A Lovely Day on the Water

We raised anchor at about 7 a.m. on Thursday morning and started to motor north along the west coast of St. Vincent. There was very little wind and sun was beaming from a cloudless sky. The water looked like mercury. We watched St. Vincent's spectacular profile slip by us, waved a distance farewell to Wallilabou, and came upon wind at the northern tip of the island.

It was a perfect wind for the beat up to St. Lucia, blowing 15 to 20 knots. We made 5 to 7 knots until about 15 miles from Soufriere, where the wind dropped. We slouched along, finally bringing in our sails and starting the engines. A pair of small whales spouted away from St. Lucia as we arrived.

The bay at Soufriere was very nice and we were greeted by the inevitable boatboy who squired us to a mooring on the northern edge, right under a mighty cliff. It was too late for customs and immigration, so we settled for RPs and dinner, and kept our Q flag flying.

(The Q flag is plain yellow. No stripes or spots or other colours. It is flown when entering a new country's waters until customs and immigration have been dealt with--the process known as clearing in. Q is for quarantine; the flag used to signal a ship carrying disease or plague. US regulations require that it be flown from 12 miles out. I have no idea whether other countries expect it in greater or lesser distances. I just go with 12 since it doesn't tax my brain to greatly to remember one number. In case you hadn't figured it out, I'm in charge of courtesy an Q flags.)

The night was peaceful except for a few mosquitoes, a very loud wind generator, and the occasional whiff of fire and brimstone.

In the morning, WW went ashore (only the captain is allowed ashore to clear in; crew must remain aboard until the formalities are complete) to clear us in. He returned to say he had booked a water taxi and a taxi for 10:30. There were a couple of things at Soufriere I was quite interested in seeing.