So here we sit.

We arrived into Bequia last Wednesday, almost a week ago, expecting to stay only a couple of nights. We found a beautiful bay anchorage at Friendship Bay on the south coast of this most comfortable, tiny island. There is a rather posh resort about 200 yards off our port side, ashore, where guests must be paying upwards of $500 per day for a room. We sit out here, at no daily fee, enjoying the same view, the same breeze, and the same superb white sand beach and crystal clear water. It seems somewhat surreal.

Upon our arrival to Bequia, we had heard that a rather uncomfortable NW’ly swell was heading toward the island and that boats in the main anchorage at Admiralty Bay around the corner of the island would be open to seas between them and this large swell. It was expected that the swell, anticipated to be upwards of 13 feet would arrive on Friday last, so we stayed in the more protected anchorage we chose upon arrival. For those unclear about what a swell is, most swells are just rolling waves which are natural in the open sea. The anticipated swell we had been warned about consisted of a rather over-zealous version of the normally sized ones. For this version, think of a mini-tsunami, like the one which devastated the Indian Ocean’s mainland after the horrible under sea earthquake a few years ago. Friday came and went, however, and no damaging swells occurred on the island so we decided to stay put in this idyllic spot we had chosen for a couple of more days. The internet was free and the connectivity was strong, the beach was white sand, the snorkeling was superb and we felt somewhat mesmerized by the location’s splendor.

Since Thanksgiving was coming, many of the boaters have begun to try to make some sort of plans for the holiday. We decided that since our anchorage was so nice, we’d just stay put until Wednesday, then move around the point to the larger and more populated Admiralty Bay for the feast day. No matter what George Bush says, down here, weather is always the great decider. With an appealing weather window opening of late, some of the boats have made decisions to move on sooner that Thanksgiving so the anticipated Turkey Day celebration seems somewhat anticlimactic at this point. We will stay on the island until Friday. However, then move north to St. Vincent to a harbor called Wallibalou, another of the outrageously beautiful sites used for the filming of the last Pirates of the Caribbean film. From there, we will continue north to St. Lucia hoping to arrive sometime early next week.

There is talk amongst the cruising community about attempting to get a gathering together at Antigua for the Christmas holiday, but after watching the plans for Thanksgiving unravel so quickly, I hold less hope for a holiday gathering to happen there either. So, the old phrase, one must be his own captain, continues to hold true out here. Plans, no matter how well intended seem to be always the second import to the opportunities presented when the weather turns, either good or bad.

Before our arrival into Bequia, we stayed at Carriacou for about a week before heading off to Union Island where we checked in, then anchored at an adjoining island we enjoyed so much onj our way down, Mayreau. It was at a pretty spot called Saline Bay. Nice anchorage but the rain was relentless. Oddly, when we returned to Grenada in November, we found the rain clouds seemed to act like we were the character “Pigpen” from the old Charlie Brown comic strip. They always seemed to be following us around. So we left Saline Bay when we heard that the weather had improved north of us. After a rough 7 hour passage across the open Atlantic waters between Mayreau and Bequia we arrived into Friendship Bay where we still sit, comfortably at anchor.

We have really enjoyed our stay here in Bequia, as the weather has been perfect and the island very friendly and accommodating to the cruising community. Yesterday, we took a rather strenuous hike around the coastline of this end f the island to a point where one could view the Atlantic and Caribbean Seas at once. It was quite a breathtaking site. We have also found our way into the town nearby to purchase provisions, even stopping for lunch at a quite good pizza joint where we enjoyed a good conversation with another cruising couple we met last year who also are from Colorado, Margo and Bob from Ivory Star. Tomorrow, we’ll head, via local bus, back into the town to re-provision, then return to our boat for Thanksgiving.

Non-cruising friends often ask: “What do you DO all day?”, as if we must feel bored not having to fill our days with the usual work-a-day activities. Since we’ve been back, we’ve made several boat repairs, done a thorough cleaning of the entire boat (as we found mealy moth infestation upon our return to Grenada!), we’ve enjoyed some shopping for food and boat parts, snorkeled a few times, hiked a bit and spent time catching up on some intended reading. Not quite the grind, many of us are used to, but still we keep active.

We are finding that we enjoy the exploring and adventure more that the repeat of re-visiting familiar places. We regret we weren’t able to go west to Bonaire and up across the big Caribbean to the Virgins but the return trip north, this way, will allow us a chance to visit some islands we either skipped past on the way south or where we felt we’d like to make a more thorough exploration. Stay tuned…