Shamballa Cruising Yacht Club: Starting the Caribbean Cruising: St Vincent and Bequia

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.

Blue Lagoon Marina

Bob getting a bottle of rum for his SSB work during the ARC+ Rally

Some of the children sailing with their families

Australians from Cuvee receiving the award for most beautiful boat

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.

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.

Admiralty Bay, Bequia

Main street Port Elizabeth on a quiet Sunday afternoon

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.

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.'

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.

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.

Our host, the owner of The Fig Tree

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.

Princess Margaret Beach, Bequia

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.

View from Ma Peggy over Admiralty Bay - Songster is down there somewhere

Friendship Bay with Mustique in the distance

Bromeliads

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.