A Story by Vanessa
We had many friends who lived on boats or who lived on other islands and would sail to Bequia. Months or even years would go by before you saw them, but you just picked up where you left off friendship-wise. Those were the days before email and cell phones, so no one ever stayed in touch, and we never really felt the need to stay in touch. They came when they came, and left when they left, and that was that.
It was kind of exciting to get a call from mummy at the restaurant saying that she had either seen a certain boat (Folkloric, Eros, Gaucho, Mithrandir) drop anchor, or she had heard them on the radio. We had a VHF radio at home and it was the main way of getting ahold of just about anyone back then. I grew up learning which channels to use for hailing someone, and what channels to switch to. It was also a good teacher of discretion, since everyone could hear you and I am sure bored people listened quite frequently to other people’s conversations. It was also a lot easier to use than those old rotary phones, and no memorization of phone numbers required!
Quite often they just showed up at the house or beach and it was wonderful. Sometimes we were invited out to their boats to play, which I loved the best. We loved the beach growing up, but a change was always welcome, and jumping off a boat into the sea was different than jumping from the beach! Swimming under boats was also a lot of fun. Very rarely did we actually go sailing.
Our friend Charlie would appear and disappear with some regularity. He was friends with our friends and we all played together as a gang. Iacobella and Christophoro would also appear on their fancy boat and we would pal about for a few weeks with them. Kylie and Ian were also great fun. It was nice to have girls like Iacobella and Kylie who had seen a bit more of the world than I and were of a similar age. I found the girls on boats to be down to earth and fun, whereas girls of a similar age who just came on vacation could be harder to get along with. They were Caribbean girls like we were!
Our friends Justin and Trevor lived in Barbados and their parents had a boat they would sail over. At one point Mithrandir was kept in Bequia and daddy looked after her, taking us out on a sail to keep her active. We adored Justin and Trevor, and looked forward to the regatta each Easter when they would visit. From them I learned what a game boy was, the word obvious, dirty jokes, a band called new kids on the block, and that serious swimmers shaved their legs. They were funny and knew things, and while not technically boat kids, they still arrived on one and gave us a boat to jump off of.
Our parents had dinner parties together, and while the adults drank on the porch we would watch movies and play. Quite often we would get tired and fall asleep. It wasn’t uncommon for our parents to find us all fast asleep together on a bed, worn out from a day in the sun and even more fun after hours. Those were the days!