At Sea- December 30

Looking left

Looking right

Last evening as we sailed away from Port Elizabeth on the island of Bequia  in the chain of islands called the Grenadines we saw a spectacular sunset while the ship slowly and carefully did the reverse of the maneuvers we did in the morning. Ultimately the ship was across the mouth of the entrance to the harbor. Looking to the left we could see the sunset with the golden sky and to the right we could see the green and rocky tip of the island with a marker for a popular reef. We slowly moved back and forth for about an hour as the sun went down. Whole thing started at about 5:00 and was completed a bit after 6:00 and we were off sailing toward San Juan.

Naturally we sat on the balcony and watched it all. Tried to get a shot that showed the sunset reflected in the panel behind Jim but didn’t quite make it look right. Nevertheless the sunset was terrific.

As we were beginning to sail the captain came on the speaker and talked a little about this island. 

The most interesting thing he said was the large number of sailing ships in the harbor were there because they had together sailed across the Atlantic from the Mediterranean to spend the  winter sailing in the Caribbean. In the spring they do the reverse. He said he had done that once and it was 21 LONG days of sailing to cross the Atlantic in ships that size. Didn’t sound like the kind of adventure we’d like.

Captain Dag also talked about the whale killing permitted in Bequia. Apparently the whole community is involved as the permitted number of whales- 2 for the community- are harpooned. The whale meat is then divided according to the rank and prestige of each person in the town so that, naturally, the more important people get more meat. Guess life is similar everywhere!

Ate dinner with Maureen and Grace last evening. Had a good time of conversation and tasty food. We ended our time after dinner in the Oceans Bar enjoying the music and then headed for bed.

We are at sea today and the morning greeted us with a little rain storm and then a rainbow- holding the promise of another wonderful day of cruising.