St Vincent/The Grenadines

Anchorage

After the first fiasco, I had stopped listing to the port talks. But I did go to the official Bequia website. Bequia is the largest island of the Grenadines part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at 7 square miles. Bequia means "island of the clouds" in the ancient Arawak. In 1763 the Treaty of Paris, St. Vincent, and the formerly French-controlled Grenadine islands were ceded to the British, along with Grenada, Tobago, Dominica and Canada. Bequia was briefly involved with sugar production, but the major occupation of the islanders was boat building and whaling. The main town of Bequia, along the shores of the harbour in Admiralty Bay, is its capital Port Elizabeth. There is a boat museum on the island, which we did not see because I don't think it was open

We had a full table of 8 at breakfast. Me and Bob, Irish DJ Kevin and his wife (they were on Cruise Critics and on the trip in Tobago), the guy who drinks coke for breakfast from MN (also from Cruise Critics), Carol the gambling lady, and the couple who told us a story about one time when his wife (a very small lady) said she wasn't going to board a small boat and a large black man picked her up under one arm and carried her on board.

I had the special which I thought would involve poached eggs on toast, and the eggs were poached but they came with a whole wheat roll - all their bread is hard rolls. Bob had hot chocolate and oatmeal (his usual). After breakfast, we went back to the room and I had a nap. Bob apparently thought that meant that we were not going ashore, but he was wrong. This was the fourth and last place I had not been before (the others were Guadaloupe, Martinique and Tobago), so I was going. He grumbled a bit, but we went.

Casino Bar

We gathered in the Casino Bar

Music setup in the Casino Bar

They weren't handing out tickets, but they said to wait until a tender was there - it was about a 20 minute wait.

Waiting for the tender

We got on the tender at 10:40

Leaving on a tender

and it was a 10 minute ride into the beach.

Tenders passing

Welcome to Bequia

Gas, Ice and Courtesy Flags for visiting yachts

Fruit and vegetable stall

We crossed a kind of muddy parking lot (passing the Elvis taxi) to the street. The main street along the waterfront had a sidewalk on one side, separated from the street by a curb and lined with kiosk stands with stuff for sale ranging from Fudge to vegetables to necklaces and wooden carvings.

Kiosks on Front Street and the Elvis Taxi

It started to rain a bit so we ducked into the Saint Mary the Virgin Anglican Church,

St Mary the Virgin Anglican Church

which was my objective as I knew there it had a cemetery. There was a man inside practicing singing. He would sing some, and then play a note on the piano to check his pitch I think, and then sing some more. He was doing Ave Maria when we came in. He had a very nice voice and it was very resonant. A mongrel dog came and looked in the back doorway at him, and then left.

Date in the church

Windows in the church

After a bit the rain let up and Bob went out and took photos outside

Back of St Mary the Virgin and cemetery

Gravestone

Gravestone

and I took photos inside.

Stained Glass windows

There were 11 memorials there when we started, and now there are 31. Then we went back to the dock and we were just in time to take the next tender back to the ship.

Tender landing

Man on the beach (waiting for a tender)

Pacific Princess at anchor

Coming back to the Pacific Princess

Flags on the Pacific Princess

I wondered what the flags meant. I saw the ships flag and the courtesy flag, but there were two others. There was an Ensign at the helm of the tender on the way back, but when it came to docking at the ship, the crewman took over. We were back by 11:30.

Elevator selfie

Panorama Buffet sign

We went up to lunch. I tried to get a tongue sandwich, but the sandwiches got moved around and I got a BLT instead. I also had a shrimp and pasta dish, and at the end, pina colada ice cream. Bob went and got himself hot tea, and then he had quite a good lunch

I talked to a lady who said she had a suite and they ate most of their meals there (I think she said she had 46 cruises with Princess). She said it was quieter there, although I don't think this is a very noisy ship.

Mirror at the head of the stairs

I had intended to swim because the pool is being drained tonight, but I got involved with the photos and didn't. We did go up to trivia, and would have had one more point for 12 if they had taken my suggestion of who had invented the word vaccination. I said it was Jenner (smallpox) but they thought Pasteur. But the usual group won with 14 or 15 so we would not have won anyway. On the way out, I took a photo of the lovely orchid that was there in the Elite Lounge. After we have Trivia, this area turns into the Elite Lounge.

Orchids for the Elite

It was formal night, so we got dressed and went up-

Table set for New Years Eve

Crowned on New Years Eve

I had

New potatoes with caviar and chives

and a saffron lobster soup (two pieces of lobster)

Intermezzo

and then the lobster as an entree.

Lobster

There were two lobster tails. Bob had the potato soup and lobster. And then I had the pudding cake for dessert with ice cream.

Chocolate Pudding Cake

It was quite rich and I didn't eat all of it. I also took a photo of the

Cream cheese and butterscotch cake

Then Bob and I went to the casino and eventually figured out how to put $150 on his card, and he played the penny slots for a bit and lost a bit of money. And then he cashed out his card so he has some more cash which makes him more comfortable.

The cruise director was practically begging people to stay up until midnight at the party, but I don't know anyone who did.

Tomorrow (New Years Day) we are in Dominica, and I think the big cemetery is about a 5 minute walk (as Google maps walk) from the dock. There is a buffet brunch from 10:30 to 1 so we will probably go out in the morning and try to get back in time for the brunch.