Duquesne Bay

From: Gouyave, Grenada
To: Duquesne Bay, Grenada

In search of a deserted beach, we sailed northwards to Duquesne Bay. It seemed deserted enough from the eagle eye Google maps view, but on arrival we discovered a small fisherman’s hamlet between the trees.

The bay looked nice, but smelled of burning garbage and there was a non-stop high pitched buzzing sound. Like two giant mosquitos were hovering over the bay. Turns out some kids lost a few kites in the trees. Each kite has a buzzer attached to that makes a mosquito sound in the wind. The complete disregard people have here for one another’s peace and quiet never ceases to amaze me.

We took the dinghy out and went over to the most secluded part of the beach. We saw a man between the trees making a “WTF” gesture with his hands. I signed: “No worries, we’ll stay right here in this spot.” He retreated but kept an eye on us.

The kids started playing in the surf, but then another man came running from the houses at the far end of the beach. He seemed very agitated and was shouting something about the police. I couldn’t really understand what he was talking about, but he didn’t seem very pleased with our presence on the beach. For the record: we were more than 200m from the nearest house. He took off again.

I said to Barbara: “Let’s go back to the boat. These people are going to make trouble if we stay here.” Another guy was starting towards us, but we launched the dinghy and got back to Vite & Rêves before he reached us.

And lo and behold: Five minutes later I saw a police car with flashing lights appear between the trees. We heard people yelling even up to the boat. After a while, the police car disappeared again.

Now, I understand the reasons behind the curfew, but there’s something like the letter of the law (Stay Home) and the spirit of the law (Don’t Infect One Another). We were following the spirit by staying well away from other people, and they were following the letter by telling us to stay home, but violating the spirit, by coming up to us. Now which behavior is better? And which behavior is punishable by law? The same.

Perhaps it was just envy. “If we can’t go on the beach, then you cannot either.” But then again we saw several people walking on the beach and swimming. It’s all very mysterious.

At night, we were bugged by the incessant mosquito kite sounds — these things are even louder at night — and the permeating stench of burning garbage. And then it became clear: People in this bay are just tormented souls who take it out on cruisers.

At least we have the luxury to be able to pick up our home and move if the neighborhood doesn’t appeal to us. Which we promptly did the next morning.