Bequia and the Turtles

Bequia is one of the few places in the world where the locals are still allowed to go whaling, however they are now limited to 4 humpback whales a year. Fortunately, they are only allowed to use traditional hunting methods on sailboats and so rarely catch anything (phew!).

After a lovely night sleep with minimal roll, Dylan and I attached the outboard onto the dinghy and puttered into the island's capital, Port Elizabeth. We were delighted to find a plethora of docks available to tie up, all looking quite sturdy and well lit. Having become used to the Lazy Turtle dock in Carriacou where you stand at a 45 degree tilt and wait for a wave break before you make a giant leap to shore, we felt privileged to step onto a small shelf looking very dignified and with minimal effort!

The locals have done a great job with the waterfront. There is a path taking you right along the bay full of quaint craft shops, local hang outs, restaurants and bars. Small shacks sell a large variety of fruit and veg making the main strip extremely colourful, unfortunately the food here is a lot more expensive than Grenada so we mostly look and don't touch. Although there are boat boys hanging around 'liming', we do not get approached on this island. With a higher percentage of charter traffic, they opt for the blatant tourists and leave us cruisers well alone. We are yet to hear the cry 'hey skip want any fish' from this place – heaven.

Saturday just gone was St Patrick's day and with our new friend Ian off Kadoona being Irish we thought it only right we helped him celebrate Bequia style! We located a bar that was showing the England v Ireland rugby game and proceeded to don fake tattoos. I had a vivenne westwood irish design on my cheek (at least thats how I justified wearing it) and Dylan had 'Honorary Irish' on his. Now looking like true leprechauns we watched Ireland get thrashed by England and helped Ian drown his sorrows with Guinness. Later the same day we went to the only place on the island that had a St Patricks Day party. Turning up at Baj's bar we surveyed the crowd and boy there were all sorts! Irish and Scottish ex pats had crawled out of the woodwork and donned green wigs, facepaint...even hair dye. But not only that, the locals who weren't even Irish had also got dressed up in the nations colours. It was a fantastic place to people watch and I was fascinated by the old black guys dressed liked pimps (just minus the cane) grinding up and down on some middle aged white lady who was loving it, some going as far as a full on 'snog'. Bleurgh. Being so near these people, I didn't take any pictures but I think those images will be forever ingrained on my mind. As 9pm neared, the bar informed us that they had run out of rum. Never mind though as we soon saw a plate going round full of green, white and red vodka jelly shots. No sooner had we sampled those, a plate of chocolate cake came round for a birthday girl at the bar. Wow, I was in my element!

The next day we went for a snorkel and got stung by a load of baby jellies. It seemed to be a pattern for the rest of our stay in Bequia, the waters were full of the tiny jellyfish. A dinghy ride to Devil's Table just at the mouth of the bay took us to a great snorkelling spot where there were loads of fish and coral to explore. With no turtles in sight, we decided to head over to the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary.

Old Hegg is ran by Brother King and funded by him too. He receives no government funding yet manages to increase the chance of survival for hundreds of hawksbill turtles. With the babies being so small and vulnerable, they just don't last out in the wild with predators and fishermen lurking. Odds of 1 in 3000 reaching full adulthood. Brother King takes the eggs from the beach and rears the turtles on canned tuna until they are 5 years old when he then releases them back into the wild. He has opened the doors to the public for us all to see the various stages of the hawksbill turtles from baby up to 5 years and he is full of information. Being a hunter of turtles himself back in the day, he is now at the stage of his life where he wants to put something back into the sea after it supporting him for so many years with a wife and 5 kids. Setting the sanctuary up from scratch having never seen one before, Old Hegg is rustic and no more than a large shed but thats what adds to the charm of the place. Here is a man that clearly loves turtles and has now devoted his life to saving them, we came away quite inspired. We laughed off a taxi on the way back and commenced a 4 km walk. On this return trip we came across an old abandoned sugar plantation house covered in tarzan vines and bougainvillea. Dylan the intrepid explorer went to check it out and found it home to a load of cute bats. It was like we had stepped into the Secret Garden, great to see them flying around in the daytime as we had disturbed their slumber.

Tuesday we wandered into town to buy more fruits and vegs only to find almost all of the shops closed. Double checking our watches and the date (in case it was a Sunday) we were most perplexed, the place was like a ghost town. When finding a taxi driver to chat to, he informed us that the Prime Minister had declared the day a public holiday so the locals could watch the cricket over in St Vincent! Alright for some hey, it must have been a last minute decision as no one had warned us and there were no signs up either. Another indication of the laid back attitude and culture of these islands.

Our final day in Bequia was spent treating Dylan to a hair cut as he had started to resemble side show Bob. A morning of preening over we turned our attention to the boat and the shitty task of cleaning the underneath of the dinghy. Seaweed and brown spots had started to grow on the bottom as we had not hauled it out of the water for a good month, dragging the dinghy behind us from island to island. With the outboard already secured to the stern, we set about rowing to a nearby beach where it would be easier to give it a good scrub. Well I say we...I sat at the bow giving directions whilst Dylan worked on his biceps. With such a big dinghy and useless oars, I opted to swim back to the boat so there was less weight for Dylan to struggle against. With no goggles and a hatred of salt water in my eyes, I proceeded to do the granny breast stroke back to the boat.

With our dinghy now gleaming and a passage plan decided we are heading off to St Lucia, The Pitons tomorrow - weather permitting. Having been told about the Classic Boat Regatta in Antigua starting on 19^th April, we now have a date and destination to reach!