69) Bequia

Wallilabou Bay, St. Vincent (Johnny Depp Bay)

13° 14.820 N 61° 16.316 W

I made a huge breakfast this morning for John, Nancy and I.  There has been lots of talk of Denny’s between John and I for weeks and this was the closest I could get to it: eggs, bacon, corned beef hash, pancakes and coffee.  Mmm good. 

Below are 2 examples of the discrepancy between GPS and the electronic charts.  The image on the left shows a yellow waypoint at the end of the black line and that is where we parked in the real world.  But, the image shows that we parked about half a mile east on land.  The image on the right was an anomaly of the GPS when it was turned on and it showed us a half a mile to the west.  This is another graphic example of why you are not supposed to rely on electronics
and charts and why you should actually look out the window.

Johnny Depp Bay

Johnny Depp Bay

I put the line out the instant we were clear of Johnny Depp Bay figuring it was going to take all day to hook something.  The run across was fairly bumpy but luckily it was short and only about 20 miles.  Within the last couple miles we were all looking at the guides for the approach to the bay and sure enough we got a hit on the line.  This one was a runner and a fighter.  I had periodically let out the line over the passage just to mix it up and it was about 300-400’ out.  I admit I was getting tired arms reeling this in.  I had the reel locked and this fish was so strong that when he sounded the line clicked out.  Luckily that occurred or the line would have broken.  He was one tough fighter.  I had just enough time to get it reeled in and dropped in the dinghy and then got prepared for the mooring.

 

Port Elizabeth, Admiralty Bay, Bequia (Bek-way), The Grenadines

13° 00.618 N 61° 14.455 W

Bequia (pronounced Bek-way) is the largest of the St. Vincent dependencies.  Its terrain is volcanic in origin and a ridge of hills runs from one end of the island to the other.  The population is about 6,000 and is a complicated mixture of mainly black African ex-slaves and old European colonists, mainly Scots and French.  To those must be added fisherman from New Bedford (USA) who came in the 19^th century to hunt whales and taught the skills to the local fisherman. 

After departing St. Vincent we headed to Bequia.  We stayed in a truly tropical Caribbean looking and feeling place called Admiralty Bay in Port Elizabeth on the southwestern end of the island.  This anchorage was very well protected and suffered no rolling from wave action and swells that is common to anchorages.  Light rain and sprinkles were a regular occurrence as well as blue sky and sunshine.

Port Elizabeth, Admiralty Bay

Today in Admiralty Bay a father and son team of line handlers greeted us.  There are just as many families doing this work as the individual guys.  They really are helpful in that they take us right to the available mooring balls and know which ones carry which loads.  After tying up these guys offered boat-cleaning services of which we did not want.  It’s great to see there are ambitious people in these islands to counter the impression of laziness and unemployment that we have seen.

St. Vincent & Bequia, respectfully

Sunset on Admiralty Bay, Bequia  

Internet café, Admiralty Bay

We tied up, settled in and then made a run to shore to customs.  In the old days or somewhere else only the captain was allowed off the boat until the vessel was checked in.  We have not been stopped or hindered the entire trip from Italy.  First stop onshore was?  If you put a dive flag on a pier I am like a moth to a flame.  Yes, we went to the dive shop.  I asked if they would fill our expired tanks and got the standard no.  Then I asked if they had new or used tanks for sale and the only thing available was a 23 year-old aluminum tank.  We moseyed on to the next dive shop.  I had 3 tanks in the dinghy and asked if they could replace a burst disk.  And, yippee, they could!  The burst disk on the steel tank onboard is failing and leaking and the tank will only hold 500psi.  A burst disk is a thin piece of copper secured with a bolt in the valve on a compressed air cylinder.  It is designed to self-destruct when the pressure in the tank exceeds its rated pressure due to heat, over-filling, etc.  This system prevents the tank from catastrophic destruction.  After going to the Internet café, walking down the beachfront and getting ice cream I made it back to the dive shop.  They were able to replace the disk, put on an o-ring and filled the tank.  I now have 1 good tank.  I decided to go on a dive with them tomorrow morning.  While talking to the owner at the counter I discovered that he is from Minnesota.  Snow is what brought him to Bequia.  I am going to meet them for a 9am dive tomorrow.  The other 2 aluminum tanks onboard now are pretty much ballast.  Hopefully we might be able to trade them or give them away.

Nancy stayed onshore after we got ice cream so she could stroll around.  After getting back to the boat I jumped in with a mask and fins and couldn’t see the bottom.  The visibility is poor in this 87° water moored in 26 feet. 

I volunteered to get her at 545pm when she said to meet her at the dinghy dock.  I took a shower after the swim and that is a bit frustrating right now.  In Italy the water was cold onboard but since we got to the tropics the water is too hot.  The water in the tanks is in the mid eighties and the water heater cooks it really hot.  Plus, the plumbing to the forward shower is a bit off in that the temperatures available are really hot and hotter.  I take a shower with the door open and get bucketfuls of cold water from the sink to rinse.  It is so uncomfortable taking a hot shower in the tropics.  

I offered to get Nancy because I needed to go back to the Internet café to send another

e-mail to Tina.  I forgot to bring and forgot to tell Tina to give to Clive to bring to me my ATM card.  I am having a bit of a struggle acquiring local coin.  Of all places, The Grenadines accepts USD but I am very low.  I managed to find a phone that lets you call collect and got thru to an 800 number on my M/C.  After a lengthy discussion I was able to get the point across of what I needed to do.  It all comes down to Tina must call from my home phone number in order to get a PIN number over the phone for security reasons and such.   

We planned to stay onboard for dinner tonight since we had a fresh skipjack tuna.  I cleaned it earlier, bagged it and put it in the refer.  I prepped and baked the tuna and Nancy made some vegetables while it cooked.  Everything was fantastic!  The Tuna tasted just like what comes out of the can, the bread we bought was very good and the vegetables were perfect.  It’s now time to try and finish watching Pirates Of The Caribbean since I fell asleep last night watching it.  I recognized the set we saw in many scenes of the movie.