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| Beautiful Bequia |
One of the things that has become evident in this cruising
lifestyle is that no amount of money is ever enough and even though we stick to
a strict budget, the level of the money bucket just keeps going down. We have
spent long hours mulling over ways to keep ourselves afloat for the next
however long we can continue this life and one prospect we had been exploring
before leaving South Africa was to get involved in the Chartering world, not on
our own yacht but working for one of the established Charter Companies, so
prevalent in the Caribbean.
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| Tradewinds Base in Bequia |
On our arrival in Bequia we learned of an option that seems
like it might be a good fit with our lifestyle, that is relief charter work for
a company called Tradewinds. Basically we would be captain and 1st
mate, leading charters when the permanent crew are off on vacation or unable to
work. It’s flexible and we could make it fit as we’d still be living on MaXScene
and, as Tradewinds operate out of many Islands in the Caribbean, we would be
flown to where needed if we hadn’t already sailed there.
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| Our chariot for the week |
Tradewinds offered us
a training week on a charter out of Bequia to get a feel for how things work,
whether we would be up to the challenge and right for the job.
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| Beautifully turned out Cabins |
We arrived in Bequia on Wednesday, met the base manager
Jason and his wife, organised to leave MaXScene at the base while we were gone
and two days later we were in the thick of things as 3 yachts were going out on
charter and a lot of things need to happen/fall into place. We met the crew we
would be “shadowing” Sandy and Lloyd and so began our whirlwind introduction
week to charter work.
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| Lending a helping hand to Sandy |
We hosted a lovely family and sailed from Bequia to Tobago
Cays and back, Kevin got to work out the intricacies of sailing a 50ft yacht
(ours is 38ft) and I learned how to prepare, cook and serve, with finesse, 6
courses of food daily, everything made from scratch. Tuesday night is
turnaround night and the yacht is given the once over, in the two hours that the
family were ashore eating dinner at a beautiful restaurant on the beach of
Petite St Vincent, the yacht was “turned around”, used linen and towels were
exchanged for new ones, the boat was pulled apart, washed and put back together
spic and span.
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| MaXScene parked on the end of the walk-on |
After 6 days of traversing the beautiful islands of the St
Vincent Grenadines the charter was over and we returned to the base in Bequia.
After helping the other charters going out and sorting out the yacht we had
arrived back on, we climbed back on board, heaved a huge sigh of relief, hugged
our MaXScene and headed back out into the bay to relax and enjoy Bequia and do
some thinking.
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| MaXScene on anchor in front of the Plantation Hotel, which daily sells freshly baked croissants & breads via dinghy to boats on anchor |
Bequia is, in our opinion, one of the most beautiful of the Grenadine
Islands, volcanic in origin it is the largest of the St Vincent dependencies
and has a charm that is hard to beat with the majority of the population being
friendly and awesome. We spent some time snorkelling in the bay, loads to see
and the water is crystal clear. The beaches are pristine and there is a walkway
– The Princess Margaret walkway – which runs the majority of the beach in Port
Elizabeth bay and into Princess Margaret bay (Princess Margaret actually
visited the island while staying in her home on Mustique, one of the
neighbouring islands, and walked on the beach, hence the naming of the pathway
and beach).
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| Bar One |
The foreshore is lined with restaurants serving delicious fare and
there is a floating bar called the Bar One, where two of the funniest guys make
delicious cocktails.
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| Fishing boats at Paget Farm |
The far end of Bequia is home to Moonhole, a private
nature reserve that is purposefully difficult to access. It gets its name from
a hole in the volcanic rock through which the moon can be seen.
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| Moonhole from the water |
The first house
was built here, underneath the hole and was built using only local materials such
as whalebones (the bar counter was made from the jaw of a whale), native
hardwood and objects recovered from the sea, the bathroom even had a tree
growing through it.
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| The first Moonhole house |
There are few houses built in the reserve, the proviso
being all have to be built from naturally sourced material, by local labour
from Paget Farm and with electricity and water supplied by solar power and rain
collection, all naturally obtained.
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| Entrance to Moonhole |
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| View from house at Moonhole |
We caught the bus to the airport, such as it is, and then
walked to the start of Moonhole from where the public may not proceed. Luck was
with us as there was a lady showing a beautiful house at the entrance to
prospective renters who were late and offered to show us around inside, all I
can say is WOW.
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| The Doc has some interesting artifacts |
On the way back we stopped at Doc Chevailler, he was the doc
who practised out of and lived in the yacht shaped building in Les Saintes
before it was damaged by hurricane Maria.  |
| and an interesting style of painting |
He doesn’t practice much anymore,
thankfully, he’s really old, but he does paint, some beautiful stuff and has a
mini maritime museum in his house overlooking Friendship bay, interesting time
spent with him.
Bequia is still just not quite far enough south for our
insurance to cover any damage done to our yacht by a named storm, so Tobago
Cays, here we come.
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| It's no wonder everyone wants to visit the Cays on charter |
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| Water so clear you can see the anchor from the boat |
We spent 2 days in Tobago Cays, snorkelling off Jamesby
Island with some awesome fish, juvenile sharks and rays and in the turtle
sanctuary with very many turtles, if you float quietly above them, they surface
around you undeterred, what an experience. Also got to enjoy a delicious fresh
fish caught and filleted by one of the local fishermen, fed us for 3 days.
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| The Church is the marker to turn at to see the magnificent view of Tobago Cays |
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| Down the hill to Salt Whistle Bay |
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| Saline Bay from the top of the hill |
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| The water reservoir behind the Church |
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| The Last Bar Before the Jungle |
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| Someone here has a keen sense of humour |
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| Beautiful beach at Chatham |
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| Sunset Cove perfect for sundowners |
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| "Turtles have right of way" |
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| The ruins of the old marina |
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| "Nursery zone, baby lobsters and fish napping" |
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| Suspension bridges where lagoon was reopened to the sea |
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| Dinghy dock at Clifton |
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| Miss Lucky didn't spend much on decor |
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| The sea rusts everything |
We had time to get a couple of things done, sewing repairs,
cleaning, noodling (water aerobics with a pool noodle), Mexican Train dominoes,
catching up with fellow cruisers, then a farewell dinner at Miss Lucky’s of
chicken, chips and coleslaw for 15ECD (R75.00) seriously good value for money,
before we tied Maxscene up in the marina and caught a plane back to Bequia to
do our first solo charter.
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| And she's the only person I've seen that sells intoxicated liquor |
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| Our LITTLE yellow chariot |
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| The windows opened for fresh air! |
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| One of us was clearly enjoying this more |
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| This all has to go somewhere |
A lovely family of 4 plus 2 friends, with the
daughter being both gluten and dairy intolerant, talk about baptism of fire!
We
had dinner just before the charter with our experienced cruising buddies Andre
and Alison from Turquoise Turtle Charters, who were incredibly supportive and
full of advice and ideas which really helped, then off we went.
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| Ready and waiting |
A lovely week
actually, we even managed to organise a romantic champagne breakfast on the
beach in Tobago Cays in celebration of their wedding anniversary, all round
they were very understanding of our and the yacht’s faults but oh boy it was
exhausting and stressful.
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| My happy place |
When we got back to Carriacou it took 2 days of lying
in my hammock off Sandy Island, doing nothing, to eventually regain my sense of
humour and energy.
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| The best way to enjoy a cocktail |
Then Tyler came to visit for 2 weeks, landing in Grenada so we
sailed down to pick him up. We treated him to a shopping expedition, by bus,
and dinner with our old friends from Cape Town, John and Sheri before heading
for Carriacou once more.
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| The coolest place to be was under the trampolines |
As it is hurricane season we weren’t going to be able
to travel too far north, the waterway in the mangroves in Carriacou being the
safe haven of choice if the weather got messy (and which was used by cruisers
when Hurricane Dorian brushed past), but we had some fun anyway and Tyler got
to experience first-hand how we live as cruisers.
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| Pub crawl along Paradise beach |
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| Out of curiosity I asked where the museum is - no one knows anything about a museum |
We had met and became part of a wonderful group of cruisers,
Angela & Gary, a South African couple on Mystic Blue, Les, a South African
on Golightly, Greg and Jenny, South African/English on Nebula and Susan and
Ken, Canadians who eventually became honorary South Africans on Whiskeyjack.
Socialising became loads of fun,
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| Dinghy raft up, great way to meet other cruisers |
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| Cooling off in the waters off Banana Joe's |
Angela is the best at organising which she
did, all the time, from dinners and pub crawls down Paradise beach, to games
and dinghy raft ups.
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| Sundowners with Wind Kat on Anse le Roche |
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| Tyler opted to go up the mast at Petite St Vincent, replaced a globe and got good photos |
Together with other Cruisers JK and Nelia on Windkat, we
made a trip to Anse le Roche bay on Carriacou, a whistle stop for cheap beer
and lunch on the beach on the little fishing Island of Petite Martinique
followed by a walk around Morpion, the cute little sand spit with its one
thatch umbrella and a night anchored in the gorgeous turquoise waters off
Petite St Vincent.
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| The little Morpion, we told Tyler it was huge and that he'd have to walk all the way around |
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| The only thing standing on Morpion beside us is this thatch umbrella |
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| Watching the locals jumping off the rocks on the Island tour |
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| The Grenada Chocolate Factory is a must |
The time flew past and suddenly we were heading for Grenada
once more – an Island tour with Cutty is a must and it didn’t disappoint, an
entire day of waterfalls, Mona Monkeys, rum and chocolate factories and a
nutmeg processing facility.
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| Beer tasting and tour at West Indies Brewing Company |
Hurricane Dorian had formed and was starting to
look like heading in our direction causing some consternation about getting
Tyler home, but fortunately it passed further north and he was able to fly home
unaffected.
We remained in Grenada, fortunately, as upon servicing the
motors Kevin discovered both raw water pumps were broken and leaking – luckily
fixable. All our buddy’s had arrived, Grenada has more – shops, supplies,
restaurants, choices, etc so is where most cruisers gravitate over hurricane
season, also Jenny and Ian were arriving in a couple of days.
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| The Steel drum band welcome at Prickly Bay |
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| Wallowing in Salt Whistle Bay |
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| Jenny loved those kayaks |
We wanted to show them some of the beauty we had been
experiencing sailing these Islands so once they were onboard and settled we
made for Carriacou and the beautiful Sandy Island. On to Tobago Cays, Mayreau,
Union and again ended their trip with an Island Tour of Grenada, this time the
west coast, which, even though it was a rainy day was truly amazing.
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| They thoroughly spoiled Kevin for his birthday with many presents |
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| Kevin was so excited about his lifters he put them on there and then, in the water |
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| Jenny even cooked birthday breakfast |
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| Then zooted around the bay like a kid before finally putting the dinghy back to bed |
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| At the top of the hill on Mayreau |
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| Tour of western side of Grenada, this waterfall was in flood and unrecognizable after much rain 1 week later |
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| Just chillin |
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| Definitely the spice Island |
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| Sorting nutmeg at the processing plant |
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| Everything so manual, here they are drying the cocoa beans |
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| Then the Rivers Rum distillery, Jenny & Ian braved tasting the wares, which left them speechless with a tear in their eyes |
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| Transferring from one vat to another, manually with a large ladel and sieve |
All too soon it seemed family visits were over and we had to concentrate on gathering the stuff we needed for our haul out in Carriacou and of course having a bit of fun in the meantime….
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