Bal Harbour

66 BAL HARBOUR HOLIDAY 2023 SPECIAL EDITION P H OTO G R A P H Y: PAW E L TO C Z Y N S K I/G E T T Y riter and erstwhile Vogue staer Bronwyn Cosgrave had crisscrossed the Caribbean for years, hopscotching around dierent islands on assignment for the magazine. But when the film producer Christine Vachon invited Cosgrave and her husband to spend the holidays with her family on Bequia, Cosgrave was intrigued—she'd never set foot on the island, even though it's Mustique's closest neighbor (save for the private island of Baliceaux, which is currently on the market for $25 million). "On that first trip in 2007, I turned to my husband and said, 'This is the best Caribbean island.' We've never been any- where else at Christmas since then." Bequia (say it BECK-way) is the northernmost of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the 32 islands and cays that spill south from Saint Vincent and also includes Mustique. The seven-square-mile squiggle of land has just 5,000 or so residents, and has coasted along for centuries, largely overlooked by tourists. Pirates and navymen used it for revictualing in the 1700s (Blackbeard was a regular) and creatives, like Bob Dylan, came in the 1970s. Indeed, when the whirl- ing parties of Mustique grew too tiring for even Princess Margaret—a woman renowned for her social stamina—HRH would sneak o to Bequia for a dip in the water and the chance to be treated a little W more like an everyday woman. (Not every visitor, though, sees their favorite beach named in their honor.) Cosgrave says that even today the island retains the same wel- coming unfussiness. "There's a sense of ease that you feel the moment you land at the airport. There's no ceremony," she says, noting the island's Goldilocks size—just big enough to encourage exploring and offer secret beaches and glorious isolation, but small enough to remain socially integrated. "You walk to the shop for groceries with everyone, and we're in it together." PR exec Ann Layton is another longtime visitor. "You don't need to wear diamonds to the pool here, just flip flops," she laughs, "In our world, it's increasingly impossible to feel o the grid, but here you can, and it attracts a discreet, creative community—artists, filmmakers, music people. You can start talking to nearly anyone and will find that they have a really cool story." One communit y that 's been core to Bequia for some time is "yachties." "At New Year's, there are at least 200 yachts in the bay, and lots of superyachts," says Layton. It's in part thanks to the superb, sheltered nat ural harbor here, arg uably one of the best in the region; that's the same asset that attracted Blackbeard and co.— and the occasional cruise ship now, though thankfully only opera- tors of smaller vessels, like Silversea. Boat-building was one of the island's industries in its heyday, and Bob Dylan's visit was connected to his buying a wooden schooner, Water Pearl, built right on the beach. Today, the focus is more on keepsakes than ketches, espe- cially thanks to Sargeant's Model Boat Shop, the standout among several such operations here. The namesake brothers hand-carve replicas of boats in the harbor and beyond; half-finished models dangle from the ceiling like decorations. "It started from coconut shells," says Timothy Sargeant, the youngest of the brothers, "We were making small boats for fun, the ones that children race on the water. Then we started seeing the boats coming into the bay, then yachts, and so we made something that looked like them." He and his team produce miniature whaling boats, yachts, and catamarans like the Vaan R4 or Privlège 640. They will also work on bespoke commissions, replicas of a given vessel, which will take around eight months to complete and cost between $3,000 and $8,000. "We don't use machinery. It's all done by handwork." ABOVE: Port Elizabeth welcomes boaters. OPPOSITE PAGE: The center of the island is hilly and lush with jungles.

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