Bequia is only 5 miles long and 7 square miles in total, with a small population (4,300) to match. We were up early and watching from the Panorama Terrace as the Pacific Princess entered Admiralty Bay, the harbor for the island's tiny town of Port Elizabeth. The island is green and very hilly but is not really large enough to have tall mountains. But Admiralty Bay was gorgeous, sleepy and quiet and surrounded by steep green hills on all sides. The morning was sunny with very frequent, brief tropical showers, making for a parade of full rainbows and partial double rainbows, bright and dropping right into the water.
The showers were frequent enough to delay my wanting to go ashore but G was antsy to, and took the first tender over to check out the taxi situation. Our plan for the day involved only going to a beach...there was not much else to do on the island, especially on Boxing Day. The ship offered only two tours: a sail and snorkel and an island tour. A beach day would be perfect for us.
G texted me shortly, telling me what to bring and I boarded the next tender. He had already arranged a taxi to take two couples to Lower Bay Beach for $3 per person. It was about a 15 minute ride to the beach, up and down some of the steepest and worst roads I've ever seen. They were made even more exciting by the two foot deep open storm sewers that ran down one side of the road. I commented to G that it must be a tough thing, teaching a four year old how to ride a bike when he was either pedaling straight up or coasting straight down, or falling into a storm sewer on one side or off a cliff on the other.
Lower Bay Beach was a perfect place to spend the day. In fact, it was located on Admiralty Bay with a view of the Pacific Princess at anchor. We settled in two loungers ($5 each) under palm trees at Keegan's Beachside Restaurant and Bar. It was still early, just after 9am, and if I tell you we stayed there until after 3pm, you know how much we loved it. I wasted no time getting in the water and it was a little rough, making it quite a workout to swim the length of the beach and back. I collapsed on a lounger and listened to an audiobook while G tried to get their WiFi to work (it was non-existent on the beach).
By noon I was starving, and we knew not to wait too long for lunch or we'd have no appetite for dinner (we still didn't...read on). We split a burger with fries and a side of breadfruit fries in Thai sweet chili sauce. I haven't had those since we were at the Intercontinental Tahiti almost exactly two years ago. Eaten surfside and accompanied by the local beer (Hairoun) and the sound of waves crashing and a live steel drum performance in the background, it was a memorable meal.
We took turns then, G walking the length of the beach and back and me swimming it (I remembered while I was swimming Mom's old rule about waiting an hour after eating to get in the water. Ha! How about 15 minutes? I sometimes eat ice cream for breakfast too, Mom, and it hasn't killed me yet! ;-)). I was weary as we boarded a taxi back to the tender pier about 3:15pm. We still had time to spare (last tender was at 4:30pm) and so we walked into a tiny grocery store where G bought another beer and a bag of Lays potato chips and I got a Bitter Lemon (a local soft drink) and we sat under a tree watching all the comings and goings around the Admiralty Bay pier. There were well over 40 sailboats moored in the bay and the water was busy with their tiny zodiac raft tenders crossing between boat and land.
Finally, we caught the second last tender about 4:20pm. By the time we had showered and I had washed out and hung up my swimwear, I was not only very hungry but also too tired to go to dinner in the Club Restaurant. Instead we were on the Panorama Terrace for sailaway, and it was beautiful. The rain had held off all afternoon until about 4:30pm but by 5pm it was again dry and we could see St. Vincent in the distance and the lights of Bequia and some of the other Grenadine islands off our port side. We had our open bottle of Chardonnay retrieved from the Club Restaurant and finished it accompanied by wine and cheese from the Panorama Buffet, and called it dinner. It wasn't our healthiest food day but it was a fun food day.
I am simply too tired after all the swimming to attend the 7:45pm show of vocalist Bobby Brooks Wilson, son of Jackie Wilson. He is good- we've seen him several times in the past- but he is not in the cards for me tonight. I am back in the cabin and will be asleep soon after I publish this post. Captain D said the weather tomorrow in Tobago is not very promising (well...shoot) and advised that we may have some bounciness tonight and tomorrow night, but, again, it's Caribbean rough, not North Atlantic crossing in December rough, and there is no comparison.