Beautiful Bequia

We spent a week in Barbados then set off early evening on the 100 mile trip to Bequia in order to arrive in daylight on 23rd December.  We went to Bequai for a very important event - our friends Mike and Taryn were getting married there on Christmas Eve.

  The Windward Islands

We anchored in Admiralty Bay on the west coast of Bequia, checked in with Customs and Immigration and headed up to visit Mike and Taryn who were staying in a beautiful house overlooking Admiralty Bay. Several rum punches later we headed back to the boat for a well earned sleep before the big day.

Admiralty Bay, Bequia - the view from Mount Pleasant.

The happy couple - Mike and Taryn become Mr and Mrs Hodgeskin

Despite being a cruise ship destination, Bequia has lost none of its charm.  There are tourist trinket shops as well as a fruit and veg market and a couple of small supermarkets and a surprisingly well stocked but pricey deli.

The view over Admiralty Bay

The High Street

Kenny's Music, for cooking gas and CD's - an unusual combination of wares.

The Rastafarian house at the end of the High Street.

Two very different Cruise Ships in the bay

Although there are lots of stalls selling trinkets, coconut and shell jewellery and clothing, the vendors do not pressurise you to buy.  Almost everyone on the island with a vehicle seems to be a taxi driver - we took an open backed Taxi - no health and safety on this ride - along with friends Annie and Cam from Australia and Steve and Lynne our sailing companions from Aztec Dream.

Ricky's Taxi

We went to some stunning unspoilt beaches.

Mustique  can be seen in the distance.

We went to an old plantation - formerly sugarcane, but the like all plantations of that time crops were grown to feed the workers.  It is now a resort hotel with fine dining and a swimming pool.

Our guide next to a papaya tree and the old factory building that is now accommodation for the employees.

Using a forked aluminium pole to get coconuts down from the palm.

A small banana plantation. There are loads of varieties of bananas, from plantains that are huge and have to be cooked to tiny sweet ones.  Each tree bears one single large crop of bananas, it is then cut down and a new shoot forms from the same plant - within a year that will bear bananas and so the cycle continues.

We also visited a Turtle sanctuary - the odds of a single hawksbill egg surviving to breeding age (25 years!) is apparently 2000:1, so they need all the help they can get.  Some eggs are collected, and the turtles reared in captivity for up to 7 years and then they are released back into the sea.

Hawksbill turtle in the sanctuary.

We spent some time in Bequia learning to dive at a local PADI centre - what a place to start!

We experienced a whole new world down there, in beautifully warm water that seemed to be teeming with life - a huge Manta Ray swum right over us on our first dive.

A wonderful place - even though it does do a good line in rain!

It definitely rains in paradise, all traces of the Sahara sand have now been washed off the boat.

We spent three weeks in Bequia before heading north to St Lucia.  Our first port of call was Soufriere on the southern tip of the island. 

Soufriere bay, looking towards Petit Piton, a very steep lava plug mountain.

An unusual sight on the shore.

Its a marine reserve, so you have to pay to use a mooring buoy but we would have stayed longer had it not been for the at times quite intimidating 'boat boys' who constantly wanted you to buy from them or pay for guided trips up the Piton etc.  Unfortunately they certainly are having the effect of driving would be tourist income away from the bay.

A 'boat boy' on his way to accost another would be visitor.

One night in Soufriere was enough - the next day we headed 20 miles up the coast to Rodney Bay, a huge and peaceful anchorage in St Lucia where we plan to spend a week or so before heading on to Martinique.