(posted from Rodney Bay, St. Lucia)
April 25, we depart Canuoun for Bequia, a small island just south of St. Vincent. The seas were easy and the wind good as we turned north out of Admiralty Bay. Much of the trip was with islands helping to keep the sea pretty flat, but not so close as to disrupt the wind. We were able to sail almost directly to Bequia, just a couple tacks at the end of the trip. Our friends Jon and Carol on Aldebaran had been visiting Mustique and were also departing for Bequia. As it turned out, they were just ahead of us going into the harbor.
We see these island workboats all the time, but this is the first we have seen under sail
Relaxing while the autopilot steers
We anchored off Princess Margaret beach (13 00.05N 061 14.54W) in almost exactly the same spot as when we stopped here on the way south. We liked the location because it was out of the crowded part of the anchorage and we could swim to the beach and to some rocks with good coral and fish for snorkleing. This is the location where we found squid on our deck a few times, but none this year, although Aldebaran got one. Aldebaran was anchored close enough that it was just as easy to swim over to talk to them as it was to take the dinghy.
Compass Rose anchored off Princess Margaret Beach
Jackie swims over to visit Jon and Carol
We hiked around the island frequently and snorkled around the rocks just about every day. We hiked with Jon and Carol to the Firefly Plantation, a restaurant and small hotel in a working plantation. We took a tour of the plantation and saw a lot of interesting plants and fruits. Our guide gave us samples of guavas, mangoes, lemon grass and other herbs. It was a beautiful place and well worth the hike.
Our guide explains how bananas grow
Jon, Carol, Jackie, and Eric at the Firefly Plantation
We also hiked up to Hamilton Fort on the northwest corner of the bay. It was a steep hike, but the view was great.
Jackie rests after hiking to the fort. The hike started near the upper right corner of the picture.
A view of Admiralty Bay from Hamilton Fort
Another pastime is hunting for sea glass – bits of glass tumbled smooth in the sand and washed up on the beach. There was one beach in particular where the glass gathered. We also snorkled for sea glass in the surf along one of the beaches. We must have looked pretty funny to the locals as we washed back and forth in the surf trying to keep our feet toward shore to prevent a breaking wave from making us do a face plant on the beach.
One of different things we saw in the harbor was a barge floating upside down. Later it was lashed to the side of a tug. We learned that the barge was being loaded in St. Vincent. They loaded one side and tried to turn it around so the could load the other, but when the untied the barge if flipped over dumping the load of concrete into the harbor and damaging the tug.
The overturned barge being tended to by some work boat.
Much of the port (left) side of the tug was damaged when the barge flipped.
The weather here is usually warm and humid, with an occassional sprinkle of rain – usually. Towards the end of our stay in Bequia we had three days of rain, with it raining almost non-stop one day. I started to put the dinghy in the davits one night, but it had a lot of water in it and it was late enough that I didn’t want to bail it out, so I just chained it to the boat. The next morning it was completely full of water.
The dink filled with rain water. Luckily the sandals didn't float out.
Misc Pix
JetSkis are illegal in the civilized islands, but this one seems to get by.
This rum shop tells you where the mens room isn't
Jackie the dauntless dink driver
Next: Whichever Way the Wind Blows
The Adventures of Little Rosie 
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