Saconi playing and singing his song in Bequia for us. Nice song!
Sailing down the coast of St. Lucia with the famous Pitons close by.
The walkway around the coast of Bequia with Maria and our friends making their way to the beach.
Maria after her hair appointment in French Martinique. Her hairdresser was from Paris of course!
The dinghy dock in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.
Aspen at the dock in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia.
A local boat in St. Lucia. Ja lives!
Sailing down the coast of St. Vincent.
Bequia sees a lot of the classic sailing ships in Admiralty Bay, where we are.
A cannon overlooking Admiralty Bay, Bequia.
Bequia is very picturesque with the Frangipani tree blooming.
Maria with Laurie and Pauline from Cat Tales under a nice arch.
Steve admiring the geology of the arch.
Don't you just love the signs on the Bequia beach? The bags are for sale too.
S/Y Aspen – March 21, 2015 – Log #130
Aspen Position: 13 degrees 00’ N 061 degrees 14’ W
Bequia, Caribbean
Time passes ever so slowly in the tropics, once we are this far south. Life is easy sitting under the limin' tree in Bequia watching people parade along the beach next to the sea. So where did we leave off last blog?
Ah yes, St. Lucia was welcoming us back once again. The place where we completed our trip around the planet was a delightful stop on our continuing journey south.
We went into the marina to refuel, recharge our batteries and refresh our minds with a secure place to stay. In doing so we avoided the French boats who like to anchor as close as possible to Aspen because they mistakenly believe our anchor rests in the absolute best place in an anchorage.
Being from Colorado and wide open spaces, we like to place Aspen in 5 acres of open sea without anyone coming into our protected space. But that isn't possible here so we endure boats swinging within mere feet of us most of the time. Oh well, it is a small price to pay in order to enjoy the sailing life.
Once our stores of food, liquor and electricity were replenished we headed out to sea, turning to port with a fantastic weather window, sailing down the coast of St. Lucia and St. Vincent. An enormous humpback whale breeched a mere 1/4 mile away from Aspen, sending a wave of water nearly 20 feet into the air before diving deep into the deep blue Caribbean Sea off St. Vincent.
12 hours after leaving St. Lucia with our lovely sail, Aspen was safely anchored near Princess Margaret Beach on tiny Bequia, a cruising crossroads in the southern Caribbean.
Bequia has changed since we last visited in 2009, like most places in the Caribbean. Progress marches on but luckily things move at a slower pace here.
The vegetable market is still bustling with activity most mornings, as are the little shops lining the street through the village of Port Elizabeth on Admiralty Bay, our main anchorage in Bequia. Sailors wander through these streets looking for the usual things: groceries, lunch and rum (well sometimes beer, we have been told). There are also nice hikes to take and view the sea from so many different vantage points, looking north to the mainland of St. Vincent and south toward the legendary Grenadines.
Maria and I plan to spend a couple of weeks in Bequia before heading out. The charter boats keep us entertained as they arrive while the beaches glisten in the sun. Besides, the annual Bequia Easter Sailing Regatta will happen so and we can't miss that! We heard the parties are not to be missed, oh, and there is sailing too.
This time I put a video on our blog with a little song about Bequia. I hope you enjoy it.
Sail on, sail on Aspen…
The book, Voyage Into Hell by Steve Siguaw can be found at Amazon.com too.
It looks so great in the Caribbean and the sailing looks great as well. We need to sail down there and make a full comparison to the Bahamas. We have chartered there 6+ times and been on IP buddies boats several times but only the Bahamas on our boat. Thanks for the great report.
ReplyDeleteHayden in da Bahamas