The "Second Island Postulate"

Bequia - The Whaleboner Restaurant (for obvious reasons)

During our brief forays into the real world (i.e. away from our yacht), Kirstin and I encounter a lot of people in the US who are incredulous that we spend our whole lives in the Caribbean. We often hear "isn't every island the same?"or "I've been to the Caribbean; I went to Sandals in St. Thomas one time." We try to not look down on these luminaries of cartography...these modern day Magellans. We hear folks describe their wonderful trip to the mega-resort in Nassau, Bahamas as a trip to the Caribbean - until we point out that the Bahamas are actually in the north Atlantic, not the Caribbean. We will usually try something subtle like "Normally one needs to be in a bowling alley to hear travel tips as informed as yours".

Our learning over the past 5+ years of cruising is that there is a scientific theory at work here.......we call it the "Second Island Postulate". It goes like this- if you board a plane in Chicago, Newark, or Charlotte (where many of these "sages of travel" live) and you fly directly to the Caribbean, you'll end up in some sketchy location like St. Thomas (the mentally ill walk the streets like zombies) or St. Maarten's Dutch side (looks just like the Jersey Shore with traffic jams, megastores, and dirty water; no medical waste though...the Netherlands has more class than that).

View on our daily walk - Bequia

But if you're willing to take another leg on your trip to paradise........you will find, er, paradise. Fly to St. Maarten and then on to St. Barths ? You're in one of the most beautiful islands you'll ever see. French food and wine, fantastic nearly empty beaches, and great hiking though the hills overlooking the ocean. Stunning private villas and yes, the occasional celebrity ducking "celebrity cellulite" photographers.

Bequia - Perfection.

How about flying to St. Vincent (Newark NJ by the sea........with far fewer cops.......gulp) but taking a ferry to Bequia.........Bequia ? Never heard of it? It's a small, lovely island with only 5,000 inhabitants that offers amazing beaches, authentic Caribbean culture and food, and some of the friendliest, laid-back people you'll ever meet. It also has a friendly, smiling whale on its flag. This choice of mascot is odd as the whales that show up to Bequia are definitely not happy. Bequia is one of the very few places in the world where whaling legally takes place. The locals here, under international law, are able to kill up to four humpback whales a year using harpoons in open sailboats. In the market for some new scrimshaw or a whale necklace? Bequia is for you. On the positive side, whale vertebrate do make for some very comfortable barstools.

Tough being a whale here - but a spectacular place for anything else

But we could go on...Martinique, Bonaire, Guadeloupe...the road less traveled is the fast lane to a tropical wonderland. It's easy for us because our home moves - we don't have to fly anywhere. But our advice to folks coming here for a week...take the one more flight and find what you're looking for.