Beautiful Bequia

Now it’s time to wait for the delivery of the spare parts to the water maker. Since we could only arrange a recipient at St. Vincent we anchor in Port Elizabeth on Bequia. From there it is only a few hours up to St. Vincent and the Blue Lagoon. Bequia is a good base here in the Grenadines, there is a lot of boat service if you need it, there are many nice restaurants, good anchorage, and the opportunity to check-in and out of the country and many different places to hike to.

Alex from Port Elizabeth

Alex from Port Elizabeth visits anchored boats to check if you want to buy fish or lobster. He also sells a kind of fried fish buns made of lobster, I think he called them figs. It’s his mother who makes them. You buy a box with about 60 fish buns for the same amount of ECD, he wants the box back. We think they are very good and we freeze them to eat later. We serve them with pasta, rice, or mashed potatoes, it is enough to heat them in a frying pan. Super tasty, something we can really recommend.

Princess Margaret Trail

Our absolute favorite route to walk is the Princess Margaret Trail. We take the dinghy to a jetty at FigTree and Mac’s restaurant. Then we follow the water south down to Princess Margaret Beach and on to Low Bay. At the end of Princess Margaret Beach, there is a small path up the mountain through a narrow passage past a wall and out onto Lower Bay road. In Lower Bay, we usually have a good lunch at one of the cozy restaurants by the beach. This time, only the Keegans Beach bar was open. Our favorite Da Reef was unfortunately closed due to covid-19. On the way back you can stop at Jacks Beach Bar and have a beer or Pina Colada that cools well in the heat.

Fort Hamilton

On the northern cape of the bay at Port Elizabeth, there is an old fort and it is a nice walk from Princess Margaret Beach. On the way back you can slip into Pepe’s and enjoy a meal or coffee or just a beer and at the same time enjoy a magnificent view of Port Elisabeth.

Mount Pleasant

When we want to work our legs a little harder, we take a walk up Mount Pleasant. It is the mountain on the east side of Port Elizabeth. Again we put the dinghy at the jetty at Mac’s and FigTree and go up to Belmont Road which we follow a bit before we turn left up Mount Pleasant Road which goes all the way up to the top of the mountain where you look down to Friendship Bay.

Up here is Sugar Hill Restaurant and bar and a small shop selling cold beer to cool your throat with. There are several nice villas up here, some with ornate gardens while others warn of visitors.

Heavy swell

For a few days, there was a big swell from the north of the bay and then the beach at Low Bay looks like this, and it is no idea to try to land with the dinghy. It is a meter-high crime with foam cascades several meters up in the air.

Drifting boat

One day the buoy comes loose where a Hallberg-Rassy 62 is moored and luckily it is discovered and the boat can be saved before it drifts on other boats or ashore. It was the anchorage of the buoy that was torn, a fairly common occurrence with buoys that are not properly maintained. That is why we avoid lying on the buoy if possible.

Birthday

We celebrated Carina’s birthday at FigTree with Caribbean drinks and Caribbean food. We were alone in the restaurant so we got great service. The owner accompanied us for a while and told us about life running the restaurant now and before covid-19.

Maintenance work

The sink in the kitchen has started to smell bad, so I unscrew the hoses and clean. Well needed and now we have no nasty scent anymore. I also took the opportunity to clear the bottom around the boat from old glass bottles that probably previous visitors threw or dropped into the sea.