Finally on the move to Bequia

After a leisurely breakfast we got going to Bequia, the nearest Grenadine Island. We had got about level with Fort Duvernette when we heard a boat roaring towards us. It was Jimmy – we had forgotten to pay him! Just shows they don’t miss a thing and he must have spotted us leaving. I think he thought we were doing a runner as he was pretty indignant, Rowan thought we had paid for the mooring ball when we paid at customs for our permit and PCR tests. All laughter once we had paid!

Leaving the rain and St Vincent

We didn’t even get the sails up as Bequia is so close, and we needed to charge the batteries and get the water maker going. We anchored at Princess Margaret’s beach which is a gorgeous long beach with beautiful clear blue water. We are a good distance from any others and have landed up near the Argentinian couple(actually it turns out he is French) with the identical boat to us called El Gaucho, just 6 months younger than PolePole.

Princess Margaret’s beach

Colourful houses on the other side of the bay

Downtown!

The whole bay is very quaint with a walkway all the way into town with some lovely old houses. We took JeldiJeldi into town to do a big shop. Rowan is always embarrassed by my Trolley Dolly, but always grateful when we have a block to walk with a case of beer, bottles of Rum, Gin and Angostura (amazingly we found it here) and of course boxes of UHT milk and an enormous tray of eggs, let alone all the fresh stuff. Had a great time buying loads of passion fruit, pawpaws, sapodillas, mangoes and avos, from the stall holders. We had one amusing incident when the old Rasta serving Phoebs and I suddenly rushed out the shop mid way through our purchase. Rowan was in the street and wondered what this old boy was doing sprinting down the road. All became clear about 10 minutes later when he came back and said a guy had walked in and stolen his stash of weed that he had just received from the USA! The guy must have known as he had hidden it among some potatoes. Anyway he was extremely happy to get it back!

In the afternoon Rowan and I went for a lovely walk along the walkway looking in on some of the quaint old houses. Most of them turned into restaurants or shops, but everything looks so closed, clearly they have a fraction of the amount of tourists they would normally expect. Lovely for us though, not to have the crowds.

The walkway into town

Plantation House

Canons everywhere

Whale Boner Bar!

In the evening we went to the closest restaurant, Jack’s with the couple from El Gaucho, which was good fun to be meeting and interacting with people again. The food was nothing great, and slightly intruded by an enormous cockroach that had everyone screeching before the owner put his foot down on it! A fun evening with a lovely setting.