Ins & Outs of SVG 2020

76 MEET A BEQUIAN INS& UTS No more than 30 miles north of Trinidad, the Perica foundered and sank. “We lost everything,” says Patrick quietly, clearly still moved by the recollection. “All we had were our clothes; my little (2-year old) brother’s things were mostly all that was in the one suitcase we had with us”. The red chopper bike was gone too. But in a flash, Patrick brightens as his memory turns to his first sight of Bequia, at just 8 years old. “Arrival by ferry then looked just like it does today – so beautiful! As we came in, I remember seeing one of my cousins paddling on a surfboard in the bay, and it was then I thought, yes - I can live here!” Those early days in Bequia were not easy, but the family got by. Felix, now a joiner/ cabinet maker, worked at Sargeant’s model boat shop; and when not at the local primary school being teased for his accent, Patrick and his two younger brothers played in cousin Mauvin’s model boat yard or swam off the beach in the harbour, watching the visiting yacht dinghies tie up at the little jetty. “My father taught us to swim, how to fish and how to rear animals – I learnt so much from him,” says Patrick, as he explains too how Felix turned Visitors to Bequia will probably know Patrick best as the courteous Senior Customs Officer who greets them on their arrival. But there is very much more to this committed young Bequian than his quiet, professional manner might first suggest. Although born in Trinidad – his voice still has that Trini lilt! – Patrick’s Bequia roots run deep. His great-grandfather Oren Hutchins was a Bequia whaler, married to a Miss Sargeant from Bequia. Patrick’s father Felix, born in Bequia in the early 1950s was, like his father before him, a man of the sea, plying the trade that was once the first calling of so many Bequia men. Like many other Bequians and Vincentians, the 1970s oil boom in Trinidad attracted Felix away from his home. Work was plentiful, maritime skills much in demand, and life there was new and exciting – a world away from sleepy Bequia. Patrick was born in 1982, the first of four children to Felix and his Trinidadian wife Joy. Growing up in Trinidad surrounded by a large extended family on both his father’s and mother’s side, two vivid memories stand out for Patrick: the Bequia model boat belonging to his father that was decked in lights each year in place of a Christmas tree, and a red chopper bike – his most prized boyhood possession. But everything was to change in 1991, when Felix decided to move back to Bequia with his young family. All their possessions, including Patrick’s precious bike, were carefully packed up and shipped up on the MV Perica to St. Vincent, where Felix was to supervise the clearance and onward shipment to Bequia. PatrickHutchins Patrick as a youngster at school Photographer, Community Organiser, Customs Officer, Bequian