30 Dec: ..No Complain..
Bequia was beyond expectation, possibly due to the fact that I did not have any expectations at all on the Caribbean as a whole, especially no high ones. Too much had I read that the times when the Caribbean was paradise had gone since long. One should have been cruising 10 years ago, say the sailors of today, while the ones who wrote books a decade earlier were talking about the good old 1980’s, before the GPS had been invented. Reading books from that era, talked about the emptiness of the 1970’s, not to talk about pre-glassfibre cruising.
The Caribbean is, in fact, a developed part of our globe with people who all want to make business, much as in any other part of the world living from tourism. And we are in fact all tourists after all, sailing in our own vessels, mixing with the charter fleets and the enormous cruise vessels, littering their human cargo onto the islands for a couple of hours. Luckily, they disappear just as quickly as they show up, ferried out in life boats by staff in white uniforms offering fruits and ice tea on the dinghy dock, hosting their guests back into their floating hotels after a short shopping trip ashore, allowing them to have dinner in their well-known restaurants onboard the cruise vessel.
If you’d expected empty sandy islands all by yourself in the Caribbean, you might have to look further along your circumnavigation, but not here, yet. On the other hand, excellent service in a fantastic sailing ground can be found instead. I am impressed by the skills and equipment wildly available for you and your boat never very far away.
If you are prepared to share the island with other great yachting people and don’t fear higher grocery costs, Bequia is a fantastic island with the spectacular Grenadines with Tobago Cays, just round the corner. I don’t say it couldn’t get any better than Bequia, but that is not the issue for us right now. We are living in the present, enjoying what we find here, avoiding islands with a reputation of not being as welcoming to sailors, which also is said to exist.
Not all felt the same, however.
There were cruisers who had been dreaming and planning and working on their big goal in life to cross the Atlantic and to arrive right here to the Caribbean. After a warm welcome, some were suddenly experiencing an “anti-climax”. Having reached what one has longed for during such an extensive period of time can give a feeling of emptiness, as in “…and now what?!”
Others had left home port with the declared goal to sail around the world, but after the Atlantic crossing, they were no longer sure if long ocean passages really was something for them. Should they now step down from big plans to “just” sailing to the Caribbean? How should they explain this defeat to their families and friends?
I am glad we never explicitly planned to get here, nor did we make any commitments for how long we would be cruising. And we still don’t, since we honestly don’t know. By doing so, we can take every step as a reached goal and if we were to stop sailing right now and here, it would still be regarded as a major adventure for us. For me, it is a big wonder that we have come all the way to America, just as I had felt overwhelmed when having crossed the North Sea or the Biscay earlier. If you look at it, we had not done much more than slowly continuing without any need to turn back. By just going on sailing in slow pace, you reach quite far, actually!
I can re-assure, we are not much more different than any other normal family doing holiday sailing during summer. And that is the major message: You could do it, just as well! The big step was to actually take the brave decision to go cruising for an extended period of time, not the sailing as such. Looking around us among fellow sailors we meet, I can tell that they are all just like you and me and no ocean wanderers or eccentric adventurers. Wonderful normal people who just like to do something different in life for a time.
None of our friends, including ourselves, would, for instance, immediately want to go out sailing another ocean within shortly. After some time, we might all forget and become ready for the next crossing, who knows. Karolina believes it’s a bit like giving birth to a child, where you tend to forget all the hard parts, and eventually become ready for your next baby. With the Atlantic in fresh memory, all of us agreed on that this was hard work, in first place mentally rather than physically.
Just take the feeling of responsibility being constantly concerned about what possibly could go wrong far out with no help within thousands of miles. These never ending worries do put a slight damper on things, especially if you have children to take responsibilty for.
Four boats in the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) had hit whales. Luckily, none got injured and the boats all made it to the Caribbean despite damages. If not whales, then material fatigue can ruin your day. We had the Volvo alternator bracket that broke on the Atlantic, which was nothing compared to Paul, crossing solo, who almost lost his mast when a 20 mm rigging screw just sheared off. Other boats were fighting with problems ranging from severe engine problems to clogged heads. There is a lot to be worried about, if you are in the mood for it and it takes some learning to concentrate on the things that actually do get right and forget about the worries!
An ocean crossing is not a bed of roses, but with discipline and organization, a great adventure. We were lucky, since the crucial parts were all functioning: The rig, the self-steering, power production and personal heath. We are very happy with our boat, who has taken us so far and still is pretty much in the same condition as when she left the yard as a newborn lady.
This cannot be said about us, however. Our lives have changed and look pretty similar to our colourful clothing in imaginative island-style patter. We bother about things such as how to get our clothes really clean, where to find good vegetables, where to leave our garbage or how to repair a diesel generator or for how long we should be continuing to cruise. On the other hand, the worries we used to have ashore now feel very strange and irrelevant.
While cruising, you never know in the morning, how you are going to feel during the day, what you are going to do or what will be your joys and concerns of the day. Is there another item to be repaired onboard, possibly the same I tried to fix the day before? Will cockroaches have made their way onboard my boat as well? Will the anchor hold? Where will we be in one week, in one month or in one year? How much money will we be able to spend? You have to take full responsibility for your acting and often solve your own problems.
It takes some learning to get used to a life without predictability. You learn to become more relaxed, more laid back, following “island time” as they call it. It was some time now, since I stopped walking around with a mobile phone all the time. I don’t even wear a watch. You don’t need one. The shops seldom follow their own signed opening hours, anyway, and the most reliable clock is visible all the time, namely the sun! Take a short bearing and the sun height will tell you if there is still enough time for a short jogging tour before sunset or if it is “beer o’clock” already and time to gather on some boat for a sun-downer or meeting at the Frangipani bar in Bequia, sipping on the best Piña Colada within vicinity, while listening to a great local steel band.
I closed my eyes sitting in the white comfortable chairs under the palm trees at Frangipani’s. I could still see all the boats anchored out there through my closed eyelids. The rhythmic steel drums reached through my ears into my heart. It’s not easy to resist the calling of the drums and some were already dancing in the sand. I took another sip on my drink and opened my eyes again. Yes, it was true, I was actually here and part of it all; it was no daydreaming in my office chair any longer.
The children were running around on the beach desperately trying to open a coconut they had found. Others had discovered some banana leaves and tried to plait something. Friends were passing by greeting or stopping for a rum punch, talking about how lucky we all were to be here. Just Steve was a bit silent. He was thinking about the fact that he would soon be flying home to England again, getting back into the rat race, leaving this relaxed life style he had just learnt to love so much. “It's almost unfortunate..." Steve murmured, "This was much better than I could ever have dreamt of." He lifts his rum punch and turns it into the setting sun as if he wanted to deepen its orange colour even more by the intense sunset. "Had it just been an average experience to crew on a boat to cross the Atlantic and arriving here to the Caribbean, I could have possibly even looked forward to getting back home again, but this is definitely calling for more! Now I will dream about what life actually can be like the minute I return!”.
We all felt sorry for Steve and privileged that we could stay here. But would it have been better for Steve, never to have tried?
Trond on Norwegian Coconut put it this way: “Caribbean is like the ‘Mañana Countires’, but without the rush!” he explained when we tried to understand the meaning of "island time". Why should we leave pretty Bequia, when we still enjoyd it so much? We greet the vendors in their speed boats passing by, talk to the servants at “Gingerbread” where we check our e-mails and call via Skype, sipping on a Ginger Ale in the mornings or a Rum Punch in the evenings.
Living in the centre of events, one looses any fear for its ending and can hardly remember what lied before the start. It is a intensive feeling, while I try to keep an understanding for our friends back home who still live according to their diary, instead of filling the diary with their life.
It was a highlight never to be forgotten!
And we don’t!
No Complain!
