|
Bequia
Arrived in Bequia after
another bad night sail. We had the wind coming
straight from where we were going and had to tack(zig
zag sailing) to get there. The wind was so bad that we
had to motor for the last three hours. When we arrived
in Bequia, we could not get the boat to anchor to hold
even after trying with two anchors and diving to dig it
in. We finally surrendered and rented a bouy for
60 EC(20 US). Kjell had been reading a book about a
Norwegian man who hit a reef in Bequia 18 years ago and
hasn't left. We were all keen to go look for him
when Kjell explained some of his stories about sitting
in a bar in Bequia close to the beach and the crazy
things that happen when the boats come in to the Bay.
Bequia is not too big so, we started looking in those
places first. In the second bar we checked out there he
was, 'Peter Røren'. He was just as we imagined, hanging
out with his buddies drinking. We got a free beer,
a picture, a handshake and Kjell was happy. We
left the next day because Simon and Morten had to be in
St. Lucia to pick up a Boat to sail to Norway.
Trip to St. Lucia
The trip to St. Lucia was another
night sail away and we started out early because Simon
thought it was going to be a hard one with bad winds and
current. He did not know how right he was. Since we had
gone way too far out on out way to Bequia we decided to
stay close to the St. Vincent shore on our next leg.
This turned out to be wrong too. We got to close
to shore and lost the wind completly. We motored for
about one hour and then the motor quit on us too.
While we waited for the wind, we got our first glimpse
of Pirates. A huge badass ship was in front of us
and luckily sailing in the other direction. Then
we noticed it turn around and kind of head towards us.
Then we noticed it was being chased by a helocopter!!
Wait a minute??,...they are filiming Pirates of the
Carribean II and III in St. Vincent. 'Whew'
All I had within reach was my Leatherman, and I didn't
want to have to dig for the machete. After being
sitting ducks for about three hours(and previewing the
Pirates of The Carribean II) the wind came and blew us
back on course,... well, 'on course' is a bit too much.
The wind and current was strong from the east and we had
to sail 15 nm extra to turn around to catch the wind
into Marigot Bay. We should have sailed an
extra 18 nm instead of 15 nm before we turned around and
the difference made us miss our destination by 3 nm.
Kjell changed course and we ended up in Anse Cochon, the
best snorkeling place in St. Lucia!! (Something we
discovered after we docked.) Since we did not have
a motor that worked, Kjell had to dive in and swim to
what looked like a docking bouy in the mouth of the Bay.
The bouy turned out to be the dive mark that they use
for a sunken ship and we were quickly asked to find
another one by a local boat peddlar selling banana hats,
Nelson. Nelson towed us to 'his' bouy and then
taxied Kjell and our two passengers into Marigot Bay for
Customs and Immigration. I stayed behind since
there was not much room in the banana hat boat and I had
no problem when I found out the status of the area's
snorkeling,...actually, 20 metres from our Bouy!!
It was great to experience such
amazing snorkeling with no one else around. Of
course, until the tourist boats came and emptied their
high paying customers into the water for a 1 hour swim.
I made it a ritual to stand on the deck of our boat and
wave to them whenever they had to leave. 'Bye, I'm
glad you enjoyed our new home!'
After Kjell and Nelson returned,
Nelson continued selling his hats to the tourist boats (sometimes
making 200 us in the mornings.) Then he started to
bring beer and rum punch to our boat that he would get
from his buddies who work on the tourist boats.
Now, I wave to the leaving tourists from the deck with a
'beer' in my hand, their beer! Nelson become a
good friend over the time we spent in Anse Cochon
bringing us food and drinks for two days and even
bringing us to his village one night for some drinks and
day end celebration with the community.
Which, judging by the stares we received by the Rastas,
doesn't happen to many tourists. It was all good
and we never spent a cent on anything. 'It's nice
to be nice' they all told us.
Back at Anse Cochon, Kjell and I
take out the Dinghy and head onto land for an 'excursion'
into the lone, all inclusive, cabin resort on the
volcanic cliff in the bay. We make friends with
the waitresses while we have a coffee at the bar and we
end up getting to swim in their freshwater pool and then
we received a free ice from them for the boat cooler.
As we start to make our way back to the boat we thought
to ourselves 'This is too easy! Free drinks, free
food, free resort privileges and a great view of the
locals way of living.' Tomorrow, we have fresh
bread coming from one of the boat peddlars wife in the
morning! This is too easy.
15.04.05
Darryl & Kjell
|
 |
NORSK
