We arrived in Bequia on Friday, 8/9 after a blessedly uneventful overnight passage from Martinique. After spending 5 weeks in Martinique and enjoying it, I was a bit sad to be leaving but excited to continue towards Grenada. Prior to our sailing journey, I really had not heard of Bequia and knew very little about Saint Vincent and the Grenadines of which it is part of. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is our 15th country since starting our journey! SVG was previously ruled by France and then Britain but gained independence in 1979. The country opted to remain within the Commonwealth of Nations, retaining the then-Queen Elizabeth II as Monarch, represented locally by a Governor-General. SVG is an island country consisting of the main island of Saint Vincent and a chain of 32 smaller islands to the south called the Grenadines. Some of the Grenadines are inhabited like Bequia, while others are not.
Bequia, pronounced BEK-way, is 7 square miles and has a population of approximately 5,300. We arrived at the main port, Port Elizabeth on Friday morning. We decided to anchor out a bit from the town in Lower Bay closer to Princess Margaret beach. The beach was originally named for someone else but Princess Margaret visited the beach on her honeymoon and loved her time here prompting the subsequent name change in her honor. Once we were settled in, Bob headed into town to get us cleared with customs. It went very smoothly and when he returned he shared that the town was really cute with easy dinghy access- hooray! We decided to head back into town later to get a bite to eat and he was right – very cute with colorful homes, a waterfront walkway, and restaurants and shops. We had a great meal at Mac’s Pizza and Kitchen – fabulous chicken curry and some great pizza which was a great way to start off our visit.
Saturday brought a tropical lo (later to become Ernesto) that resulted in a day of rain and squalls on the boat. We had not seen that type of rain since the Bahamas. We were anchored fairly close to the hillside and saw waterfalls start down the hillside. The water where we were anchored which had been a brilliant blue upon arrival began to turn brown and fill with debris washing down the waterfalls. It was crazy to see how quickly the water flowed down the hillsides! I got to watch the first half of the US Women’s Soccer Team’ s quest for gold before the squalls took out our Starlink connection 🙁 It rained through the night but happily we awoke to sunshine on Sunday morning. We attended a lovely church service at St. Mary the Virgin church and then went back to the boat to try our new inflatable kayak. For our first trip out we did okay- we made it to shore and didn’t flip it over getting in or out so we will take it as a success!
Monday again brought fair weather so we ventured on shore to take a walk and get some provisions. We found a supermarket that had things we had not seen since the states. It was small but jam packed with every specialty item you could imagine. As you probably could guess, the prices were very expensive but I am sure it is quite expensive for them to get and stock those items as well. We did buy some tofu and black beans which surprisingly have been hard to find in our recent stops. Next we went to a boutique that I read about called Bequia Threadworks. Bequia Threadworks is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote economic freedom and women’s empowerment on the island through employment and training. They have grown a team of local artisans who have created a collection of womens and menswear designed and manufactured in house by their team, including a fashion designer, patternmaker and ten seamstresses. They are committed to sustainability and responsibly sourcing low impact fabrics so most of their collection is made of organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, or linen. The clothes were gorgeous and so well designed. I truly saw so many beautiful pieces it was hard to pick but with our upcoming trip to the states for a wedding, I found something that I hope I can use for that trip. They do have an online shop if you are interested in supporting their work.
On Wednesday, we made the hike over to the Bequia Heritage Museum. It was a bit of a trek with the uphill and downhill (3.7 kilometers each way) but it was well worth it! The museum explores Bequia’s famed maritime history, including boat and shipbuilding, carenage in the harbor, and whaling which still continues today. It houses artifacts documenting Bequia’s earliest inhabitants, the Amerindians, dating back to as early as 300 AD. But the greatest treasure was the docent who provided us with a two hour interesting and knowledgeable review of the history. She was so engaging and really made history come alive. Once we were done with the initial presentation in the Annexe that houses the artifacts, we went next door to the boat museum that housed examples of their boat building and whaling boats. It was fascinating to learn about the process of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling or whaling by traditional techniques. Bequia is one of only a handful of places that is granted a quota of 4 whales annually by the International Whaling Commission to be taken by this traditional whaling method between January and April. The traditional method is quite dangerous. The whalers chase the humpbacks in wooden double-ended sailboats using hand-held harpoons attached to ropes. Once the whale is harpooned a whaler has to climb on the back of the thrashing whale and sew its mouth shut to prevent it from swallowing water and sinking. The men then have to sail the boat to the whaling station in Semples Cay to process it, towing the whale, not an easy task. The docent shared that a documentary was made about whaling in Bequia called, “The Wind That Blows”. We are looking forward to watching it to learn more. Truly this museum experience was the best we have had in the Caribbean.
We are currently planning to stay here until Sunday to allow some weather to move through. We will then take our final jump to Grenada where we will be staying for a little bit of time to do some work on Meraviglia and make a quick trip back to the states for our niece’s wedding! We are so glad we got to explore this special place and hope to someday come back to Bequia!
August 18, 2024 at 2:21 pm
SO enjoying my vicarious learning!!
August 30, 2024 at 4:32 pm
Not too long ago, I read a book about whales and whaling. It was enlightening how dangerous (and damaging) whaling is/was, and how it’s allowed for certain native populations. So cool!