat through the hole in its top through which the mast is fit. He also found two fittings lying on the deck. Now where did they come from? But better save them!  Oh yes, they held the bitter end of the mainsheet to its block and without them only the fact that the splice at that end was too wide to fit through the block’s sheave saved the day. Roger pried the splice out of the block where it was jammed and reinserted the two fitting into each other through it and tightened the two ends with allen wrenches. The two pieces, by screwing into each other, form the pin shown at the very top of the block in this photo.

Roger also wandered the town until he found "Mr. Fixit", in his shop, off a back alley, to see if the starboard valve of the dinghy could be fixed. But only got some tips, including “buy a new replacement valve on an island that has a Budget Marine store.” The valve holds air when caped, but unlike the valves for the other two chambers of the inflatable dinghy, air whooshes out of this one during the half second between when the pump nozzle is removed and the cap is inserted. This too shall be fixed in time.

Lene rented internet time, made some business and personal calls, we did some banking, visited the Post Office, and tried to research a part of the itinerary for which we do not have a valid cruising guide yet via the internet.

Roger got the shortest haircut he has ever had. This photo is a week after the haircut.

The Barber seated him facing away from the mirror and was enchanted by Lene’s mantra: “Shorter; shorter; shorter!”  Roger believes the barber did not discriminate on the basis of race but gave him the same haircut he would have given to a black man.  It will grow back.