Two days in Bequia

For you blog hounds an apology first for missing yesterday. Reasons will be given.

Rewinding to Monday. This really was a bit of a wasted day. We ended up lying in our bunk most of the day. We were hung over, the air was still and stuffy. In the afternoon we went ashore to drop off an empty propane tank for filling and to find the cause of a lot of loud music. Turned out it was carnival day in Bequia. A typical small island carnival is not overwhelming. A few places with immense speaker stacks blaring out music and a single truck making an occasional circuit. The best thing is watching the locals. Not that we did much as after a brief walk around we’d had enough and it was back to the boat to continue our day of rest. At end of day we were treated to an amazing sunset that turned the sea blood red.

Yesterday we got back to life with the usual ups and downs. The big up was getting out on the water and diving the nearby site together on the hookah. This was the same dive as I went on with Jim and Anne a couple of months ago. The site didn’t let us down. We saw spectacular arrays of fish, an eel, a huge puffer fish, plenty of spider crabs, a grouper, some angel fish (we think) with long fluttery fins among other things.

We had dinghied out to the site in calm water. As the dive progressed the hookah was under more and more pressure from wind and waves on the surface – at one point kinking the down tube and cutting off our air. By the time our dive finished the wind was gusting fiercely and there was a two foot chop to dinghy back through. Fortunately we were wet any way but had we been dry, in our clothes, we would have been soaked.

Getting the gear back on the boat was a trial. Worse than that really. As I was moving the hookah from one side of the boat to the other to get it to the fresh water shower for a rinse, I slipped dropping the hookah. It landed on it’s side (the rubber tube), bounced, rolled, bounced again, made it past the safety line down the starboard steps and into the water upside down denting the exhaust, breaking the fuel cap and filling the exhaust / engine with seawater. Bugger.

So the time I had expected to be writing up our dive for our blog was spent following the instructions for dealing with submersion of the unit. This involved draining oil, petrol (gasoline), dismantling a lot of the components, driving out the water from inside, cleaning, draining more fuel through the unit, reassembly, re-oiling, refueling and lots of starter pulling followed by, thankfully, 10 minutes of engine running. While doing this we were visited by Matt and Karen (Where II) and Robert (Bristol Rose) who passed us in the dinghies. Robert invited us over for late drinks. Incidentally – boats had planned to go to Mustique on Monday but are still here waiting out weather.

I still need to drain the oil and replace it one more time to remove any water pushed through by the running but that’s for another day. We had run out of time. It was getting dark and we were hungry, not to mention oily. So after a big clean up we had dinner, showered and were off to Bristol Rose for evening drinks. We only intended to stay a short while (we need tee-shirts that say this) but stayed a little longer than planned. Matt & Karen were there as were another couple, Joseph & Melanie (Spectra), who we had not previously met.

Weather is very much dominating our near term thinking. We want to head north to St Vincent mainland. From Thursday there is some blustery weather coming in. If the anchorage we’re aiming for (Blue Lagoon) is protected we should leave today and get settled. Otherwise we will hunker down here for a few more days. We will make our decision later this morning.