Rain again

It seems, at least so far, that St. Vincent sees more rain than Bequia. Just looking at the weather come and go is fascinating. You should be able to pick out the rain coming from the leading edge of the cloud. It is the rainy season, but so far we've only had rain once on Bequia.

No brown trucks

We are wondering if there was any way to get items shipped to Bequia - say through UPS. Mostly the answer is no.

But there are delivery services available... but no brown outfits.

Small house guests

The main house at Ravenala does have screens, but not on all windows. Besides, we just leave everything open to get the mostly ever-present breeze to enter the house.

So, with the house open to the outside, we can get a few interesting house guests.

This guy pretty much lives nearby and we see him all the time. 

 

Cute little lizard.

Big green bug, about 2" long

The Purpose of a Porpoise

While we are at the Lower Bay beach, this fellow arrives in his boat... The Purpose. But the boat also had a painting of a porpoise on the bow. So which is it? And what is the purpose of this guy's porpoise.

Was there a primary purpose to the porpoise project? Probably.

I suppose the purpose was to have fun playing King of the Hill.

The bigger guys always won

Every time any of the boys approached the little guy in the blue trunks, the little guy simply jumped into the water -- no fool he!

A short moment of glory for one of the smaller boys ...

At Lower Bay beach.

We went to the Lower Bay beach -- yes, I went too!  -  just below Ravenala. But we definitely stayed in the shade, and we (yes BOTH of us!) went swimming -- or sinking depending on who you were looking at. Water temperature was not like it is in Saco, you just walk right in without having your toes turn blue.

All in all, a very pretty beach and water.

A pretty lady in the water

The snorkeling end of the beach -- Alicia went while I was having trouble with my snorkel.

The Mandalay

We saw this really pretty 3 masted schooner pull into the harbour... and were able to identify it as the Mandalay - a recently restored windjammer. The mandalay

A pretty boat.

Sitting in the harbor

An easy job

Weatherman in Bequia

Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth, named after Queen Elizabeth, is the main town on Bequia. Like many islands, Bequia is a former British holding, but is now part of the country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Cars on SVG are all right hand drive - which takes a little getting use to. I just am pleased that the road are narrow, there are speed bumps everywhere, and there are no roundabouts. So, I can drive 20MPH and be happy.

Port Elizabeth is the hub of the island, and the center of attention is the ferry terminal, where pretty much all product and people arrive at Bequia. The island is currently in shoulder season and things are slow, some restaurants closed, etc. Come December, this place will become very busy.

This is the Bequia Express - moving people and things from Bequia. The Yellow building is the customs house, immigration office, etc... mostly handling traveling sailors. I got my driving permit there  - for $65EC about 25$US

If you want to meet someone, or wait for the ferry, you pretty much sit at the "almond trees", a shaded area in town. To the right in the above images.

Rain Rain Rain

Last night we had our first bit of rain here on Bequia ... it is the "rainy season". It poured (and I mean POURED!) for about 15 minutes, then stopped. We were watching NCIS season premiere on TV (!) but could not hear it because the rain was so loud!

So I wonder what it was like in St. Vincent during the storm that they had over there  earlier - somewhere between 7-9 miles from Beqiua.

The St. Vincent storm was very isolated and from what we can tell could have been influenced by the 4000-foot peaks that are on the island.

Based on that, I estimate the cloud in the photo below to be about 4-5 miles high.


Cloud over St Vincent with the Ferry on its way into Bequia ... St. Vincent in the background, partially obscured by the cloud ... one end of Bequia in the foreground ... all photos taken from our veranda ...

Lots of rain on St. Vincent ...

Clouds building with the setting sun ...

Ravenala

Ravenala is a tree from Madagascar as well as the name of the house we are sitting in. There is a Ravenala tree just off the veranda of the main house, so I guess that is where the house got its name. ... duh!

The tree (click to read about it)

The house (click for its website and lots of photos)

There was already a place named Frangipani -- another island tree -- so they couldn't call it that.

The house is surrounded by an array of nice gardens, shrubs and trees. The one that we like is the fully-in-fruit lime tree -- since we are using lots of limes for margaritas. There are also golden apple (caribbean), orange and grapefruit (both not ripe yet). We also found out that we missed mango season by a month or so.  (more on Island Fruit in a later post.)

Today was very pleasant in Bequia - comfortable 80F+, high clouds with a continuous breeze throughout the day.

  

Some views of Admiralty Bay, town of Hamilton and the Western Cay

These views are taken from a hill that is across the bay from Ravenala. .. on a drive up to Fort Hamilton.

We really like the color of the houses: pink, yellow, orange, blue.... 

>>>Double click for really large image.<<<

Relaxing and views from the house

We arrrived at Ravenala with assistance from Jal, a local guy who works for the folks who own Ravenala ( the name of the house ). Jal picked us up at the ferry terminal, gave us a brief tour of town and helped to get us settled into the house.

We quickly fell into the island way. A bit of relaxin'.

Sitting on the Veranda, overlooking Admiralty Bay and St. Vincent way in the background

A quick dip in the infinity pool.

Admiralty bay and Port Elizabeth from the veranda

Fort Hamilton, Bequia, and St.Vincent in the back with a look into Kingstown.

Taking the Ferry to Bequia

Ok -- a little help here -- the island is pronounced Beck-Way

We arrived by ferry, an hour trip on the Bequia Express -- which should be called the Bequia Snail as it moved very slowly.  Bequia can see seen from Kingstown, the port in St. V, and I believe is 7 miles to Bequia... but it still took an hour.

Here are a few pics of the trip over

Departing St Vincent

  The Western Cay of Bequia

Arriving Port Elizabeth
The house we are sitting is the second in from the right.











 The houses on Port Elizabeth

The SNAIL















 A few more shots around Port Elizabeth

 A happy "arriver"

Arriving Bequia

Due to a travel planning mistake, we ended up having to stop over for a night in St. Vincent - a quick stop Mariner's Inn and a quick soaking in the AM.

Currently the islands are in the wet-weather phase of the year. Bequia is way to south to be affected by hurricanes, but it does get its weather. .. and apparently it can be a lot at once.

We arose early to get an 8:00AM ferry from St.Vincent to Bequia and we were greeted by this storm

At this time it was POURING!

 Same place about 15 minutes later