Admiralty Bay, Bequia, The Grenadines

New Year’s Eve in Bequia started slowly, we went ashore for some fresh vegetables to make a nice dinner that evening with the new soya chunks that we have recently tried and make a great meat substitute on board. We decided rather than dash around to fit in a dive that afternoon we would take things more leisurely and we stopped in a shore side bar for some people watching instead. The water is fantastically clear and we could see the fish beneath the surface and even a hummingbird in the flowering shrub beside us.

We went back to the boat and Kevin prepared dinner whilst I did some tidying up before we settled down on the foredeck / trampolines with a Gin & Tonic. Kevin spotted a Hawksbill turtle coming up for air just in front of us, it dived down and we saw it reappear a couple of times more before it finally disappeared.

We had another great dinner aboard outside as the sunset before we tendered ashore. We put our dingy on the market pier, though did note that there were none others there. We could hear the noise from the large speakers behind the market as we pulled up and this was definitely the locals party with a very heavy bass rap type music and not a tourist in sight. We walked down the front street where there were more speakers and some beer stalls set out on the shoreside again with lots of locals. Eventually when we got to the otherside of the bay all the cruisers and tourists had gathered at the Frangipani with just a few local families joining in to see the lively steel pan ban. It was a great atmosphere and the dingy dock was full, we decided to bring ours round here as well and settle in for the night. One of the locals provided a solo dance for the early part of the evening until a few more cruisers finishing their NYE dinner at the restaurant beside the bar came along and filled in. We decided to head back and watch the fireworks from the deck of the boat for a better view, the display is provided by the local business and run by volunteers called the Bang Gang and was really good, though the most impressive were the red parachute flares that someone was letting off at the same time. So we celebrated 2008’s Old Year’s Night (as it is regarded here) in style as it has certainly been a fantastic year for us.