Port Elizabeth, Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Tuesday, January 30 

One of the challenges for the captain is to balance schedule (being on motor is faster than sailing, and wind direction affects speed), sea conditions (too much wind and he can only put up a few sails or the ship will “heel” too much) and the passengers’ wish to be under sail as much as possible. Today we were unable to put up the sails up in order to get to Bequia in the Grenadines with enough time to see the town and also appreciate the beach. 

During the morning at sea (and on other sea days) we benefitted from lectures by the staff, on ship construction, regional history, photography and local geology. These islands were at the center of a proxy war in the 1700s when in theory Europe was at peace. Some of the shifting back and forth of island control, particularly between France and England, was based on the business strategies of the dominant merchant / shipping companies. Our historian on board is from the Basque region, and is a naval history expert, which lends an interesting perspective. During one of her talks a pod of Spinner Dolphins appeared alongside the ship so, of course, her whole audience stood up to follow the dolphins rather than her lecture.  Once they passed by, she said somewhat jokingly, “they could have waited a little while instead of interrupting my talk”.

Bequia (pronounced Beck-wee) is part of the British Commonwealth and has a fishing and shipbuilding tradition, with many immigrants from Scotland. Nowadays the primary economy is tourism, and a popular craft is model shipbuilding. We visited the Sargeant Brothers model shipbuilding shop in Port Elizabeth, in operation since 1966. The HMS Britannia yacht was built in Bequia, and in 1985 the Sargeants gave the queen a model of that ship when she visited Bequia. We haven’t seen many new birds but Kevin did find a cool spider. 

During and after dinner we were entertained by a local quartet of guitar and banjo players. The music ranged from sea shanties to local songs to tunes from the 1960s and ‘70s that had many passengers singing along. The musicians seemed to have as much fun as the audience. 

Pictures: sunset, model boats, Spinner Dolphin, spider