Bequia
Early this morning, after a comfortable night's passage, we dropped anchor in Admiralty Bay offshore from the charming settlement of Port Elizabeth, principal township on Bequia (pronounced Beck-way), the largest and most northerly of the Grenadines, with St Vincent lying to the north and Mustique to the south. The island is small, with a population of only six thousand, and as yet not over commercialized. "That's our former sugar mill", said our charming guide, as we drove to Brother King's Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary. She was pointing out the overgrown ruins of the mill that closed, as on nearly every other former British island in the Caribbean, following Britain's accession to the European Union in 1973. During the French Revolutionary Wars that form the backdrop to the Patrick O'Brian novels so popular with guests on Sea Cloud II, the French developed a sugar beet industry in continental Europe to give them self-sufficiency in that, by then, staple commodity. After 1973, the British switched from cane sugar to beet sugar with disastrous consequences for the West Indian sugar industry.
As it happens, Bequia was far less dependent on the sugar crop than many of its neighbors. A local boat-building industry, including whaling, gave another dimension to the island economy and even the main industry of today, tourism, does not appear to be the monoculture that it has become elsewhere in the Caribbean. An interesting fusion of the boat-building trade and tourism is the building of superb model boats in the small workshops that we were able to visit after our tour.
The turtle sanctuary is a heart-warming project. Brother King, once a fisher of turtles - tortoiseshell was once used where plastics are today, and turtle oil was supplied to the cosmetics trade - turned conservationist when he realized that the local Hawksbill turtle was becoming endangered. Raising turtles from eggs, he has released hundreds into the local reefs which, as he explains in his educational out-reach projects to local school-children, form a crucial part of the local coral reef ecology. Without the turtles, no reefs; without coral reefs and turtles, no tourists. And what had we all been doing in the morning? As if to confirm his thesis, snorkeling and swimming or just limin' at Princess Margaret Beach, a short Zodiac ride from the ship. An altogether satisfying day in a very special community.
Early this morning, after a comfortable night's passage, we dropped anchor in Admiralty Bay offshore from the charming settlement of Port Elizabeth, principal township on Bequia (pronounced Beck-way), the largest and most northerly of the Grenadines, with St Vincent lying to the north and Mustique to the south. The island is small, with a population of only six thousand, and as yet not over commercialized. "That's our former sugar mill", said our charming guide, as we drove to Brother King's Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary. She was pointing out the overgrown ruins of the mill that closed, as on nearly every other former British island in the Caribbean, following Britain's accession to the European Union in 1973. During the French Revolutionary Wars that form the backdrop to the Patrick O'Brian novels so popular with guests on Sea Cloud II, the French developed a sugar beet industry in continental Europe to give them self-sufficiency in that, by then, staple commodity. After 1973, the British switched from cane sugar to beet sugar with disastrous consequences for the West Indian sugar industry.
As it happens, Bequia was far less dependent on the sugar crop than many of its neighbors. A local boat-building industry, including whaling, gave another dimension to the island economy and even the main industry of today, tourism, does not appear to be the monoculture that it has become elsewhere in the Caribbean. An interesting fusion of the boat-building trade and tourism is the building of superb model boats in the small workshops that we were able to visit after our tour.
The turtle sanctuary is a heart-warming project. Brother King, once a fisher of turtles - tortoiseshell was once used where plastics are today, and turtle oil was supplied to the cosmetics trade - turned conservationist when he realized that the local Hawksbill turtle was becoming endangered. Raising turtles from eggs, he has released hundreds into the local reefs which, as he explains in his educational out-reach projects to local school-children, form a crucial part of the local coral reef ecology. Without the turtles, no reefs; without coral reefs and turtles, no tourists. And what had we all been doing in the morning? As if to confirm his thesis, snorkeling and swimming or just limin' at Princess Margaret Beach, a short Zodiac ride from the ship. An altogether satisfying day in a very special community.
