Brindabella Leaves St. Lucia

   We were up around 5am eating breakfast in the dark on deck while the skies slowly lightened. There wasn’t much to do before weighing the anchor and leaving St. Lucia behind us. It felt good to be on our travels again. I thought cruising in the Caribbean would be in steady tradewinds but they change from one minute to the next with very strong gusts at times. One minute we are reefing sails, the next we are having to motor. The seas were also lumpy today with the wind against current. As waves broke over the towed dinghy I could see the marker pen starting to run!

   Today I thought our fishing luck was ready for a change and mid way between St. Lucia and St. Vincent I threw a line over the stern. At times you can see the fish swimming past but nothing bites my line. I have lost all confidence in ever catching anything now and only wish I had time to read our new book and find out what we are doing wrong. We dreamed of a fresh fish supper as I reeled in my empty line.

   St. Vincent was quite a picture with its high volcano on the northern tip and vibrant green, spiky hills dotted with remote houses.  Si said it was not cloud which hung over the island but marijuana smoke for they apparently grow a lot on the island. This may account for the high crime records that talks with recent visitors had confirmed. One lady was about to enter an anchorage last week when a boat leaving shouted across not to bother; they had just been robbed. Beautiful as it was we sailed on past with Bequia, the northern most island of the Grenadines now visible.

   Kenmore Henville was the first boat to greet us as we approached Admiralty Bay. With camera in one hand and throttle lever in the other he photographs yachts entering the bay and sells the photos later. He clicked away until we were met by another boat boy offering to help us pick up a mooring buoy. “No thanks”, I said, “We are going to anchor.” “Anchor off the beach”, he said, “And have a nice stay”. With that he motored off and left us in peace: How refreshing! No hassling! We were going to like it here.

   The bay was busy with a couple of small cruise boats, a tanker or two and lots of yachts from around the world anchored. We motored towards an area of sandy bed, clearly visible through the crystal clear water and dropped the hook. How lovely to have covered the forty eight miles and arrived while the sun still shone. Si gathered papers and set off in the dinghy and confined to the boat until cleared through customs I caught fish for dinner! Well, that is I caught a tin of salmon as it fell out of the cupboard and made Thai fish cakes! I also made toasted coconut rice, steamed vegetables and a sauce of coconut milk, ginger, coriander and lime, but in the mean time Si was having mega problems with the watermaker and dinner was postponed while the air turned heated.

   We’ve frustratingly had troubles with many things on board that just shouldn’t have happened, recently the two and a half year old autohelm breaking; the extended wind generator pole not having holes drilled in one end and now the extremely expensive watermaker is not producing water at the rate it should be, also with high salinity levels. The damn thing has never worked properly since the boat was new and it was obviously an opened box that was installed in Ellos as we waited a week for missing parts to arrive. Some of these later turned out to be the wrong specification. Now the ‘O’ rings we had delivered in Las Palmas were the wrong size and also the pressure is half what it should be. Si said that was probably the last water we will be able to make. No wonder he was cross, no furious. Obviously it wasn’t the relaxing dinner in paradise I had planned.