We spent 6 days at Blue Lagoon on St Vincent just chilling
out after the Atlantic Crossing and enjoying the last of the ARC+ social
activities. The prize giving and
farewell party was a lot of fun. The
Minister for Tourism and several other government officials attended. We were the second ARC+ to come to St Vincent
and the government is hoping the ARC+ event will boost the profile of this beautiful
part of the world.
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| Blue Lagoon Marina |
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| Bob getting a bottle of rum for his SSB work during the ARC+ Rally |
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| Some of the children sailing with their families |
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| Australians from Cuvee receiving the award for most beautiful boat |
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| Reg and Phoebe kicking up their heels |
We said goodbye to our crew, Reg and Phoebe, over a lobster
dinner and then it was time to start sailing again.
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| Songster sailing out of Blue Lagoon |
We headed south for a short 2 hour sail to Admiralty Bay in
Bequia. What a fantastic spot –
beautiful and peaceful. We spent 15 days
over the Christmas holidays in this little bit of paradise.
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| Admiralty Bay, Bequia |
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| Main street Port Elizabeth on a quiet Sunday afternoon |
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| Girls chatting on the beach |
We got to know the cruising community, and the ways of
cruising, Caribbean style. There is the
floating bar where you can watch stunning sunsets over a rum punch and
conversation with other cruisers from all over the world.
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| The floating bar |
Businesses come around in small boats to deliver ice, fuel,
water and pick up your laundry which they return in the evening washed, dried
and neatly folded. You just have to call them up on the VHF radio. One morning we heard someone call 'Miranda, could you come to our boat and pick up some laundry and can we also get 8 lobsters delivered tomorrow.'
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| Ice, fuel, water and laundry pick-up |
Christmas is big here in the Caribbean. Everywhere were Christmas decorations. Christmas carols were played on steel drums and Santa arrived on paddle boards instead of a sled.
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| Santa arriving on a paddle board |
A Christmas pot luck for sailors was held at The Fig Tree Restaurant. This restaurant is one of the major hangouts
for the cruising community. They host a
morning VHF radio net to let the sailors in the bay know of upcoming events. They also sponsor lots of community volunteer
activities, such as children reading groups, and in general are extremely
supportive of the sailing community. For
Christmas, the owner closes the restaurant to give the staff Christmas with
their families and lets the sailing community use their BBQs and tables for a
sailors’ get together. Everyone brings their
own fish or meat to cook and something to share. There were about 80 people attending and
everyone had a great time.
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| Our host, the owner of The Fig Tree |
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| Happy sailors celebrating Christmas |
We did lots of snorkelling and swimming on the beautiful
white sandy beaches. I loved the
tropical fish and I am looking forward to exploring more of this underwater
wonderland.
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| Princess Margaret Beach, Bequia |
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| Friendship Beach with a big surf |
One day we took a long walk up Ma Peggy, the highest point
on this volcanic island. The views from
the top were stunning and the tropical flora amazing. But the steep climb up the eastern side of the mountain and
down the rocky gully on the western side was quite challenging in the mid day
tropical heat.
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| View from Ma Peggy over Admiralty Bay - Songster is down there somewhere |
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| Friendship Bay with Mustique in the distance |
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| Bromeliads |
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| Wild orchids |
St Vincents and the Grenadines is quite lovely but we were
still trying to get a handle on living in the Caribbean and cruising in a
different part of the world. Greece it is not. I think the island
hopping in the Caribbean will be quite different from what we did in the
Mediterranean. In Greece we would drop anchor at a new island, go ashore
and explore then stop at one of the many tavernas or cafes for a coffee or
drink /mezze while watching the people go by. This would cost only a few
euros, there was plenty to watch and the locals would be doing the same.
Here in Bequia, there are plenty of people hanging around
but not in cafes. Nor does there seem to be many snack bars or hang
outs. There are plenty of night club bars but these don't seem to be open
until evening and we don't tend to go out at night that much. Here there does not seem to be much of a cafe
coffee culture. It has been very hard to find a coffee on offer at some
of the eateries. This is especially concerning for Bob who is quite the
coffee drinker.
The cafes and restaurants are extremely expensive, as is the
food in the shops. The only thing that is cheap is the rum. Standard items in the grocery store are 2-3
times more than in Australia and about 5-8 times more than Greece. I
asked the price of cauliflower and it was EC$15 per pound. A few tomatoes are
EC$ 5, about A$2.50, as are a couple of potatoes. So we wondered what the locals eat. We
asked around and apparently they eat a lot of rice, beans and some
chicken.
We checked out the menu at a recommended restaurant and the
Lobster pizza was EC$ 70 - that is about $35 Australian for a 9"
pizza! The hamburgers were EC$50 - or $27 or US $18. This
restaurant was just an ordinary but nice pizzeria and all the other restaurants
had similar prices. It looked like eating
out was going to be luxury. I was accepting that the quality of our
cruising life would have to be simplified, our diet modified (I had tried out some breadfruit recipes) and our budget would have to be
rethought.
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| Breadfruit tree with large fruits |
Then we went to Martinique – but that is for the next blog
post.
