Admiralty Bay, Bequia, The Grenadines

We woke early again on Christmas Eve morning for our final short hop to Bequia of 15 miles. We left St. Vincent in another rain squall, which although they didn’t last long they were fairly frequent and heavy on this sail with up to 30 knot winds accompanying them which made for another lively trip. There was quite a few other boats around, another 3 yachts going into Bequia, a couple of the inter island ferries going between St. Vincent and Bequia and a large cruise ship heading north but by far the most beautiful was a Caribbean Schooner, the Friendship Rose. They do daily charters between the Grenadines and St Vincent and they flew north from Bequia under full sail at an incredible speed but very stable despite the large swell running.


The Friendship Rose looking majestic

Owing to the shape of Bequia, there is no shelter from the land until you are in Admiralty Bay, so we were relieved to enter the natural harbour where there was another cruise ship anchored in the entrance. As we rounded the headland, we found that there was about 500 yachts already anchored! We had heard quite a few people mention Bequia and it is apparently now an annual event that this is where cruisers in the area head for the festive season, which includes a big fireworks display on New Year’s Eve. We had a little bit of hunting to find a spot to anchor but dropped our new anchor successfully in about 4m of water which was so clear I saw it hit the bottom. The resounding pull as it dug in was something we never experienced with our old anchor and was a huge relief to both of us. Kevin got in to have a look and found it was already buried to halfway up the shank and was going nowhere. We are over a sandy bottom and a large puffer fish also swam over to have a look.


Admiralty Bay, Bequia

I was straight in the dingy to provision the boat for Christmas; I walked the length of the main street. It was absolutely buzzing with people, locals and cruisers alike doing their last minute Christmas shopping in the brightly coloured shops lining the main street. The street is small with hardly any cars, there is a bright market with a great selection of fruit and vegetables and lively guys wearing rasta hats selling their wears who playfully fight with each other for your attention. There was no hassle from anyone and although the food was very expensive here, it is labelled that way and locals and cruisers alike were buying at the same price. I managed to get sliced turkey, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, turkey gravy and potatoes for lunch. I drew the line at £10 for a Christmas pudding so we are having banana bread and custard for desert, which seemed more authentic.

When I got back to the boat Kevin told me that there had been a small ships strong wind warning issued by the local coastguard starting 4pm Christmas Day until 28th Dec. We are quite safe in here but won’t be going anywhere until after New Year’s, with 10ft swell heights expected outside. There have been a few brave souls departing perhaps to catch flights or return charter boats. However, we definitely want to stay for the fireworks display on New Year’s Eve and apparently most boats stay through until New Year’s anyway. However, with upto 35 knots of wind in the anchorage through the afternoon we decided to stay on board for the evening as did most of the other boats around us. Our new anchor proving itself well as we didn’t move an inch.

However, we can already see it will be a Christmas to remember here, I told Kevin when I got back that it was going to be an expensive one for him as I wanted to move in! We are certainly looking forward to having a look around.