The Norwegian Christmas Colony

We have Colin Archer ketch, "Christiania"s guiding light with us all night. They slip into the quiet waters of Bequia's "Admiralty Bay" about an hour ahead of us. There are probably about 100 boats in the bay, of all nationalities. Including a big "Christmas Colony" of Norwegian sailboats, probably the biggest concentration of Scandinavian boats outside of Scandinavia. On our way in we pass "old" friends, Norwegian "Blue Marlin, with Sondre and the twin 6-yr olds and Swedish "Blue Marlin", the "Bonanza" boys, sailing from Brazil, "Agape", our brave "Gambian" sailors, "Regina"(Swe.), last seen in the Canaries, the Bergen architects in "Blå", and others.

Clearing in is easy. Like an errand at the Post Office. The book store has a Bequia courtesy flag. And lots of good Caribbean literature. From Carib-kiddie books, cook books to Naipaul.
We pick up a mooring right outside the Gingerbread Hotel and Cafe, with popular dinghy dock. Very handy. A nice view of the bay and "Babette" through the palms at this strand-side cafe. One of a string of little cafes and hotels lining the narrow sand walkway into the small town of Port Elizabeth. We meet "Blaa" with daughters, grandkids at the cafe and have some good barbecued chicken. Next time we'll try the cakes!

The evening is spent on Norwegian "Blue Marlin". They had a good crossing over, 21 days from Gran Canari to St. Lucia. So the horror stories about tropic storms and the ARC regatta might be a bit exaggerated. They had their own fishing yarns to tell. We saw the evidence of their big Blue Marlin catch (15 kilo!) The head was still around as a souvenir. It was great to see them all again!