Friday night and there was a big crowd of us in the Whaleboner for dinner…. before we decamped into safari buses to take us to the concert. Arriving at De Reef I was a bit surprised by all the security and police in attendance – but not going to complain about that! Felt very very safe…. The stage was set when we arrived and we had to buy drinks tickets – no cash over the bar. Went and got a supply and were very pleasantly surprised to find that beer was only EC $5 each… that’s about £1.25!
Well… it was supposed to start at 8.30 pm but being on island time we were not surprised when it was nearer 9.15 pm …and then there were the welcome / opening speeches including Basil (of Basil’s Bar, Mystique fame). Finally – time for the music! The crowd was arriving, although disappointed to see that this was largely made up of cruisers and holidaymakers with very few locals. Perhaps the tickets were a bit expensive at £15 a head??? Anyway there is always an exception or two – and there was one creepy looking rasta man who was trying to pull the oldest white single women he could find… Yuck – and they were falling for it – almost queuing up to dance with him!!!!
The band came on and we were entertained royally – starting slowly and they quickly increased the tempo – and the crowd responded. Everyone was dancing and we all had a really good time. The musicians were fantastically talented and all did a little solo with swapping out of different instruments and singers…. It was an amazing night and certainly one to remember. At midnight our safari bus turned up again to take us back to town, where we recovered our dinghies and went back to our respective boats. As an aside, we weren’t worried about leaving Morphie alone – although there have been issues in this bay before – because the SVG Coastguard have been doing regular patrols throughout the night and we are securely locked down and alarmed up. Anyway – pretty tired and so to bed.
Saturday morning and we had a lazy start – and the wind picked up and the rain came down. Hard!!! Winfield came by and prepped for the next coat of varnish but, as last year, this got rained off so we had a nice chat with him anyway…. The squalls came through but by lunchtime the weather was much better so we went ashore to the beach with Ruth and Dan. Arriving at the dinghy dock and this German guy comes out shouting at us because we had locked on in the middle of the pack – and he thought we should have gone at the end as the last arrivals!?! Never seen that anywhere in the regs! Anyway….we couldn’t have done that if we had wanted to because his stern anchor meant that it was too shallow to come the other side of him. Well that didn’t appease him – he was absolutely furious and went away muttering.
We were going to leave it but decided that he was so mad he could do damage to our dinghies so we unlocked them, drove off and beached them further down…. Whilst walking the beach there was a cute little crab shuffling around – although not sure I would fancy being nipped by that big claw!
Settling into a bobbing session – the heavens opened – but we were already wet so hey we carried on…. Dan was concerned about the German guy and being much more diplomatic than us, he went to Jack’s bar to find him and buy him a beer so that there were no hard feelings….. and apparently they were best buddies in about five minutes flat!
Couldn’t stay too long as we had arranged to meet Glen and Pam from Blue Pearl – finally! – for sundowners, so got back to Morphie, tidied ourselves us, and went ashore. Had a really nice time catching up with them and meeting their guests….whilst enjoying a stormy sunset and the comical sight of two young lads doing a pizza delivery!
Heading back around 8pm and we spotted another boat had anchored in front of us in our absence – 30 feet in front of our bow to be exact! And he was way too close to the other boat in front of us as well – certainly not enough swinging room for all of us. So Richard got out the very bright LED torch, sat on the bow, and illuminated the cockpit of the offending boat. The guy got the message….came on deck….looked around and picked up anchor and moved. Phew! During the night the wind howled and howled…… and we didn’t get a lot of sleep.
Sunday morning up very early looking around as the wind has not let up – and there are a few boats dragging or dancing around madly on their anchors. Evensong have picked up and moved because a guy got too close to them and we have one sitting right off our bow again – he certainly wasn’t there when we went to sleep. We spoke to him and he said that he knew he was dragging but was waiting for his crew to wake up! Oh well…. we made a pot of tea and sat watching. Then his friends got up and they all sat in the cockpit chatting whilst every gust was bringing them closer… So Richard very politely asked them whether they were picking up their anchor or whether they were just going to watch it all morning!?! They got the message… and were out of there very soon after. This continued throughout the morning but finally, around lunchtime, it looked like everyone was reset and we were confident enough to go out to the music fest afternoon event.
We met Pat, Lucie, Dan and Ruth on the main dock and got another safari bus to the venue. There was a very different vibe to this event – much more a family day out with loads of locals setting up little concessions along the road with BBQs going and it was hard to see through the smoke at times…. Inside the venue there were loads of local people as well as cruisers and holidaymakers including Winfield and his wife and a number of other people that we recognised from town. Oh yes, and the creepy rasta man was there on the prowl again wearing exactly the same as he had on Friday night. Double yuck!
There was a mixed genre of music – from pan to blues to rock to soca to country and western. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves again…. particularly the chicken wings we got from one of the local roadside vendors! We headed back to Morphie around 7pm and had an early night, not even bothering with any dinner….. Again during the night the wind howled, and howled, and howled. The forecast has changed and it looks like we are going to have this for a while. Not much sleep again…..
Monday morning and it was raining hard…. and the wind was howling up to 35 knots…. and the sea is very rough, with a marine advisory out on the local forecast. Boats are moving every which way and we have had a few more dragging incidents – luckily we are holding really well. Winfield will probably not be here to do that varnishing today!!! We were booked to go diving but really didn’t want to leave Morphie in the conditions so deferred to Tuesday and we are stayed on board most of the day. Late afternoon it had calmed down a bit so we went ashore for sundowners and there was a big crowd of us in Tommys. Enjoyed a couple of hours socialising – although disappointed to find out another boat had been broken into in the anchorage during the evening. There was another spectacular sunset to enjoy being going back aboard for a quiet night. The wind picked up again but we had a better night – but we both would love to be able to sleep through rather than this three hours on/off cycle that we have got ourselves into!
Tuesday morning and we had a leisurely start getting our dive stuff together and then heading in. Dive one was pretty busy with loads of divers – and we buddied up with Dan as Ruth didn’t fancy it. This was a wreck dive and we came across a tug boat in about 60 feet of water, followed by a dead yacht….. and then onto the reef to finish off. Enjoyed it but was a bit disconcerted when the divemaster took Richard and Dan away from me to surface because they were getting low on air leaving me following the diveleader, but no buddy….. Oh well – not the best arrangement and didn’t feel particularly comfortable for some reason. Coming back ashore we met Ruth who had organised us pizza and drinks for the interval – fantastic! Then back out for our second dive and this was back to Devil’s Table……which is a muck dive to start with digging around in the grass and sand to look for little critters – and found the pink frog fish again! – and then onto the reef. Love this site and thoroughly enjoyed it – particularly the octopus and the colourful coral. Made better by the fact that there was only the three of us with a diveleader so loads of room and lots of fun with the camera – Dan does a pretty good job!
After diving we headed into the beach for sundowners as we wanted to see Faye and Paul – the local couple who have set up coolers on the beach – as we are hoping to organise a beach party with BBQ. Mission accomplished and back on board for a quiet night, pretty tired. And again the wind picked up and we had a broken sleep pattern, which is starting to get on my nerves!
Wednesday morning and we had a party planning meeting on Evensong – all sorted, just got to invite the others now – and we buzz around the anchorage to talk to people. Getting back towards Morphie we realise that Blue Pearl – who were anchored behind us – have left. Damn, missed them! Luckily I’m sure we’ll catch up with them later on.
We then head into town to buy some groceries as Dan and Ruth are dining onboard Mophie this evening. Back on board we clean up the boat ready to receive and get the food preparation done – an hour or so lazing about and cleaning ourselves up and then they arrive. Have a really nice evening chatting, laughing, eating and drinking. The wind died down during the night – although it did rain hard – so we had a better night’s sleep…. At last!
This morning – Thursday – and we are having a leisurely time doing some shopping, breakfast ashore and catching up on the internet at the Fig Tree. Last year a big storm here in Bequia wrecked the fig tree and this year they have taken down the rest of it and carved some figures into it….. Really impressive…. Oh yes and we have some pretty big neighbours in the anchorage!! Probably won’t do much else today…..
Bye for now
Jan
Bye for now
Jan