Britannia Bay, Mustique

We had booked a Mule ourselves for an island tour this morning, but it was absolutely pouring down at 9am when Paul the manager came to drop it off for us at Basil’s. He said to us that the forecast was due to be like that for the whole day with a big band of squalls passing through and suggested we perhaps delay for tomorrow and to give him a call. We were also chatting to one of the barman, everyone here is very friendly. He said “Mick” was home at the moment and some England cricketer. I don’t think I would recognise a single one of the English squad, except perhaps “Freddie” Flintoff, so I am afraid I won’t be too good at star spotting. We agreed with him and headed back to the boat to dry off. Obviously the weather cleared up by around 10.30am, so we are heading for a walk along the shoreline instead later.

Britannia Bay, Mustique

Although Friday started with squally wet start the super yachts continued to arrive, including a battle-ship grey, military looking one complete with helicopter which immediately caught Kevin’s eye. We stayed onboard reading and snorkelling until the sky cleared in the afternoon and we decided to head ashore to hunt for some cash. We had been told to go to the Mustique Company office near the airport so we headed up the hill, where Lovell village is on the left where the workers live, although apparently many arrive by ferry or plane. We then walked down the hill but we not sure where to head to the airport, but managed to get a lift with a passing “Mule” golf buggy. The airport is a tiny bamboo clad building with one main hall and a couple of doors off straight on to the runway, nonetheless small planes seem to come in frequently onto the immaculate looking runway. We found the Mustique company but unfortunately being the lower class of visitor being neither a villa owner nor renter (62 villas are available for rent) just a boat owner they were not able to assist us.

We walked back to the boat passing the many curious community assets such as football pitches, playgrounds, a school and library for an island with so few inhabitants. We also saw three wild red tortoises which are apparently native to the island, though to have been introduced by the Amerinidians.



We decided to have some food at Basil’s that evening, it being the only restaurant on the island within our budget. There were a few of the superyacht owners who all apparently knew each other in chatting who seemed quite friendly. They then were whisked off in their crewed tenders and replaced by a few of the crew obviously allowed a few hours shore leave and making the most of the cocktails menu on the boat credit card.

Britannia Bay, Mustique

Happy New Year to all and all the best for 2009!

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.

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.

Admiralty Bay, Bequia, The Grenadines

This morning turned out to the calmest so far and we decided after a fairly leisurely start following another dawn chorus from the local livestock, to take a walk ashore. Kevin had been anxiously awaiting the reopening of the fishing tackle shops after the Christmas closure and he was finally rewarded today. Both of our two reels had now officially given up, though being bought for Mackerel fishing in the Irish sea they hadn’t really been up to the job anyway, letting a couple of bigger fish escape much to Kevin’s anguish.

Therefore, this morning we bit the bullet and bought two Penn reels, which Kevin assure me are the thing to have. Obviously this also meant two new special diving lures coming highly recommended by the shop owner who, to be fair, did seem very knowledgeable. He also then needed line and more shackles, plus also some new sunglasses seemed to sneak in. However, we are apparently now full equipped and as soon as we got back to the boat Kevin was straight on to refitting the rods in eager anticipation of our next trip out.

This afternoon, with the wind finally below 30 knots since the first time we arrived we finally got to go diving just outside the harbour at a popular reef called Devil’s Table. I was boatman today and Kevin diving. The water immediately inshore was quite murky but when we got out to the West Cardinal marker it was so clear you could see the bottom. Kevin jumped in and I tried to guard his track from the yacht dingies and local fishing boats going overhead. There were also dozens of yachts out sailing, one French catamaran which tried to cut the corner to go over the reef which in places is literally just below the surface.

Kevin emerged after about 30 minutes, having had a thoroughly good dive down to about 10m, with lots of fish life and coral and surfacing beside a chimney type structure about 10m in height which nearly breaks the surface at the top.

Admiralty Bay, Bequia, The Grenadines

Happy Birthday to Kevin’s brother Phil, hope you have a good day!

I checked our new Delta anchor though and it is dug in extremely well, the vis wasn’t great though and I didn’t see much life apart from that. We are just waiting for the wind to die down for a proper dive. Kevin went in to inspect the damage too and also fitted some chain markers (so you can tell how much chain is out) that we’d been waiting for the opportunity to put on. Just to show you how windy it has been, we have 30m of chain out in 4m of water (7:1 scope). Our neighbour, a boat from Ipswich, UK reckons he had 60m (9:1) of chain out! This seemed a bit excessive to me in a crowed anchorage, but actually he hasn’t swung much at all.

We did a bit of cleaning and caught up on a few jobs before catching up on the next adventure of Jack Aubrey, with the wind finally calming that evening.

Admiralty Bay, Bequia, The Grenadines

After a quiet day onboard on Saturday listening to the wind whistle around us and enjoying the next adventures of Jack Aubrey for me, we decided to take a walk on ashore on Sunday. We had been booked for a family Skype call at 1pm, so we set out early for Fort Hamilton which turned out to be just behind where we were moored. We put the dingy at the nearest dock, of which Port Elizabeth is very well supplied, with about 6 along the bay so you rarely have to walk too far with shopping, rubbish etc. We walked up the hill past all the colourful local houses, nearly all with tethered goats in their gardens. We didn’t see any roosters, which is probably a good thing as they wake us daily at 4.30 -5 am, but there are definitely quite a few locally too, plus dogs who also howl at night.

We saw the local two-bow boats which originate on the island pulled ashore and also several bery well kept sailing dingies which compete in the annual regatta. It being the Christmas period there was also quite a few people milling around at the plentiful local bars. We walked up the hill to the south western extreme of Admiralty bay to where the remains of Fort Hamilton sit over the entrance to the bay, previously used by British forces to repel American privateers and French invaders. It is apparently named after the father of the American constitution who was born on the small island of Nevis just south of Bequia. It really was a stunning view from the top and we got some great photos of Invincible at anchor and the bay. Whilst we were there two tourist minibuses also arrived, so this is obviously part of the standard island tour. There is very little remaining of the original fort, though a selection of canons are trained to sea I’m not sure if they are original. However, it was worth it for the view.

We had a walk through the town to get some pictures, though being a Sunday things were closing as we walked around so we headed back to the boat for our Skype appointment and a swim to cool off.


View from Fort Hamilton of Admiralty Bay (Invincible is just infront of the trimaran in the foreground)


Looking South from Admiralty Bay


House in Port Elizabeth (town at head of Admiralty Bay)


Front Street, Port Elizabeth


Town Beach, Port Elizabeth


Front Street, Port Elizabeth