Sailing solo
19 May 2014 | Bequia
Steve
Monday 19th May
Thank you everyone who sent emails and texts wishing me a happy birthday, it made my day. It is always nice to hear from family and friends at home and to know people are thinking of you.
It was Saturday afternoon before Joy was all back together and it was getting late and as Jeremy still had a few things to tidy up, I headed off to see if I could secure a couple of mooring buoys down at the Pitons for the night which would make the next day’s sail a lot shorter. There were two left so I took one and reserved the other for Joy who turned up in the dark.
The next day I was rewarded with a glorious sail with 15kts on the beam and flat seas under clear skies for my birthday and ended up in Wallilabou Bay on the island of St Vincent. This happened to be the bay they shot the first Pirates movie where there is still some of the set and wharfs that they used. The rock with the hole in it that had hung pirates as you enter the bay is there as well. Mention must be made of the boat boys who greet you as you enter and try to sell services, fruit and fish, which are normally ok but these guys are aggressive in their manner and at one stage I had seven different boat boys hanging on to the boat all trying to get something for nothing. It was very hard to remain polite while refusing their offers. Two eventually ended up with a beer each so I could just to get rid of them. Then we went into the customs who were supposed to open the office at 5pm but never showed up, so we had a couple of beers in the local bar and retired back to Joy for burritos, drinks and a few laughs.
Monday morning I decided to leave J & S as they had to pick up Suzie’s mum from the airport, and I am pretty sure they were getting sick of the sight of me by now. So I headed off to Bequia (pronounced Beck way) which is the first of the Grenadines as you head south. I arrived around lunch time, put Mr Slappy in and headed to customs to check in again only to find they were closed for lunch. Grrr. Eventually formalities complete I was sitting under a palm tree have a something to eat when I saw Steve and Shaun from Amaris walk by. I called them over they were blown away to see me there and after a chat we organised to go snorkelling that afternoon and then a couple of drinks on their boat before retiring to Pannikin for a rest for the afternoon.