This year marks the 21st anniversary of the Bequia Sailing Club's annual Bequia Easter Regatta, and it is a coming of age in more ways than one.  After three years of sponsorship, Mount Bay rum has this year awarded the Bequia Easter Regatta its coveted "Red Cap" status - an accolade that is both a great honour for the Regatta, and more importantly, a major draw for yachting competitors who are lucky enough to earn one by competing in Mount Gay sponsored 

regattas. The Bequia Easter Regatta has never been just about yacht races however.  The colour, excitement and spectacle of the local double-ender races draws bigger crowds and supporters each year, who follow the Bequia-based boats and visiting competitors from Canouan, Carriacou and Tobago as they battle it out on the waters around Bequia.  The smaller boats are not forgotten either. In the last two years there has been an extraordinary leap in the interest and sophistication of the locally built gumboats, which now are anything up to 5 feet in length, with keels almost as deep! These magnificent model boats sail themselves for considerable distances with their owner/builders following behind in motor powered vessels.

 

On land there is plenty to see and do as well with activities on Easter Sunday such as the Crazy Craft Beach at Lower Bay and the Sandcastle competition (for children of all ages!). The culmination of the weekend is the Prize-giving at Plantation House Hotel on Easter Monday.

 

For more information on Bequia's single most important yearly event visit www.begos.com/easterregatta or contact the Bequia Sailing Club via email   bsc@caribsurf.com

 

Arts & Crafts Fair

 

For a few concerned moments everyone gathered under the Almond Tree in Port Elizabeth on Saturday, March 2nd, watched as a bank of unseasonal storm clouds rolled over the island. When the sun finally broke through it was like a blessing on the first ever Bequia Arts & Crafts Fair. Over a dozen stalls with basketry, pottery, clothes, dolls, paintings, jewellery and prints presented an interesting sight for Bequians and visitors. Products were made from whalebone, banana fibre, grass, sea-sponge, hibiscus petals,and recycled materials as well as traditional artists' colours. Several exhibitors made the trip from St. Vincent with their wares. 

 

Organised by the Bequia Arts & Crafts Producers in conjunction with S.V.G. Create this will surely become a regular event, perhaps even once a month. Here are some of the colourful choices:

 

a lizard chasing a frangipani 
caterpillar is the decoration 
on this pot from Bequia's 
own Spring Pottery

 

a crowd of dolls created by 
Jasmine Gonsalves

 

 The Boat House stall offers artistic coconut boats by Kingsley King and limited edition prints by R.D. Lucy

Karen McVie, a lady of many parts - adopted Bequian, artist, baker, cafe owner, devotee of works of art, eco-activist, party-lover and just plain friend to so many - passed away last month. 

 

The sailing-Bequia-dinghies border design at the top of this web-site is hers; she graciously allowed us have it adapted from her design for the Bequia Regatta T-shirt of 1998. Recently one of her paintings was chosen for the 2002 calendar published by the National Commercial Bank. Samples of her signs dot Bequia - on Lower Bay Beach "leave only your footprints" among others, at Gingerbread the charming series of fresh juice signs, at the Green Boley the shop sign. Karen delighted in encouraging other artists from which came her idea to open the Parrot Art Cafe at Lower Bay. With the help of Salisha she produced some amazing croissants, pastas and the like while entertaining guests and displaying works of art. This wooden, colorfully painted, Bequia style cottage built with the help of her husband Irvine is set amongst a mini- jungle of tropical plants of amazingly giant proportions - a wonderful setting for both food and art.   

 

Karen's heart was in Bequia from the time she arrived from the United States some 20 years ago. The memory of her  - the kindness, the high spirits, and the determination to make things better on the island, is her happy legacy. Joining many others we say thanks!