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 27^th 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 2^nd 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