Down to Bequia

I was up first on Friday. The sky was clear with clouds banking over St. Vincent. I watched a brown booby fishing. Watched the workers coming in to the Young Island Resort, reputedly the most expensive resort in St. Vincent and the Grenadines barring those on Mustique. I washed all my galley towels and hung them in the sun to dry.

WW was next up and I fed him breakfast while he listened to Chris Parker. The news was better. Incoming fine weather starting midweek.

Next came Enn, who made his bowl of cereal and cup of tea. We all knew Dana would be a little later. She enjoys her lie in.

When all were assembled, I announced my my joyous news. The night before, WW had promoted me from antipenultimate mate to third mate for excellence in crew management. I would like to thank my mother, the Academy, but most especially, the Eager Crew, without whom this would not have been possible.

Then the heavens opened. We knew we were going to be sailing today, but hadn’t decided where to yet. So, while we waited for the rain to clear, we consulted guide books, charts and each other. Because the weather was unpromising for the next few days and because the only decent anchorage on Mustique is not great in a westerly swell (guess what we had), we decided to go to Bequia (pronounced, by the way, Beck-way). The swell would, it seemed, be an issue in Admiralty Bay, so we decided to go to Friendship Bay on the south of the island. It would be a bit of a rocky run, what with the swell and the wind and so forth. WW and D popped motion sickness pills.

The EC made themselves terrifically useful, assisting with raising Boffo, securing Lady, releasing our mooring, stowing lines. We were off.

Saying farewell to Lagoon Marina and Young Island

The swell was coming at us on our port quarter, the 12 nm/h wind was blowing all wrong for getting around Bequia to the west, as we’d planned, so the captain decided to run us down the island’s east side. All hands assisted in raising our sails. Then we got out into the channel and the wind picked up. Clouds were massing over St. Vincent behind us, but heading eastward. The wind was blowing 20 nm/h and more, and we were making a good 7 knots. The waves were breaking over the bow and, every so often, we were doused with spray back in the cockpit. Dana stood by WW at the helm, absorbing sailing information from him like a sponge.

There was a nasty crack and WW soon spotted the problem. The welding job done back in Puerto Plata, DR, on the boom car for our mainsail had failed. It wasn’t an immediate problem, but it would need to be fixed.

The wind grew fiercer and WW decided to furl a bit. We sped down the east coast of Bequia until we needed to change our heading to one on which we could sail no more. Down came the genny. WW put Django into the wind and we started to bring down the mainsail. Something jammed. Then a shackle at the mast snapped. Then the halyard got wrapped around the boom. The EC earned their grog, freeing the halyard and we were able to finish bringing down the sail. Something else to fix. While you are breathing, your boat is breaking.

View over Friendship Bay

We motored into the supposedly tranquil waters of Friendship Bay, only to find a reasonably persistent swell that would keep us moving throughout our stay. Oh well.