Born of the Sea

Preparing for a phased retirement on the sea. Muirgen (Gaelic for 'born of the sea')

30 January 2025 | Aruba to Santa Marta
17 January 2025 | Bonaire
10 January 2025 | Spanish Bay, Curacao
03 January 2025 | The Caribbean Sea
16 December 2024
02 December 2024 | Bequia, SVG
28 November 2024 | Union Island, SVG and Mayreau, SVG
26 November 2024 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
22 November 2024 | Paradise Beach, Carriacou
15 November 2024 | The Cove, Grenada
10 November 2024 | The Cove Marina
04 November 2024 | London and Grenada
27 May 2024 | Saint George's, Grenada
26 May 2024 | Ile de Ronde, Grenada
21 May 2024 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
14 May 2024 | Union Island, SVG
10 May 2024 | Mayreau, Grenadines
09 May 2024 | Tobago Cays, Grenadines

Rhythms of Bequia

16 December 2024
Donna Cariss
With friends departed, it was time to settle into a rhythm in Bequia, which would include shopping, garbage disposal and a morning or lunchtime drink, on most days. Additionally, there would be trips to the chandlery, the sailmaker, laundry and hardware shop, as deemed necessary and visits to various establishments for happy hours. On Monday, 2nd December, we located another sailmaker, Alick and discussed the required sun covers with him, as it seemed unlikely that Grenadine Sails were going to have time to fit our order in. Having shopped and considered that eating out may actually be cheaper than buying fruit and vegetables from the local stallholders, we returned to the boat to create a plan, with measurements for the sun covers, which Alick had said he could do by the end of the week. Being Monday, we had an alcohol and meat free day, enjoying cheese on toast for lunch and aubergine and mozzarella with tomatoes for tea. The wind picked up in the afternoon and we had gusts up to 35 mph all through the night. This would be the state of the weather for another couple of weeks, making it difficult to sleep, just due to the noise. Everyone said that the Christmas winds had arrived early. After a few nights, we decided to close the hatches, which reduced the wind noise but had to put on the fans to keep ourselves comfortable. Each evening, we would also lift the dinghy and engine, to prevent it banging on the back of the boat and also reduce growth on her bottom.
On Tuesday, we took our plan to Alick and negotiated a price of 2800 EC, then went to the bank to withdraw cash for the 50% deposit. We visited, for the first time, the upbeat bar on the corner, opposite the ferry dock, for juice (me) and beer (Pete). It was cheap here, in Rendez Vous, with great, friendly service and a toilet, though we learned to take our own paper. This would become a fairly regular part of our routine and Pete came to know the bar lady, Maro, quite well. Tuesday evenings are for happy hour, 5.30 to 7pm, at the Plantation Hotel. All drinks are half price and there's a husband and wife, Jan and Louis, playing jazz on keyboards and sax. The pizzas here are delicious, so we would share a 14" with 50/50 toppings. We met people from Minnesota and Idaho, on our first visit and went with Andy and Irene (Saracen) on the second occasion. Then we were joined by their fellow Scots, Angela, Mike, son Ben and daughter Annelise.
On Wednesday morning at 8am, we remembered to listen to the cruiser net on VHF channel 68. It's on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, providing updates on the weather, social events, information for cruisers and treasures of the bilge. Later, the net broadcast days would change to Tuesday to Friday, as the anchorage became busier. With the strong winds, the wind turbine was really coming into its own, with the batteries on float before 9am in each morning, when the sun was hardly reaching the solar panels. This allowed us to make water whenever we fancied, ensuring that the system was in regular use. Today was a day for chores, with Pete polishing the steel work while I dusted and cleaned the saloon, galley and heads. In the afternoon, we had a visit from Sean and Zak, 2 American guys, sailing a 35 foot British built yacht. They always seem to anchor at the outer edge of the anchorage and they told us it's because their engine has failed, so they have to sail in to anchor. Later that evening, Zak returned with a lobster for us. It was huge and barely fit in the bucket.
On Thursday lunchtime, we met John and Darcey, an American couple, in Rendez Vous. They had sailed here for years but had now sold the boat and bought a home in Lower Bay. John still does the morning cruiser net, one day a week. We chatted about sailing standards and Darcey said she was still being annoyed by her pet hate, boats with strobe lights, as she could see them flashing from her terrace at home. We spent another 80 dollars in Dockside Marine, buying lines and clips for our new sun covers and went home, to Muirgen, to make lobster thermidor for tea. The gusty wind continued through the night and then suddenly dropped, at 4am and all was weirdly calm. Then came the torrential rain but the winds did not pick up again.
Friday 6th December we bought a string of fairy lights for the boat, picked up and paid for our sun covers and collected our laundry. Note that the cheapest place for laundry, at 25 EC per load, washed and dried, is behind the church, on the upper level of the blue building. Everywhere else it's 40EC. Today we also found frozen samosas in Knight's Trading, available in beef, chicken, conch, fish or 2 types of vegetables. Over the next few weeks we would try all of them except conch and all were very good, gently baked in the oven, as deep fat frying isn't practical on board. The fish were jumping all around the boat and Pete hooked a jack on his second cast but had no further luck after that. We put up our new rear awning, which had an immediate impact, creating lovely shade in the cockpit. At happy hour, we went to Mac's for drinks, so I could take advantage of the 10 EC cocktail, Paradise Passion.
On Saturday morning, we treated ourselves to breakfast at Sugar and Spice (open daily from 7.30 am to 7.30pm, including Christmas Day). I had a croque monsieur and Pete had the blueberry magic smoothy. Then we had a call from Mark, back in York, to say that Dale was just pulling in on the ferry from Saint Vincent and wanted to meet up with us for a coffee, before he and his friends climbed Ma Peggy. We hadn't met Dale before but know his wife, Jane and many of his friends in York. Back on board, we strung up the Christmas lights and fitted the sun awning on the starboard side, where the sun comes from early in the day. Around 3pm, we met Dale and his friends for a beer. They had enjoyed their walk up the hill and shared their photos of the views from the top. We ate the jack for tea, with chips.
On Sunday morning, we noticed that Andy and Irene had arrived, on Saracen but we didn't bump into them until the following day. We headed ashore for lunch, planning to go to the Fig Tree, where we could listen to the man with the electric violin. However, the lunch menu was pretty basic, so we left and walked around the bay, eventually reaching Open Deck, on the north west side, about 2 miles from where we had docked the dinghy at Jack's. The restaurant was empty and we weren't sure whether they were open, as they like you to book in advance. Pete called out and a young man came to serve us. He brought us beer and said they could do us a pizza, lobster, chicken or vegetable. 30 minutes later, we were served a massive, freshly made chicken and onion pizza, which was delicious and not expensive. We chatted with the restaurant owner, Daffodil, who was lovely and she insisted on us being taken back to Jack's in their laundry boat. From Jack's Bar, we walked the length of Princess Margaret's Beach (so called because she went topless there) to The Original Lion's Den, owned by Lennox. There we met Rob, from South Africa, who we would see almost daily, from then on, in Sugar and Spice, where we often had tea or breakfast, chatting with Rob, his young daughter, Mona and Lars, from Sweden, who we had met here last season. At 5pm, we motored over to Saracen to have sundowners and catch up with Andy and Irene.
On Monday (9th Dec) Pete started his quest to catch a red snapper. The winds had eased somewhat, along with the swell, so Pete took the dinghy over to the reef, to the north west of the bay, to trawl with his fishing rod. He was soon back, having had a bite but the fish had taken his lure. He returned with a bigger rod and had bites but didn't catch anything. He decided that the fish didn't like the metal lure and would drop it as soon as they touched it. Today, we had a roti for the first time on Bequia, visiting the little food bar opposite Knight's, as recommended by Darcey. The beef roti was fabulous. The lady also makes her own juices, sorrel being my favourite. On Sunday, we had walked by the beer warehouse, so for the first time of many, we headed there to buy Hairoun by the crate. With 15 bottles to return, the cost for a crate of 24 beers was 76 EC. On subsequent visits, with a full crate of empties, the price would fall to 71 EC, much cheaper than the 5.50 a bottle in the shops. Tonight it was calm, with a lovely sunset, making for a pleasant evening in the cockpit.
Tuesday was Christmas shopping day (online), to buy presents for our niece, Kyla and I was finished by 0730. We had fallen into the rhythm of early nights and early mornings, to match the daylight hours of the Caribbean. We found the fishing supplies shop and bought some new squid lures with tracers on, in the hope they would prove more successful. At 5.30pm, we met Andy and Irene at the Plantation for half price drinks and a pizza and were joined by Mike and Angela, their son, Ben and 10 year old daughter, Annelise, whose yacht is also registered in Ardrossan and was previously moored across from Saracen.
Wednesday was a change from the norm, other than Pete failing to get a bite when he went fishing, just after dawn. We met Andy and Irene at Jack's Bar, at 11am and set off to walk to and climb Ma Peggy, the highest point on the island. The route took us up the road behind the beach and over the hill towards Adams Bay, with views of Friendship Bay along the way. After a couple of miles, we turned right up a ridiculously steep driveway for 150 metres. We then proceeded slowly upwards, across scrubland, taking occasional shade from trees. The last kilometre to the top was quite rocky, passing through bushes and small trees, becoming steeper until we eventually emerged on the pinnacle known as Ma Peggy. The views were spectacular, out to Mustique, Baliceaux and Carriacou to the south and over Admiral Bay and Port Elizabeth, with all the anchored yachts, to the north. There were some beautiful, large butterflies around, including cream and black zebras and an orange and black species. We feasted on hard boiled eggs, crisps and ginger biscuits, before starting the descent, retracing our steps for a time, before making a left turn to head towards Lower Bay. The route followed the almost dry bed of a rocky stream and required a lot of scrambling and hanging onto tree branches to swing from place to place or steady yourself down the steep hillside. We made a right turn and came out on the road, which was also so steep you needed to walk down sideways. Eventually we arrived at Keegan's Bar, in Lower Bay, where we had a beer before walking back to Princess Margaret's Beach and collecting our dinghies from Jack's. The walk was 9km and had taken 3 hours, with the stop. It had been very enjoyable and well worth the effort.
Overnight, there was an uncomfortable swell coming into the bay, due to some north in the wind and the boat rolled from 2am, keeping us awake. Eventually we slept from 0530 and didn't wake until 0815. We picked up the anchor and moved further inshore, anchoring off the walkway, just south of the Plantation. Pete cleaned the boat bottom and I snorkelled to check the anchor, which was wedged around and under a rocky ledge. A British couple, on a small Gibsea called Twenty Twenty brought us a nice piece of tuna, having caught a large one as they sailed over from Mustique. We had a little as carpaccio, before tea. There was a fire, over the hill, sending clouds of acrid, black smoke into our part of the bay and as we sat in the cockpit, clouds of tiny, black flies landed on Pete and his side of the boat. Sitting on the port side, I had no flies at all. Pete headed to bed early, with me following soon after. Around 9pm, I could hear very loud karaoke and the singers weren't very good. I assumed the noise was coming from Jack's Bar but it turned out to be coming from the north side of the bay and everyone, on every boat in the bay could hear it. It went on until 2.30am, with the quality of the singing getting worse, as the singers became more drunk. Within 10 minutes of it ending, the boat turned side on to the swell and the rolling started and continued all night, so there was no sleep for me. It was bad moods all round next morning.
I changed the bedding and Pete went off lobster hunting with Andy, Irene, Rob, Mike and Ben but they caught nothing and then we all went ashore for 'doubles', which are supposed to be delicious but the sauce is made with chickpeas, so I declined to try one. We had samosas on board and then went to Saracen for an afternoon of Mexican Train dominoes. At last we had a calm night and I went out like a light at 8pm and slept for 11 hours with very few waking moments.
Saturday was very wet, with rain all day until 4pm, when we went ashore to Cheri's Rooftop Terrace for tacos and mojitos, her Saturday afternoon special. Then it was down to Rendez Vous to await the big Christmas lights switch on. We sat with Mike, Angela and the kids and met Julia and her dad, who were visiting Bequia for a few days. There was music on the stage and the rum punch was flowing. It was 11pm by the time we were back on board, for another good night's sleep.
On Sunday, everyone went swimming down in Lower Bay. The beach is steep and being full moon tonight, the waves were crashing up the beach, making it hard to get out without getting your swimwear full of sand. I avoided that by getting Pete to pick me up in the dinghy, after he relaunched it from the beach. Back on board, we had a WhatsApp video call with Steven and Joanna, who had landed in Barbados and would be flying over to Saint Vincent the following morning. We arranged to meet them off the Bequia Express ferry, at 5pm. We had the fresh tuna for tea.
Comments
Vessel Name: Muirgen
Vessel Make/Model: Westerly Typhoon
Hailing Port: Hull
Crew: Donna and Peter Cariss
Muirgen's Photos - Main
75 Photos
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Photos of Muirgen preparations
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39 Photos
Created 11 August 2017
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Created 23 June 2017
Photos are limited as the weather was dreadful and was mostly a white out. Photos are from the phone as too wet to take the cameras.
10 Photos
Created 19 June 2017
9 Photos
Created 17 June 2017
11 Photos
Created 15 June 2017
17 Photos
Created 15 June 2017
The Beautiful Kvitsoy
5 Photos
Created 5 June 2017
Weekend with Hommersak Divers at Kvitsoy
8 Photos
Created 5 June 2017
13 Photos
Created 30 May 2017
Mad creatures
16 Photos
Created 29 May 2017
Getting to Norway and waiting for Donna to fly out
6 Photos
Created 18 May 2017
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Created 6 December 2016
Buying Muirgen
6 Photos
Created 26 November 2016