Feeling Better about Bequia

Location: Blue Lagoon, St. Vincent.

So the diver came and untangled the anchor chain. He was quite nice, and recommended some nice sailing spots in Greece. Unfortunately, as the anchor got untangled, we drifted into the boat behind us, and again I emerged from my cabin to Jem's vaguely panicked yelling and another slight problem. In this case, the slight problem was that that boat's mooring ball was caught under our port hull, and its bow was almost scraping our port stern. Here it is. Doesn't it look peaceful after nearly having gouged a chunk of fiberglass out of our hull?

I strained for a little bit while fighting against some very tight lines, and eventually managed to get a fender (think an oval balloon bumper) in between, while a dinghy guy popped the mooring ball out. The guy's name was Allon, and he and his friend Shion ended up helping us for the rest of our stay in Bequia. One place that Allon took me to was Shion's brother's model boat shop. Bequia is known for model boats, and I wanted to explore them. I didn't know that the cheapest one, even heavily discounted, would be several hundred US dollars. It was a model whaling ship. In that moment, it was the prettiest thing that I had ever seen. (Look at the details!) I bought the boat. My wallet cried. 

I spent most of my day in a vague state of shock after the night's and the morning's events. After a month of zero stress, any slight disturbance becomes a Big Thing, especially if the slight disturbance is two boat collisions in the span of twelve hours. I predict that when I get back to school I will break down after 1 (one) math problem.

Sunday my shock was over and we went into town to see what was open. It turns out, not much. As Allon eloquently said, "everyone's at the church, but I'm at the beach." We managed to find a cute restaurant with a nice view and nice wifi. The food tasted good as long as you disregard what you ordered; I ordered a cappuccino, and received a black coffee in a cappuccino bowl with cream and sugar on the side. Also, the fish in the fish n chips was not battered. Nonetheless, it was a nice experience, and the man in charge of Bequia Youth Sailing talked to us there about an initiative to restore the reefs around the island.

We also did a little dinghy tour around the bay. The water is very pretty.

Today most things were open again and we explored the island a bit more. Notable exploits include a lady asking us, somewhat incredulously, three times, if we were sure that we wanted to order two whole pizzas, despite the fact that we were at a pizza shop, and a lady at a clinic giving Jem his expensive meds for free because they were "a little old." I have no idea what that means, but Jem was happy with the price or lack thereof, and so far seems to be okay.

 (The red boats in the picture here are ferries. Their horns are very loud.)

We sailed up to St. Vincent this afternoon. I spent most of it napping on the beanbag. It seems that the more time you spend on the beanbag, the more you become one with it. We're currently docked in Blue Lagoon. Kelly Clarke, the owner of both this marina and Clarke's Court in Grenada, is another friend of Jem's and invited us over for dinner sometime. We also met Jake and Harry again. Jake is getting his new hotel ready for guests and now harbors a deep hate for Ikea furniture. 

Ignore the terrible exposure level of this picture. That's Kelly's boat. It's huge. Just left of it is the star of the show, the Blue Lagoon showers. My hair is now silky smooth, and there is no salt on me. Life is good. Kelly said that I could use some of the dinghies on the beach here; we'll see if I can get a Laser. Here's a sunset. Goodbye.

P.S. Some neighbours of ours back in Salt Whistle Bay had taken pictures of Heaven's Door when they climbed their mast. All that light green water has pure white sand underneath.