14.05N 60.57W
Once Christmas was over everyone immediately seemed to be on the move
– all trying to find a common denominator for the New Year!
Anahi bottom left in Nelson’s Dockyard
Sunset in Antigua
Falmouth Bay – Antigua
And at night fall……………..
We made a rendezvous to try and get to Bequia – but on the day of
departure the wind was howling and it all looked distinctly tippy uppy so as we
were already at anchor in Freeman’s Bay we stayed put and went to lunch with
Zippy instead – which turned out to be a fantastic decision…..
great fun and great food at Calabash Restaurant on the beach. The day before
Oscar and I had zip wired through the rain forests for three hours so it was
lovely to have one more day of relaxation.
So we set off on the 27th December with perfect weather and
a beam reach congratulating ourselves for leaving it one more day and feeling
pretty smug – we had a cracking day’s sail and did think about
stopping at Guadeloupe overnight but decided to try and reach Bequia in one go
as the weather was so perfect……….that was until we sailed
between the islands (at night) and experienced the ‘acceleration
effect’ of the winds funnelling through the channels between the islands
we had been warned about! By then it was too late – impossible to go
back and too tricky to pull into any of the other islands on route if we passed
them at night due to reefs. Suffice it to say it was a particularly
disagreeable journey and frustrating to sail by so many islands in the chain
going south without stopping. I soon turned back into the burping sickly weed that
had set sail from Gibraltar to Morocco
all those months ago and was a useless crew member. The waves weren’t
big, just rough and relentless – a couple finding their way down the
companionway steps and drenching the saloon and one through our tiny bathroom
window with such force it flooded the floor of our cabin. Paul likened it to a
storm in the English Channel and beating down the coast lines, although it was
only 36 hours, took its toll on us all, mainly because we were hand steering all
the way as the auto helm belt had snapped across the Atlantic
and it was not possible to find a spare. Alan and Mary on Happy Wanderer are
going to try and find one in the UK
for us but we won’t meet up with them now until Panama. I never drink enough water
but on this occasion drank none and ate nothing – ending up with a really
painful kidney infection. So we abandoned the idea of Bequia and decided to
anchor up in St Lucia as we were passing the island in daylight and saw in the
New Year on the boat watching all the festivities and fireworks on the shore…….
including great music from Sandles Resort. We were a soggy old mess on arrival.
No body had slept properly so it was wonderful to be in a safe anchorage once
more! For me it had been worse than crossing the Atlantic!
Bennett on the deck
And in Nelson’s Dockyard…..
Oscar has decided that three months of cruising around with a lot of
old fogies is enough for him – so he is flew back to Gatwick today 2nd
January! Sad in its way but also a great new start to 2008 for
Oscar……. So now we will be three! Longer watches for each of us
but more room! We still have the surf boards, acrobatic kite, guitar, exercise
mat and meditation books on board so when the boys join us for holidays in the
future they can expect to find a couple of guitar playing, surfboarding, kite
flying yoga fanatics!…….
Bye bye Oscar!! xx
