We returned to Bequia in time for New Year and found several of the Atlantic Odyssey boats here also which made for a good atmosphere, walking along the main street of Port Elizabeth to seeing people we knew every few steps. We were also lucky enough to return to Fernando's Hideaway, our favourite restaurant on the island, with friends we made 4 years ago. It was as good as we remembered!
On NY Eve afternoon we went walking with Mike & Nicola and called at mutual friends who have a house on the island with a lovely view. By the time we got back to Tumi it was approaching 7pm and we were pretty tired so after a quick bite to eat we decided to cancel our plans to join friends for a drink and instead watched a movie and went to bed! What party animals!! We did wake up at midnight to watch the fireworks over the bay and see in the New Year.
On New Year's Day we sailed over to St Vincent in readiness for the arrival of Paul's son Jon and his girlfriend Hannah that evening. St Vincent isn't over-popular with yachties as there has been a lot of trouble over the years but the two anchorages on the south coast are pretty safe. So we based ourselves at Young Island Cut, polished Tumi to a shine (got to make a good first impression!), arranged for a taxi to pick them up at the airport and waited for them to arrive. They flew into St Lucia from the UK and took a local puddle-hopper down to St Vincent via Barbados. Our first phonecall from them was to tell us the plane to Barbados was delayed by an hour; the second to say the onward flight to St Vincent was overbooked and they'd been bumped off it and booked on to the next flight 8 hours later; the third to tell us that this flight was delayed and they finally turned up 10 hours late, shattered after over 30 hours travelling! Anyway we greeted them with champagne and scrambled eggs and things so seemed a lot better.
Later that day we sailed back down to Bequia and picked up a mooring buoy so we could be closer to town and ride out the high winds forecast for the weekend.
On the 3rd January we took an island tour in an open-backed taxi, visiting the old fort, Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary, Whaling Museum and simply enjoying the beautiful scenery and lovely views. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.
Today we went for the local curry brunch at the Firefly Plantation hotel - delicious food - before taking a guided tour around the plantation itself, sampling local fruits, herbs and sugar cane. All very interesting.
Tomorrow we're heading off to Mustique, a first for us, and we're all looking forward to it.