Big News!
Through the ups and downs that 2024 dealt me and the incredibly busy season of 2025 this newsletter has had several delays before being published. Now I have a big announcement and so it is finally time!
Dive Bequia Celebrating 40 Years of Underwater Adventures!
Thirty years of Cathy, forty years of Dive Bequia
During one very cold and gloomy winter in rural England, my mum, Isabel, suggested that we visit The Grenadines so that she could show me where she had spent two years working on the small cruise ship Xanadu. Mum had made friends with lots of people in Bequia and was keen to introduce me to her favorite island.
With my three-year-old daughter, we left for several months of sunshine, loaded up like pack mules with my legal textbooks and her toys that she couldn’t bear to part with.
Coming around the corner of Devil’s Table where Admiralty Bay comes into view was magical. In my opinion arriving on the ferry is still the best way to arrive—passing the sailboats, looking at the beaches, and admiring the colorful houses on the hill. I remember thinking that this was exactly how I expected the Caribbean to look.
People were so friendly that before we had even stepped off the ferry ramp, someone asked us if we needed somewhere to stay and showed us to Julie’s Guesthouse. This became our base for the next few months while we explored the Grenadines.
Over the next few months, I became an avid snorkeler and marveled at the tiny silver fish that surrounded me. I really wanted to scuba dive, but I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to do it.
Cathy - First Dive
My mum quashed my fears with stories of all the young and old passengers that had enjoyed their first dive experience with Dive Bequia, so on March 2nd, 1995, I went for my first scuba dive. I took my first lesson off the beach at Plantation House with Bob. His ability to skim over the bottom without seeming to move baffled me. Every time I took my hands off the bottom, I sank. I felt like a crab scuttling along the sand! How was he doing this?
When we joined the dive boat to dive at Devil’s Table, I didn’t improve. I had gotten the hang of staying off the bottom, but now I had trouble steering—I just couldn’t make myself go where I wanted. Bob pulled me along and pointed out all the neat stuff he saw, and in spite of being an absolutely rubbish diver, I was hooked!
By the end of the week, I had made a dozen dives dragged along by Bob and had already chalked up seeing huge barracuda, seahorses, octopus, turtles, and sharks. I didn’t realize that many divers wait a lifetime to see a frogfish—I saw one on my first dive.
Cathy ❤️ Bob
I went on to become an instructor in 1997, taking the twelve day course in Barbados the week before Bob and I got married—just a little stressful! I’ve always loved replicating the first dive experience Bob gave me for my new divers, especially those who thought they couldn’t do it.
To make a long story short, as the customers who were diving with Bob before I arrived and those who joined us along the way know—I never left. And those legal textbooks? They never came out of the bag.
Forty years wouldn’t have been possible without all of the divemasters, instructors and boat captains that worked with us. Fitzy, also known as the operator of the water taxi Phat Shag, was Bob’s first employee. When Fitzy asked for a job Bob agreed to hire him if he could start the pull cord compressor. Fitzy was in his early teens and Bob didn’t think he had a chance at starting it, but sure enough the compressor was running when Bob returned from his dive. About twenty years later Fitzy confessed that Anne, Bob’s girlfriend, had started it for him!
Since those early days there have been many changes, not least of all the tragic loss of Bob in early 2024. In his honour for the amazing life he showed and gave me, Dive Bequia will continue, but not with me at the helm for another forty years!
40 Years of Underwater Adventures!
As Dive Bequia turns 40, we celebrate four decades of world-class diving, marine conservation, and unforgettable adventures. Whether you’re a longtime Dive Bequia enthusiast or have yet to experience its magic, 2025 is the perfect time to visit and join the celebration. Here’s to 40 years of deep-sea discoveries, unforgettable friendships, and the enduring spirit of Dive Bequia!
Now I have a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT and so it is finally time!
Through the ups and downs that 2024 dealt me and the incredibly busy season of 2025 this newsletter has had several delays before being published. Now I have a big announcement and so it is finally time!
I have decided to list Dive Bequia for sale. I wanted all of our loyal customers and the people of Bequia to know this from the horse’s mouth. Very simply, without Bob, the dive shop just isn’t the same for me. I won’t be leaving Bequia but my plan is to be able to see our daughters more often and to enjoy my adopted home.
All de best! ❤️ Dani & Norris