Saturday 24th March
Admiralty Bay, Port Elizabeth
Bequia
13 00.635 N
61 14.405 W
Gerry and I had a slow start to the day, he went out to the dink and discovered a black mark on it, on further examination he discovered a squid had lept into the dink, squirted ink on it and then died - it was Gerry's second catch of the trip! We were relaxing in the salon when we were hailed from a dink outside, Mike, Terri, Dale and Lorie had tried to call us on the radio but we had our Generator running to charge the house batteries and had turned our radio off as you can’t hear it above the noise of the generator. They were going into town to catch the dollar bus and tour the island on it and wanted to know if we wanted to go along. We had plans to go into town and see if we could buy a clutch for our jib furling line, some fresh fruit and vegetables and we wanted to check out the scrimshaw shop so we declined, but arranged to meet up later for lunch. We weren’t far behind them in dinking into the town and after a brief verbal exchange with some young boys at the dock who wanted to “look after our dinghy” we walked to every marine supply store in the place. It wasn’t to be our day – we found no clutches in any of them. We then headed to the grocery store for some eggs and then as we made our way to the Rasta market for the vegetables we saw Mike and Terri buying bread. They had enjoyed the round island trip and were lucky enough (?) to see a recently caught whale – it is legal to catch 4 whales a year here, they were full of the tales about how the meat is harvested and cooked and how the fishermen were very knowledgeable about the whaling industry. Lorie was also close by and we walked to the Rasta market with her where we found Dale bartering; Mike and Terri went in the opposite direction as they wanted to find out about a jazz pianist who was playing at a local restaurant in the evening. We bought our fruit and vegetables and then decided that it was beer o’clock so we found a bistro and had lunch. After lunch it was time to return to our boats, we dropped Dale and Lorie off and made our way over to our boat to find that the boat boy who wanted to buy our old dink was waiting for us so that he could complete the transaction. The exchange of cash and dinghy went without a hitch and soon the boat boy was heading off with his newly acquired dinghy – he got a bargain but we were happy to off load the extra weight. Terri and Mike stopped by on the way to their boat to let us know that the pianist was indeed playing that night and that they had booked us all in for dinner at 19.00hrs – if that was OK with us (when is eating out ever a problem?) We arranged to meet up just before 19.00hrs so they could direct us to the dock for the restaurant. We turned the TV on to see if we could get any channels and low and behold we got the cricket broadcast live from St. Kitts. Australia playing South Africa no less! Gerry and I sat glued to the TV for the entire match, proud of the job that our fellow Aussies did in winning the game. We had just enough time to shower and change before it was time to meet up with the rest of the gang and make our way to the Gingerbread Restaurant. We were amongst the first to arrive but the place gradually filled. The pianist – Uncle Louis (a Scotsman) was in full swing when we arrived and was being accompanied by a dinner guest playing the violin, it was a pleasant start to our evening. We ate and drank our way through the entrée and the main cou
rse by this time the man playing the violin had left for the evening. Mike, a musician by trade had bought his saxophone along with him and made his way to the stage to perform as a guest artist alongside the pianist, he had played with the pianist in the past at another venue so knew he would be welcome. Mike even got to play the piano for a couple of pieces which he enjoyed as he misses not having a piano on his boat. One of the waitresses then had a turn and sang for us. We were royally entertained and all had a good time. Our evening ended with us all dinking back out to the boats after making arrangements for leaving in the morning.
Bequia
13 00.635 N
61 14.405 W
Gerry and I had a slow start to the day, he went out to the dink and discovered a black mark on it, on further examination he discovered a squid had lept into the dink, squirted ink on it and then died - it was Gerry's second catch of the trip! We were relaxing in the salon when we were hailed from a dink outside, Mike, Terri, Dale and Lorie had tried to call us on the radio but we had our Generator running to charge the house batteries and had turned our radio off as you can’t hear it above the noise of the generator. They were going into town to catch the dollar bus and tour the island on it and wanted to know if we wanted to go along. We had plans to go into town and see if we could buy a clutch for our jib furling line, some fresh fruit and vegetables and we wanted to check out the scrimshaw shop so we declined, but arranged to meet up later for lunch. We weren’t far behind them in dinking into the town and after a brief verbal exchange with some young boys at the dock who wanted to “look after our dinghy” we walked to every marine supply store in the place. It wasn’t to be our day – we found no clutches in any of them. We then headed to the grocery store for some eggs and then as we made our way to the Rasta market for the vegetables we saw Mike and Terri buying bread. They had enjoyed the round island trip and were lucky enough (?) to see a recently caught whale – it is legal to catch 4 whales a year here, they were full of the tales about how the meat is harvested and cooked and how the fishermen were very knowledgeable about the whaling industry. Lorie was also close by and we walked to the Rasta market with her where we found Dale bartering; Mike and Terri went in the opposite direction as they wanted to find out about a jazz pianist who was playing at a local restaurant in the evening. We bought our fruit and vegetables and then decided that it was beer o’clock so we found a bistro and had lunch. After lunch it was time to return to our boats, we dropped Dale and Lorie off and made our way over to our boat to find that the boat boy who wanted to buy our old dink was waiting for us so that he could complete the transaction. The exchange of cash and dinghy went without a hitch and soon the boat boy was heading off with his newly acquired dinghy – he got a bargain but we were happy to off load the extra weight. Terri and Mike stopped by on the way to their boat to let us know that the pianist was indeed playing that night and that they had booked us all in for dinner at 19.00hrs – if that was OK with us (when is eating out ever a problem?) We arranged to meet up just before 19.00hrs so they could direct us to the dock for the restaurant. We turned the TV on to see if we could get any channels and low and behold we got the cricket broadcast live from St. Kitts. Australia playing South Africa no less! Gerry and I sat glued to the TV for the entire match, proud of the job that our fellow Aussies did in winning the game. We had just enough time to shower and change before it was time to meet up with the rest of the gang and make our way to the Gingerbread Restaurant. We were amongst the first to arrive but the place gradually filled. The pianist – Uncle Louis (a Scotsman) was in full swing when we arrived and was being accompanied by a dinner guest playing the violin, it was a pleasant start to our evening. We ate and drank our way through the entrée and the main cou
rse by this time the man playing the violin had left for the evening. Mike, a musician by trade had bought his saxophone along with him and made his way to the stage to perform as a guest artist alongside the pianist, he had played with the pianist in the past at another venue so knew he would be welcome. Mike even got to play the piano for a couple of pieces which he enjoyed as he misses not having a piano on his boat. One of the waitresses then had a turn and sang for us. We were royally entertained and all had a good time. Our evening ended with us all dinking back out to the boats after making arrangements for leaving in the morning.Photo of Mike (saxaphone) & Uncle Louis (piano) from camera of Gypsy Palace.
Labels: Bequia
posted by SV Orpailleur at 9:03 a.m.
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