23 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It’s great to have a hardware store and a chandlery so close to us. We bought spare parts for the toilets, varnish and bilge paint. We’re dumping old spare parts and junk out of our cupboards and filling them up with materials for the various projects to be done over the next two months.
While we’ve been cruising in remote places around the world, we’ve had six 105Ah batteries. A few weeks ago, I found that three batteries had failed on us. I calculate that we use 150 Amps per day when at anchor and 200 Amps per day while at sea (the autopilot sucks up a lot of power).
The Caribbean is sunny and has lots of wind, so I think that we generate 100-160 Amps from the solar panels and 80-120 Amps from the wind generator. This means that our batteries are full for most of the time, so I’ve only ordered one more battery. This gives us 420Ah in total, which will last for nearly three days without any sun or wind, which is fine.
In the afternoon, I finished off repairing the front toilet - at the end of the messy job, I’m pleased to report that our toilets are working better than they have for years. Glenys meanwhile is on a mission to polish all the stainless steel on deck, which is looking very tired after three months and 5,500 miles at sea.
In the evening, we went for dinner and a few beverages on “Dream Catcher”. Martin and Maggie with their crew of Jeremy and Nicole are leaving for Martinique tomorrow and will then be heading off to the Azores next week. They still have 3,700 miles to go until they can put up their feet in La Linea, Spain.
24 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We went shopping in the morning to get some more parts and I picked up our new battery. Back at the boat, I fitted the battery and generally tidied up ready to leave in two days’ time. It was a fairly nice day with light winds, so Glenys jumped in the dinghy and cleaned the stains from the hull, which we’ve accumulated over the last few months.
I’ve been in touch with a Yacht Broker in the USA and he’s suggesting that we should try to get up to the Annapolis Used Boat Show in April next year. I’ve looked at the weather at this time of year and it’s only 50-60 degrees Fahrenheit, which is too damn cold for us. We’re now planning to arrive in the USA in May, when the temperatures should be more civilised. If we start in December, that gives us six months to sail up from Grenada via West Indies, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas - a nice leisurely cruise.
While sipping a cold beer in the cockpit, we watched a stunning sunset.
25 April 2018 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
The plan is to sail to Bequia tomorrow, so we went to the shopping mall to buy provisions. We’ve been having trouble getting cash from the ATM in the Bank of St Lucia. The Scotia Bank at the mall worked ok, but it charged 13 EC (£3.25).
In the afternoon, I cleared out and bought some petrol, which is nice and easy at the marina. We had a quiet afternoon and evening, watching a fabulous Caribbean Sunset.
26 April 2018 Rodney Bay to Bequia, St Vincent
It’s 70 miles between Rodney Bay and Bequia, so we left at 04:30 and motor-sailed along the leeward side of St Lucia and past the impressive Pitons. Once we cleared the south end of the island we were out into 20-25 knots on the beam with 2 metres seas, so it was bouncy roller coaster ride for a few hours.
After 30 minutes of slightly higher and gusty winds in the acceleration zone at the north end of St Vincent, we were suddenly back to motor-sailing in the flukey winds. The channel between St Vincent and Bequia is only 10 miles, but it’s notorious for strong winds, so we motored east along the coast of St Vincent for a few miles to give us a better angle. Our strategy worked and we skimmed past the reef at Devil’s table and sailed into the huge Admiralty Bay.
It was heaving with boats in the anchorage - I would estimate 100 yachts and catamarans dotted around. We anchored off Princess Margaret Beach, which was also crowded. The sea bed is a mixture of good holding sand with large areas of coral rubble. We had a bit of trouble on our first attempt and I snorkelled down to find that we were on coral rubble, but I could see a big patch of sand further ahead. We finally anchored at 13°00.19N 061°14.61W in 7 metres of water - by the time that we’d settled, it was 17:00.
The customs office is open until 18:00 every week day, but they charge overtime if you clear in after 16:00. It’s a bit of a scam because most people will be arriving in the late afternoon. The officers have been known to get really annoyed if you arrive before 18:00 and don’t clear in immediately, but I couldn’t be bothered to try to rush ashore and then have to pay overtime - I cracked open a beer.
27 April 2018 Bequia, St Vincent
We went ashore to clear in and were at the customs office when they opened at 08:30. The officers were extremely polite and didn’t bat an eyelid when I told a little white lie saying that we arrived at 18:30. The clearance process was very quick and only cost $70EC (£18). We have been given a 30 days visa, which is good enough for us.
The shops in the small town were still closed, so we went for a walk around the north side of the bay. Bequia is a quaint little place with brightly painted houses interspersed with breadfruit, mango and banana trees. We walked all the way around the bay and up to the small hill where there is a fortification called Fort Hamilton. There’s a few old cannons and nice view of the anchorage.
Back in town we walked around the few streets and then along the “boardwalk” around the south side of the bay almost to Princess Margaret’s Beach. The town hasn’t changed much. After buying a SIM card and a few groceries, we retired back to the boat for lunch and had a quiet afternoon.
In the evening we went out for dinner at a Pizza place with Howard and Wendy from “xxx”.
28 April 2018 Bequia, St Vincent
We woke up feeling all dynamic and went for a walk towards Bequia Head. We’ve done this walk before and some notes in our hiking section. It was a hot day, so we only made it as far as the quaintly named “Industry” where there’s an old quarry and a small run-down turtle sanctuary.
It was a pleasant walk along a road going past old coconut plantations and a few windward beaches, which unfortunately are covered with Sargassum Weed, several feet thick in places. There’s a nice view of Bequia, when walking back down the hill into town.
I dragged out my dive camera and went snorkelling on Devils Table which is a reef on the northern point of the bay. The water clarity was good and the rocky reef is in good condition with patches of sponges, sea fans and corals. The fish are fairly friendly, but I’ve forgotten how to take pictures underwater.
In the evening, Brett & Mary Pat from “Malaiki”, a Hallberg Rassy 43 came over for sunset beers.
29 April 2018 Bequia, St Vincent
Being a Sunday, we had a chill-out day. I caught up on editing photos and published my blog. In the afternoon, we went across to Devil’s Table for another snorkel.
When we got back to Alba, I discovered that I’ve managed to chip a filling from my front tooth, probably while biting down on the snorkel mouth piece. It’s not sensitive or giving me any pain, which is good news. An old skydiving friend, Tony, repaired the original chip in the tooth back in 1981, so the filling has done a good job. I’ve been in contact with him and jokingly complained about his shoddy dentistry. Tony’s amazed that it lasted for 37 years and offered to fix it for free - sounds like I’ll be having a day of skydiving stories when we get back to the UK...
In the evening, we were invited to “Malaiki” for sundowners, where we met Klaus and Katrin from “Saphir” another HR 43.
30 April 2018 Bequia, St Vincent
Bequia is a nice place, but it’s very crowded and the anchorage has been rolly for the last two nights, so we’ve decided to head off tomorrow. We popped into town to buy some provisions - a case of beer, two loaves of bread, veggies, etc. Port Elizabeth is an expensive place to buy anything because it all has to come over from St Vincent by ferry, so we only bought enough to last a couple of weeks.
We chilled out in the afternoon and had a quiet night.
There are more photos in our Photo Album section.
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