When the rain squalls come through the amount of water getting into the dinghy can be significant if the rain is really heavy. This happened one evening and made the dinghy stern heavy. Removing the bung allowed the water the drain away. We now remove the bung when hoisting the dinghy from the water but of course you have to remember to replace it before re-floating. I didn’t one morning and was amazed at how quickly water came in. I am hoping the memory of it will act as an ongoing reminder.

In its hoisted position the dinghy is hanging alongside our forward cabin. I can see the outboard motor through the window and if awake, check during the night to make sure it is still there. One night I was woken by a loud hissing sound and thinking the dinghy was deflating rushed out of bed. This involves a bit of a clamber and I caught a bulkhead with a hefty blow to the arm in the process. As I was struggling to get myself out of the cabin in the dark Annie cooly informed me that the hissing was her iPhone and not the dinghy. Someone had recommended a white noise App that helps to sooth you to sleep. How the loud hiss of a deflating dinghy is supposed to help you sleep is beyond me.

I maintain that when asleep I am still alert to every sound on the boat and will be awake in a flash if anything sounds untoward. At the moment we are moored in the Tobago Cays and unlike most of the anchorages we have been in it is open to the easterly trade wind. The reefs keep the sea calm but the wind is howling through day and night. We were initially at anchor but in a slightly more exposed position further from where we would ideally like to be. So we moved onto a mooring in between two of the very small islands. In both cases we have been close to shallow reefs and the shore and need to be alert to the anchor dragging or the mooring failing. How far should you trust a mooring over and above your anchor anyway? This could be the subject of a blog by itself. Anyway, the point is that in either case we have set anchor and depth alarms and need to be alert to them because it would not take long to be on a reef around here. Last night one alarm went off twice for reasons other than we were moving and Annie got up to investigate in each case. I slept through obliviously……………..

When we first anchored here we immediately started swinging like a Whirling Dervish - violently from side to side with the boat at 45 degrees to the wind at times. Particularly galling when two, albeit larger, yachts close by seemed to remain happily facing into the wind. Maybe its something to do with the scope (length) of the anchor chain? It was time to try out the new anchor sail made up in Guadeloupe and which I have resisted writing about until now. The size of the sail was determined by the requirement to attach the front of it to the rear of the boom i.e. the distance between the end of the boom and the backstay. As a result it looks quite small and I have had my doubts about how effective it is. This was a good opportunity to give it a real test and although it does not stop the boat from swinging (disappointing) it certainly slows the swinging right down and reduces the extent of the swing. A bigger sail might be more effective but we tried the storm jib and it is just too big to rig easily. So, my verdict is that it does have a positive effect and is worth the effort but is not quite as effective as hope for.

Recently we visited the island of Bequia. After a lazy sail in light wind from St Vincent the breeze had picked up a little and we adjusted the sails properly to take advantage of it. The cruising guide says to watch out for Kenmore Henville in his dinghy as you approach - he is a photographer and the first you may be aware of him is the loud bleep he sends out when taking photos. Will was on the helm and fishing while the rest of us went below and then there was the bleep and lo and behold Kenmore was there in his inflatable taking photographs. You may notice that we have one reef in the mainsail. This is mainly because I keep forgetting to go forward and let it out but partly because we do a lot of motoring and without the reef the roach of the mainsail flaps against the backstay. Leaving a reef in avoids us having to adjust things every time we motor or the wind is above 15kts.

And finally a confession. The white noise incident reminded me that I had blogged lyrical when in the Gambia about a particularly piercing and haunting bird song we heard in the mangroves. One day subsequently I heard the very same call coming from right next to me - where Annie’s iPad was lying and emitting some kind of notification.