BEQUIA DEC 23,2012

SUNDAY DEC 23, 2012 BEQUIA, GRENADINES CONTINUED

We continued walking around the harbour stopping to talk to another charismatic Rastafarian with very long rasta locks wound in massive loops on top of his head. He was sitting in the front yard of his brothers house, which was covered in a myriad of comments all painted on the walls. This chap spoke to us of how disappointed he was in today's population on Bequia - how when he was a kid every family used to grow their own crops in the yard and the ground was covered in grass in crops and today everything is barren - which was also the state of the fenced garden he was sitting in! I have to admit that between the strong Caribbean accents and the discussion topics I couldn't easily follow what each Rastafarian was telling me, other than the Rasta religion is significant and very precious to them.

Eventually, almost 5 hours later, we caught the tender back to the ship - at the dock Wind Spirit had set up a water station under a sun umbrella which also had very tasty freshly made tiny shortbread cookies - there was a also a starving little dog sitting there who loved the shortbread cookies that I gave him! Considering how thin and hungry he was, he amazed me by taking each cookie so gently from me.

Back at the Wind Spirit it was a quick 5 minute change into swimsuits then back on to the zodiac departing for St Margaret's beach, a couple of miles around the coast from the harbour. A long golden sandy beach with beach hollows scooped out , obviously from where the waves had pounded onto the beach when the water was rough. Today the ocean had good swells which just made for fun floating up and down in the water and laughs as we entered and exited the water, perhaps not quite as elegantly as we would have liked should anyone have been taking photos at the time! There was a restaurant at the dock where we landed at St Margaret - Jack's - which looked very nicely done, and again it was frequented by the sailors anchored in the harbour with lots of small rubber tenders tied up there. It cost 2 EC for a Jack's customer to lie in a sun cot, or 15EC for a non Jack's customer to lie in one of Jack's suncots on the beach. There 3 or 4 locals also renting a few sun cots and selling miscellaneous beach items - noone actively or aggressively approaching the beach goers, just passively sitting by their goods ready to sell to anyone interested in buying them.

The last tender was at 4:45 back to the Wind Spirit and we were soon showered and changed for the sail away from Port Elizabeth, Bequia to the strains of Van Gelis 1942.