Bequia
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Sun 29 Jun 2008 21:29
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Hello
Friends
"13:00.57N 61:14.51W"
We've enjoyed some good sailing as we've
worked our way south and experienced quite a few squalls which almost count as
frisky. Whilst passing HMS Diamond Rock in Martinique, we encountered a squall
with 45 knot sustained winds, which was great practice at dealing with fresher
weather! But remember that a squall
in the English Channel is cold & wet but out here it's like having
bucketfulls of warm bathwater chucked at you, so not really a
problem.
In view of the approaching Summer weather,
we've adjusted the rigging to add a 3rd reef tack line brought back to the
cockpit. This means that the 3rd reef can be rigged from the cockpit without
having to wander around the deck - it seemed a good idea to us and works really
well. [For the technically minded, the previous arrangement had a short strop at
the 3rd reef tack, hooked onto the gooseneck with the usual reefing line at the
clew, brought to the cockpit. We've removed the strop and just put a line
through the cringle, around a block at the gooseneck and lead back to the
cockpit. Now you drop the halyard, heave in the tack line at the starboard winch
and then the clew at the port winch - nice and easy.]
From Martinique we bring you this picture
from the anchorage at St Pierre - taken just a few metres from where Blue Sky
was anchored: not entirely surprisingly we could not persuade the turtle to face
the camera...
 A short sail down to St Lucia saw us anchor
in Rodney Bay overnight while the plagues of jetskis were asleep. We departed
early the next morning before they had recovered from their hangovers and had a
great sail south to Cumberland Bay, St Vincent. Fresh winds from a little north
of east saw us belting along, often over 9 knots with 2 reefs in both the main
and the genoa. Cumberland Bay was typically peaceful and the local boat boys
friendly if persistent. But as we were presented with a huge quantity of fruit
for hardly any cost, you can't complain - a kilo of mango, a kilo of limes and a
kilo of passion fruit for the price of a bottle of beer.
Fede went snorkelling again and brings you
these photos from the reef at the south side of the bay...
firstly a trunkfish
 and this smudge in the middle is an octopus,
carefully matching its colour to the coral.
 We anchored downstream of the river mouth
this time, which provided a refreshing swim as the cold fresh water lay on the
surface few centimetres of the sea and naturally washed the salt off as you
climbed out of the water.
We're now in Bequia where all is well and
Fede continues to excel as Cabin Boy, his care and attention to stainless
polishing makes the skipper look positively idle !
Our last pictures are some mystery fruit
which we purchased in the market in Ste Anne, Martinique. We truly do not know
what this is and the taste was pleasantly fruity if slightly bland. When
fresh, the whole fruit had a distinctive chocolate aroma, though this did not
seem to come from the flesh once the fruit was cut. Any suggestions bloggers
?
  We hope all is well with you wherever you
are reading this. Our next stop will probably be the Tobago Cays where Fede's
camera will no doubt be put to good use.
Best Wishes
George, Michael & Fede
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