Bequia And Tobago Keys 12*38.289'N, 61*21.359'W

Simply amazing.

Bequia is a small island just south of St. Vincent in the Grenadines that has long been a favorite for yachtspeople. It's small enough to still offer a culture and flair of it's own, but also offers all the services that cruisers could need from repairs to provisions to pristine beaches and great trails and even a little shopping. We went into Port Elizabeth, Bequia's main port in Admiralty Bay. It's full of small Boutique hotels, shops and restaurants on the waterfront, most of which are adorned with intricate wooden trim aptly called "gingerbread" making most of the bay look like something out of a storybook. There is a beautiful little walkway along the sea wall that offers a great look at these unique buildings.

On this leg of the trip, 2 noteworthy things occurred:
I've always had a great love for turtles, so I was pretty excited to learn that Bequia has a Turtle Sanctuary at the north end of the island. Since it's really the "low" season for cruisers (most have left the hurricane zone or are at least tied down for the season) we were able to get a great deal from the scooter rental place. A 7km ride over the hill to the Atlantic side of the island gave us a great reminder of how different things are on these islands once you get away from the harbor and into the countrysides. The Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary was founded and is still run by a gentleman called Brother King. When he was a young man of 22 (he's now in his 60's, I think), he was the sole survivor (from a crew of 10) of a shipwreck at sea. The fisherman that saved him was hunting turtles and he was so disturbed by how these creatures were being hunted and how fast they were becoming endangered, that from that time forward, he dedicated his life to working to save the turtles and educate people on the state of being for these docile creatures. When we arrived, we were the only ones there so we got a private guided tour from Brian (another perk of traveling in the off season). In nature, once turtle eggs hatch, the hatchlings will instinctively swim to the sea. This is where half of them meet their early demise as lunch for hungry gulls and seabird. Since man is their biggest predator, only about 1 in 1000 survive until they are mature enough to lay eggs (15-20 years). Brother King and his crew take the eggs and raise the turtles until they are old enough to have a better chance of survival and then release them. They also rescue turtles that are injured from fishing net, boats, hooks etc., or sick from other means. One of the really cool things we learned was that turtles love to have their shells scratched! They have nerves under their shells and can feel that sensation much like people feel on their nail beds. When you scratch their shells, they really wiggle and get their flippers going much like a dog thumps it's leg when you scratch the sweet spot on their backs. Olivia just loved getting splashed by the turtles' flippers when she scratched their backs.

Scratching the turtle's back - they love it!


Playing with the babies.


The second noteworthy event was the incredible amount of rain we experienced while we were there. To date, I had no idea that the sky was capable of holding that much water! We were treated to two "tropical waves" back to back which kept us in Bequia a week longer than we expected. A tropical wave is a system of low pressure that could eventually become a tropical depression, then a tropical storm, then a hurricane. Nothing really dangerous in a tropical wave but the wind gusts were 30+ knots and the rain....oh the rain! We have fairly high toe rails on our boat so we plugged a scupper (deck drain) on one side and Olivia had her own personal bath and fresh water pool in no time. When we saw how fast it filled, we gave the decks an extra good scrubbing on the other side of the boat where the water fill hole is, plugged the scupper, opened the water fill hole and filled our 200 gallon (800 litres) in less than 4 hours!! Saved us about $80 in water but I would have gladly paid the $80 to have had less leaks inside the cabin of the boat! Resealing all our ports and hatches is definitely job one when we reach Grenada.


Fun on a really, really, really rainy day.


Once we saw the dove carrying the olive branch, we figured it was safe to move on so we headed for the Tobago Keys. We had a quick and easy sail down to Union Island at about 7.5 knots which made the captain happy. Once we stocked up on some fresh fruit, veggies and ice, we made the quick 1 hour hop over to the Tobago Keys.

The fruit and veggie market at Union Island.


A restaurant on the reef at Union Island. You really want to make sure you have a designated driver when you leave here at night!

In hindsight, I'm not sure what we were expecting, but what we discovered wasn't it. The keys are a small beautiful group of 4 tiny uninhabited white beach islands surrounded many keel hungry reefs, so a lot of extra care is needed to navigate in and out of the area. This was the place I have most looked forward to because it's well known for it's population of Greenback sea turtles which are now endangered. Once we got there and anchored, I couldn't get my snorkel stuff on and get in the water fast enough...and we were not disappointed. With Olivia in tow, it took all of about 60 seconds to see our first turtle and then another and then another and pretty soon, we couldn't swim 20 feet without bumping into another one. It was such an awesome experience to swim 2 feet from these incredibly docile and beautiful creatures!! Some of the larger ones had shells that were as much as 3-4 feet long. They move from one sea grass clump to the next with such grace and don't seem to mind having awestruck spectators following them. While Ron and Olivia enjoyed the experience, they don't seem to be quite as turtle happy as I am and I was quite content to spend much of the day in the water - unquestionably the highlight of this adventure for me so far.

This life is for the birds.


Tree Huggers


Up a tree without a vine.


The anchorage at Tobago Keys

The latest weather report has another tropical wave in store for late Tuesday or early Wednesday and we have 40 nautical miles to cover, so after checking out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines with customs this morning, we are off to the first stop in Grenada, the island of Carriacou for tonight and then off to St. Georges on the main island of Grenada.

Pics to follow.