So, we left le Marin and sailed to Bequia (pronounced Beck-way), one of the 27 islands that make up St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Bequia is just south of St. Vincent and the largest of the Grenadines. We arrived to find 5 other Salty Dawg boats here; Solmate, Frog’s Leap, La Rive Nord, Evening Star, and Tribute. We had planned to meet up with Solmate about 6 weeks ago so that we could have Passover Seder together. La Rive Nord and Tribute indicated that they wanted to join so of course we invited Frog’s Leap and Evening Star also. I have hosted more than 12 for Seder on Roxy, but it is a bit tight, so I was happy when Jen suggested that we could spend the evening on their generous catamaran, Solmate. This year there were 4 actual Jews, representing 3 boats, at the Seder! Plus, Compass Rose joined us by Zoom! That makes 6!! I think our past record is 3. Melissa (Tribute) made the charoset, I had the lamb shank and parsley, we used wasabi for the horseradish, and I had the matzos (thanks to Bill and Maureen on Kalunamoo). I made matzo ball soup, Jen made fabulous chicken, Kim (la Rive Nord) made potato kugel, Sue (Evening Star) made roast vegetable salad, and Karen (Frog’s Leap) brought fruit to compliment my canned macaroons for dessert. We had great discussion, comparing our upbringing and family traditions. Lots was learned, there was a lot of laughing and fun, even a little singing. It felt great telling the story once again. This was our 7th floating Seder and I love that we do it.
Friday began the Salty Dawg Bequia Rendezvous. Normally Bequia hosts the Easter Regatta this weekend each year. There are races for the local boat, for small class boats, and for yachts. Of course there are lots of parties, ceremonies and festivities. For some reason the yacht regatta didn’t get organized this year, so it didn’t happen. But we still had this Rendezvous on the Salty Dawg calendar, so I was “nominated” to organize it. I think I over-planned. Friday was okay, we went snorkeling in the morning and then met for sundowners at one of the local hotel/restaurants. Saturday we went to the Heritage Museum, which was great. The island’s history is ancient and the docent at the museum is very knowledgeable. The boat house with whaling boats is pretty amazing too.
After our mid-day naps we met up for dinner which was really fun (not great food though).
Sunday the Easter Flamingo visited the Salty Dawgs in the harbor leaving his goodies. Then we had brunch and followed by Dominos.
We were supposed to have a dinghy drift, but the wind has been so high, I tabled it for Monday, hoping for an easing of wind. Well, the wind did slack off a bit, but some of the boats left for one or two of the other islands. However, we picked up a few extra boats and everyone had a good time.
There is a bar in town called The Breadfruit Tree. (I suspect it’s called that because of the breadfruit tree growing through the roof of the building.) Ron and Mindy on Follow Me told us they serve really good fried chicken on Wednesdays and Fridays. So, we had to give it a try. That’s it. That’s all they serve. $10ec ($3.75 US) gets you a foil pouch with four pieces of wonderful fried chicken. Another $5ec gets you a glass of rum with ice. And this time, I didn’t share my dinner with Mark. (True confession here, we went back twice the first week and then slowed to only once a week for the rest of our time there.) Sorry, no pictures. We ate it too quickly.
Kalunamoo joined us after a while and BeBe sailed in and we hung out together for the next two weeks. We went snorkeling, had a barbecue on the beach, and generally lazed about spending money in the local shops and restaurants. Mark and I started playing Rummy Cube, but he got so frustrated losing to me (every time) that we switched to dominos. When there are only two people playing you can use up all the tiles pretty often.
Bill on Kalunamoo arranged for us to take the ferry boat to St. Vincent and have a taxi tour of the big island. It was a full day tour, made even longer by waiting for a replacement taxi when our van broke a ball joint (or two). No worries (for us). New car, new driver, and off we went. The volcano at the northern end of the island erupted two years ago, not killing anyone, but causing a lot of destruction. We toured that area of the island, went through a tunnel dug by slaves to facilitate getting the island’s export sugar to the boats that would be anchored in the bay, and had lunch in an ocean-front park. A great day.
Early in May we sailed from Bequia to Tobago. But that is for another blog post.