February 2025 – March 2025

One of the challenges we’ve found cruising and maintaining the boat, is that in order to actually get projects done, you have to stay somewhere long enough to complete it. This season we wanted to add “chaps” to the dingy which is a projective canvas covering that keeps the sun and salt from damaging the rubber. We had heard there was a company in Bequia (Beck-Way) that does a great job so we had reached out to them to schedule it for mid February. Since there were heavy winds forecasted for the week ahead, we had to get to there a week early, to be sure we made it and also because it’s a nice and protected harbor. We arrived to Admiralty Bay on February 9th and stayed for over three weeks!

We spent time in Bequia last year and so were familiar with the wonderful community of the main harbor, Admiralty Bay. Locals provide all the services you need: fuel, water, ice, laundry and more, delivered right to your boat! There are wonderful restaurants and bars that line the whole harbor. Many establishments offer a dingy dock and don’t mind if you tie up and walk to town or go somewhere else – which is unique among the islands where finding a spot to land your dingy can be a challenge. Lafayette who owns the Fig Tree restaurant runs the morning “net” on the VHF welcoming everyone, checking on safety issues, sharing activities, special events and a favorite segment called “treasures of the bilge” – where cruisers can sell or give away what they no longer need and ask for stuff they are seeking.

In addition to getting our dingy chaps made (we’re very happy with them and we enjoyed working with the team at Grenadine Sails), highlights included a trip to the Bequia Heritage Museum where Nicola the curator provided a wonderful history lesson of the island dating back to its first inhabitants (the Caribs who arrived from Venezuela) to the British and French who both occupied the island for some point of time and finally the “yankees” who introduced whaling in the 1800s. We played “golf” on the 3 par “course” at the Firefly Estate which was basically a big field with flags – but a total blast and happily I won, probably because Billy picked the wrong club (you only get to pick one). That was followed by a delightful lunch and a visit to the Grenadine Salt factory where we bought some amazing flavored sea salts.

We found a walking group among the local Bequia cruisers (via WhatsApp) who meet a few times a week at the town dock to go on walks and hikes. We joined for the hike to “Ma Peg” which is one of the highest points on the island. We met at the town dock and one of the organizers suggested we take a bus to the trail head and then walk back after. Well, somehow we got commandeered into a local delivery truck for the same fare ($2.50 EC per person = $.93 US per person) and along with the eggs and produce they had loaded in from the ferry, they stuffed all 9 of us in for the 2 mile ride. It was a wild ride! We all piled out at the start of the trail and started the steep hike up – it was a bit challenging but rewarding with amazing views!

On our walk back to town we were all getting a little thirsty and someone said they had heard of a place with pool tables and cold beer. However, every place seemed closed. As we approached one large building Joe thought was the place, the owner called down from the upper balcony and Joe asked when they opened. The man started waving madly for us to come in and within minutes he was “open”. Michael, the proprietor of the Diamond bar served us cold beer and regaled us with stories of coming from Croatia (by boat), sailing up and down the Caribbean until settling in Bequia. He started his business over 20 years ago selling one cigarette at a time to local workers who passed by his property on their way to work. Then, he added rolling papers, beer and finally hot dogs (which he simply “warmed” in the sun). Now he has a full license to run a bar. He still sells hot dogs, bags of chips and single cigarettes. We stayed for a couple of rounds as his stories were just too good!

Then our good friends Don and Joan arrived! They once owned a J40 as we did and we spent several summers cruising together with our families. They flew to St. Vincent and came to Bequia by ferry. It was a long day of travel for them, but so fun to finally have them aboard! Earlier in the week a young man had stopped by the boat in a little dingy inviting us to come up to the Bush Bar Tree House for dinner. It sounded pretty interesting and Don and Joan were game so we decided to give it a try. We took a taxi (as recommended) up the steep hill out of town and then the driver stopped and directed us to the “path” to the restaurant which was more of a hiking trail and it took us about 15 minutes to get there. Way up in the woods overlooking Admiralty Bay, the owner Ken built his “tree house”. It started out as a little bar and now is a full fledged restaurant. We were their only patrons so had the place to ourselves. The view was amazing and the service and food was terrific – what an adventure!

Since Don and Joan are experienced sailors, we definitely wanted to do some sailing and so we headed south to Tobago Cays (24 miles) for a couple of days. We had good wind and a spirited sail down. We enjoyed relaxing in the cays (had a great mooring location) but unfortunately it was too windy to swim with the turtles so we decided to head to a nearby island to check it out. Mayreau is a small island in the Grenadines (only 250 residents) which was hit hard by hurricane Beryl last July (check out the pictures of the church!) Remarkably they are recovering quickly, and we are so very happy we stopped in. We pulled into Salt Whistle Bay where Quian (Kee-An) met us to help tie onto the mooring and invite us to dinner. The bay has a lovely long white beach, with friendly vendors selling food and clothing. Dinner was awesome (once again the only guests) sitting right on the beach at a picnic table with freshly cooked fish. We finished our night with cocktails at the “Last Bar Before the Jungle” – the drinks were excellent and the vibe amazing.

We wanted to make sure Don and Joan got to visit the Bequia Heritage Museum so we sailed back up to Bequia and did a full day tour of the island with Curtis to include a visit to the museum. Curtis is a character and seemed to be related to just about everybody we passed, which as explained by Nicola at the Heritage Museum is not unusual – everyone is interrelated. With some men having over 20 children: 10 with their wife and 10 “outside” children (who belong to their “outside” wives – oh my)! It leads to an interesting and highly integrated community!

Of course having our sailing friends aboard we had to take advantage and get some work done. Don and Joan helped us install new jack lines and put in our new running lights. Finally, on their last day, Don was celebrating a “big” birthday – how lucky are we that he chose to spend his birthday with us?! We went to Provisions (now one of our favorite restaurants in the Caribbean) in the lower bay and had an amazing dinner on his birthday “eve” then on his actual birthday we walked Princess Margaret’s and Lower Bay beach and had lunch at Jack’s bar. It’s amazing how quickly a week will go by – and next thing we knew they were back on the ferry heading back to the frigid temps of Boston!

Next we’ll be heading north and towards home. “Wahoo!” says Kate and “Boo-hoo!” says Billy. We do plan to move pretty quickly up to the BVIs and then over to the Bahamas to launch back home in early May. More to come…..