Despite the late night for us we were up and under sail by 9am, though if I’m honest the reactions were perhaps a little slow. A rush of other boats left around the same time and we were within 400 yds of about 4 boats on leaving all heading south so we had to wake up pretty quick and keep a good look out and hope they were all fully recovered from the night before!
Kevin was desperately keen to get his new fishing gear in the water and this was deployed as soon as we were underway. We passed south of the rock pinnacles on the southern tip of Bequia and the Moonhole, an isolated community founded by the late American architect Tom Johnson. The famous photos are always of the original arch structure which started the development, though apparently this is now abandoned since a boulder fell from the arch though other houses have sprung up on the rocks alongside which have no straight edges, no windows and no electricity. Though they do have splendid isolation, great views and a bar and they are rented for holidays.
We rounded West Cay and were about to pass through the channel with Pigeon Island when the unmistakable buzz of a bite on one of the lines rang out. Kevin leapt with excitement onto the reel whilst I ran around trying to slow the boat and take in some sail, find gaff hooks and buckets etc. It put up a valiant fight but the tuna was on board before I managed to return on deck with the gaff hook, with Kevin beaming from ear to ear at the fair sized tuna. We got him into a bucket where Kevin humanely dispatched him with some medical grade alcohol which stopped the wriggling immediately. Kevin swabbed the decks (I’m in full Patrick O’Brien mode now) whilst I got us back underway to Mustique where the masts anchored in Britannia Bay were already visible. It was a fairly lumpy trip across the short channel and when we approached we realised why the masts were visible from such a distance they belonged to the Maltese Falcon, it has three pivoting unstayed masts and is the biggest of its kind in the world. In fact the bay of this privately owned island home to the rich and famous such as Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Raquel Welch and formerly Princess Margaret was littered with superyachts both motor and sail.
We quickly found a mooring buoy and settled in ready to cook the two large tuna fillets fresh for our lunch with steaks left over for tomorrow. We griddled them in garlic and ginger and they were delicious. Kevin was soon over board snorkelling after lunch had settled as the water is beautifully blue and the reef below visible from the surface, clearer still that Bequia. We went ashore for a wander round the designer boutiques in bright pink and purple tin-roofed buildings and village stores stocked with fine wines which must surely be unique to Mustique. Finally, we headed to the famous Basil’s Bar on stilts out to the reef for a celebratory drink for our fish supper.
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