We decided to go for a long walk on Monday, March 26 to the turtle sanctuary about three miles away. Nino, Quicksilver, Sunshine II, Moondance and Just Imagine's crews all headed out in the heat. The sanctuary was quite interesting having been started privately by a former fisherman and turtle hunter. He finds turtle eggs and and marks their location, notes the date and calculates approximately when they will hatch. He then returns at the appropriate time and picks up the newly hatched turtles and keeps them in tanks until they have a chance of survival in the wild. Too many predators which is why the turtles are protected.
After viewing the turtle sanctuary, we walked back and stopped at Dawne's for lunch. The hamburger that Cheryl and I both had was dreadful, actually unidentifiable. We also stopped at the Whaleboner Restaurant for another beer before getting back to town. Good day and a good long walk.

Nino, Quicksilver, Sunshine II, Moondance and Just Imagine all arrived in Bequia on March 21 after another good sail. Last year we had met Winfield Sargeant who does varnishing and when he approached us again this time we contracted him to refinish our cockpit doors. Over the course of about two weeks he stripped the old varnish off, put on two coats of primer and then 6 coats of varnish. Looks great!
Winfield also told us that Bequia is allowed to catch two whales a year. This is quite controversial but it is what it is. We saw the whale hunting boat just outside of the harbor chasing a whale and were told that had it. Later we were informed that it had gotten away.

After my birthday celebration March 19, 2012 at the Mangrove Restaurant on the beach in Canouan, we spent one more day there before heading to Bequia which is just south of the main island of St. Vincent.

Just Imagine at anchor.