Since the ABC-Islands (Dutch Antilles) often are in a belt of enforced tradewinds from the Colombian mainland a window of calm circumstanes is attractive for a motortrawler since there can be long time between these windows.

We had two problems though. First we were going to miss out on the Tobago Cays and second the customs office in Bequia closed due to "sickness and security problems". You can´t make landfall in new countries without Zarpe (clearance documents).

From other sailors we learned to know that they also had a customs office at Union Island which was supposedly open. We weighed anchor early morning and headed to Union Island (25Nm) to arrive well before closing time (16.00 local time).

Located just north of it´s bigger sister island Carriacou, both islands were severly damaged by hurricane Beryl in June last year (unusual location and unusually early in season). We dropped anchor in Richmond Bay 14.00 and managed to clear out of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Union Island is still just a shadow of it´s past with people still living in tents,but work is ongoing to restore what was destroyed,partly with assistance from the international community.

We spent some hours anchored planning our crossing, both in terms of weather routening but also in terms of security since this passage goes just north of Venezuelan offshore islands,a Venezuela that the last decade have been plagued by piracy also out in open sea.