Exploring Beautiful Bequia

Exploring Bequia

After a night of rest and then clearing into customs following our sail down from the BVI, on May 19, we headed ashore to explore Bequia's picture-book perfect town, Port Elizabeth. Bequia is the second largest island in the Grenadines (only smaller to the main island of St. Vincent).

The town has numerous small hotels, bars, restaurants and shops ashore and is about as idyllic a port town as they come. After several days offshore, we spent our first few days taking care of business. We refilled our gas and water tanks, had our laundry done, bought fresh fruits and veggies ashore, and enjoyed homemade banana bread from the local boats that come around offering goods and services to cruisers each day.

Nick in front of the Whaleboner restaurant. Bequia is one of only a few places where limited whaling is allowed; natives are permitted to catch up to four humpback whales annually using only traditional hunting methods of hand-thrown harpoons from small fishing skiffs

 

When we visited the island in 2017, we bought a lovely canvas bag from Bequia Canvas, and with a fraying cushion seat on Borealis that needed some attention, we brought the cushion and extra fabric to the owner, Chris, who sewed us a fantastic new cushion cover for only $55 USD.

Moonhole and snorkeling

A highlight of our stay was our visit to Moonhole, a community founded by an American architect out of the rocky cliffside, and just a short dinghy ride away from our anchorage in Port Elizabeth.

The original property was built under an arch known as Moonhole, and was abandoned when a large boulder fell and crushed one of the rooms. There is a small boat mooring in the bay in front of Moonhole, and we enjoyed some of our best snorkeling there, with a large array of coral and fish below the water.

We also had a great snorkel around Devils Table, a reef that extends from the northwest corner of Admiralty Bay.

Hiking Peggy's Rock and Bequia Head 

During our time in Bequia, we also went on several great hikes around the island. The first was to Peggy's Rock, on the ridge line overlooking Admiralty Bay. Despite our 7 a.m. start, it was a hot hike to the peak, but we were rewarded with some spectacular views of the bay. Nick was even able to fly the drone.

A few days later we hiked to Bequia Head, with a few of our little friends. Most of the times we went ashore, this little pack of stray dogs tagged along behind us.

Despite our efforts to stop them from hiking with us, they trotted along with us on the 6.5 mile hike out and back to Bequia Head, all the while chasing lizards and goats, splashing in streams, and aggravating other dogs along the route. We made sure to stop for shade and fresh water when we could find it, and we enjoyed their companionship as much as they seemed to ours.

On our hike, we came across a calabash tree, which grow large green round fruit that aren't edible by humans. We brought one of the fruits back to the boat with us and after Nick sawed it in half and carved out the fruit, we dried it for a few days and strung it in a hanger that Sara made and filled it with air plants we found on our hikes.

We also found plenty of mangoes and papaya fruit on our hikes. Mango and papaya trees grow wild all over Bequia and ripen in early- to mid-summer, and during our stay we ate the fresh fruit multiple times a day.

Ripe mangos placed on the fence by the owners for sharing

Lower Bay

One of our favorite afternoon activities was snorkeling the shoreline of Lower Bay, where we found so much sea glass, including some harder to find yellow and blue glass.

We spent two full weeks in Bequia, the longest we've stayed anywhere since we set sail in late-October 2018. Without a deadline hanging over us, we really enjoyed every minute of our stay (and some of our best sunsets yet), and we can't wait to get back later this fall.