Bequia to Canouan

Yesterday we awoke to the sight of two enormous cruise ships just off Admiralty Bay. As I went ashore at 8am for the weekend’s fruit and veg, the main dinghy pontoon had been taken over by the white shirted crew of these ships and their swanky welcome gazebo with chilled drinks. I went ashore anyway but returned to find that our down-at-heel rib had been moved without permission and I had a stressful few minutes looking for it.

Elizabeth befriends more locals in Bequia

The veg chap chatted about life on Bequia. He is a St Vincentian as is his sister, but he stays on Bequia most of the week to open the stall whilst his sister commutes in on the twice-daily ferry. There is little industry in SVG beyond subsistence agriculture and fishing, with the main export being bananas. Tourism is much less developed than we’ve seen elsewhere which adds to the charm for cruisers like us, but leaves the locals eager to glean some of the tourist bucks from the well-to-do visitors off these big ships. Every man and his dog seemed to have set up a table along the waterfront, selling any tourist knick-knacks they could dream up and every taxi in the island chain seemed to have rolled up on the car ferry. We chose to move on.

The "Friendship Rose" still ploughs these seas after many decades

Three hours’ south is the island of Canouan. The top half of this tiny blob has been taken over by a resort (previously Raffles) and excludes the public. However, we anchored off one of the small beaches on a substrate of sand and small coral rocks and I got to dive off a rocky headland. There were even denser and more varied species of fish here than at Devil’s Table, Bequia, and there were also good numbers of predating species such as groupers, porgies and snappers. About 40% of the rock surface was coral and I even found less frequent species such as a belligerent dwarf lionfish sitting on our anchor chain and a small spotted moray.

The "Bequia Express" passes uncomfortably close even after we change course

The locals seem to know this spot too. As we arrived, we disturbed a ‘dive’ boat of chaps looking for lobster to sell to the yachties, and I surfaced from my dive to see a lad on the rocks with a hand-line. It seems every spare resource is put to use – even the car ferry between he Grenadines was towing a long-line – quite a hazard to us as it passed perilously close to our reciprocal course, despite us changing heading significantly and early on.

Water is also a divisive issue here. There is little rainfall and the run-off is of poor quality. Most water comes in the tanks of ships with a premium price tag attached.  Our guide says the water can also become scarce when cruise ships fill up their own tanks.