The sun rose over Princess Margaret Bay in Bequia at six. We had anchored the night before and so boarded our trust tenders for the short trip to the lovely village of Port Elizabeth, our immediate destination. Once ashore, we boarded our covered pick-up trucks for our visit to this lovely isle.
Bequia was settled first by the Taino and then Carib Indians. The first European settlers were the French but then Scots were bought over quite early as indentured servants in considerable numbers in the early 18th century. They have remained here and are the dominant ethnic group. The demographics of Bequia is thus unlike many of the other islands we have visited with a substantial Euro-American population. Like all the islands we have visited, however, the races did mix and there is now a rainbow of racial colors all living together.
Our first stop this morning was to the top of Mount Pleasant. From that vantage point we could see the islands of Mustique and the island of Ballinceaux. The later place was the scene of the great exile of the “Black Caribs.” The British in 1763 forced five thousand of these mixed race African and Amer-Indian population onto this small barren island. Two thousand died and the remaining population was transported to the island of Riotan in Honduras. Our lovely female guides told us the lore of the island and regaled us with some local songs of the heroes of the whaling done in the island. The International Whaling Commission allows Bequia to take 4 humpback whales a year. They hunt in the old way with hand thrown harpoons in small open boats and rarely ever get the quota. The whales supplement the diet of the islanders. We then visited the “Old Heg” turtle sanctuary of “Brother” Orton King. “Brother King,” a former commercial turtle fisherman, had a conversion experience and realized that overfishing was destroying the turtles, fish and reefs, which he knew and loved as a child. He vowed to help serve the turtles and so began to raise recently hatched Hawksbill in saltwater pools. He and his assistant wait until the baby turtles are hatched and about to head for the sea. They then gather them and bring them to the sanctuary. They remain in his sanctuary pools until they are 5 years old when he releases them. In the 21 years he has been at it, he has released 935 plus turtles. This year he expects to see his first mature adults return to lay their eggs. He receives no government support for his work and as a result Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic have support his efforts.
We returned to Port Elizabeth from Brother King and explored the village on our own. The street was ringed with small tables selling all sorts of local handicrafts. The lovely Anglican Church built in 1824 and is always worth a visit. The island likely has at least ten Christian denominations with the Anglican church the largest.
Our final stop is always a hit – Jack’s Bar. This famous watering hole sits directly on Princess Margaret Bay and has to be one of the most idyllic spots in all the Caribbean. There we enjoyed all sorts of fruit punches and some I am told had rum in them! The water in the bay was just right, neither too cold nor hot, and the color a clear crystalline coral blue crystalline blue. I swam out about 400 yards and still could easily see the bottom 25 feet below. As I swam in I saw a large star fish mottled orange and back gliding slowly over the sandy bottom. At 3:30 Ian gave a wonderfully informative talk on coral reefs and fish.
Before dinner Tom O’Brien gave an illustrated talk on the complex and fascinating history of the Sea Cloud from its birth in the mind of Ned Hutton to its resurrection. After Tom’s talk we were invited to have champagne and caviar and visited the original state rooms. And if this was not enough, it was followed by an elegant meal in the dining room.
