The Islands of St Vincent, Part 3 of 3 or Anchoring Angst in Bequia

Bequia is the second largest island in the Grenadines and quite well known for its long tradition of whaling as well as the building of whaling boats. Today natives of  Bequia are allowed to catch a maximum of four humpback whales a year using only the traditional hunting method of a hand thrown harpoon in an open sailboat. Apparently this limit is rarely met and if exceeded a heavy fine is incurred.

 When we stopped briefly in Beguia in May of last year it was a very quiet little town. I think we were the only tourists around at the time. Uh not so this time around...

We knew the winds were about to pick up so we left Tobago Cays after a few days for the more protected Admiralty Bay harbor in Bequia. Or so we thought… As it turns out, I would highly recommend NOT ANCHORING in Admiralty Bay harbor during the holidays. The harbor is not known for its great holding having a hard grassy/sandy bottom. Even the mooring balls have been known to break loose. To make it worse, add the high gusty winds and strong currents ripping through the harbor which is typical for this time of year. Then mix in the inexperienced holiday cruiser and a crowded anchorage and you have cooked up quite the messy concoction!

A cruiser really needs to take the time to dive on the anchor to ensure it’s properly set and not leave the boat before doing so. This is even more crucial in a crowded harbor where you not only have to worry about your boat but other people’s boats.  Jeff and I took great pains to make sure we were set.

Our boat "Grace" cuddling up to some big boys!

Even with that, we had to reset once due to dragging. We finally breathed a sigh of relief when we both dove on the anchor and confirmed that the anchor was so flush with the ground it was not going anywhere.

Sandy/grassy bottom pretty evident here!

It was absolutely buried.

Jeff and I found such pleasure in this. We snorkeled over to it every day in awe of our good fortune. So we were set but what about the other guy?!…. From our own experience dragging and hearing reports of other boats dragging … we knew this harbor could get dicier as more boaters came in for the New Year's holiday.

And unfortunately our concerns were not unwarranted. We spent the evening prior to New Year’s Eve watching a 40' catamaran anchor, just as it turned dark of course, not twenty feet in front of us and then apparently proceed to go to sleep. After several hours of watching them drift closer and closer to us and shining our spotlight on them to no avail, Jeff had to dinghy over and knock loudly on their hull to alert them to move their BIG A$$. At this point they were only five feet away from us!  Luckily their grouchiness upon being awoken turned into alertness and we spent the wee hours of the evening bemusedly watching this catamaran pull up anchor and try to reset several times before they skedaddled out of the harbor into the black of night in high winds YIKES!!!!  Here’s another tip. DO NOT ANCHOR AT NIGHT!!!!

The next day, on New Year’s Eve, we came back, after going ashore, to a large group of revelers on a mono-hull sailboat anchored about thirty feet in front of us. Again there were strong winds and currents. We were hoping against hope that they had taken the time to set their anchor. But no, it was not to be. They were blissfully oblivious to the fact that they were slowly dragging back on us.

(Nevertheless, this did not stop us from having another extraordinary fresh lobster dinner to hale in the New Year, BY GOLLY!)

Okay, back to the story. It was about 11:30 PM, we were fully satiated on our fresh lobster curry pasta ready to relax and enjoy the NYE midnight fireworks. The partying on the ever-encroaching boat was in full gear. There was dancing on the bow and whooping, hollering in the cockpit YAHOO!!!!!… AND THERE WE WERE shining our spotlight on them using our highest beam. Man do we know how to crash a party or what?! Again, fortunately, there were a couple of people on the boat that noticed, cared and understood our signal. It suddenly became deathly quiet, the dancing gals scurried off the deck, everyone huddled in the salon but the captain and maybe one or two crew, the motor came on and the anchor came up. We spent New Year’s Eve exhaustedly enjoying the fireworks while watching another poor boat try to unsuccessfully reset several times before skulking off to a mooring ball on the other side of the harbor.

From then on, I decided to dive on other people’s anchors who set in front of us. Better to know what we’re dealing with right off the bat, I say. Only one other boat had to reset. Hey there was no prodding on my part… I was just swimming around and around their anchor! ;). Okay I'm done with my rant!

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One great service Bequia offered to boaters was direct tender service providing laundry services, fresh potable water, diesel and gas. As mentioned in previous posts it is often quite a challenge to access these services island to island and we found this to be a luxury we took full advantage of. 

The holiday crowd starting thinning out and we were finally able to get some uninterrupted sleep.

While waiting for the winds and waves to abate before the next leg of our journey, we took several walks up an down and around the island which is only seven square miles ...

We saw a lot of diversity ranging from the very beautiful

To the curious...

To the just plain shocking...

There is a large Rastafarian population on Beguia. This graffiti is proudly displayed on a dwelling fairly close to the market place in town.

After approximately ten "interesting" days, we were finally able to seize a weather window of opportunity to head to our next destination of Martinique.


A wondrous journey to all,

Pam and Jeff