The Best Laid Plans.....

Karma Daze
Chris and Penny Manley
Tue 2 Dec 2014 20:21

The Best Laid Plans....

When we arrived in Bequia we had intended spending 2 nights and then going on to St Lucia.  Looking at the weather reports the day before leaving we decided it would be expedient

to delay a couple of days, and leave on Thursday instead of Tuesday.  The wind is about a force 5 with quite big seas, and as the sea at the top of St Vincent – next island north of

Bequia and south of St Lucia – is always rough until the top of the island coastline is a good way behind, this made the decision even easier.

For our weather forecasts we use GRIB files (raw data) and a weather service run by an American – Chris Parker.  We first came across him one morning in Mustique when we

happened to hear his 7 am broadcast on SSB radio.  He was predicting a few days of high winds and seas, so we went and hid in Bequia (more to do then Mustique) until the weather

improved.  His forecast was very accurate, so we have subscribed to his weather e-mail service since then.

The forecast for the weekend also looked good for heading north so we were only going to have a quick pit stop in St Lucia, then on to Martinique, then Dominica, then The Saints (small Islands off the south west of Guadeloupe), then on to Antigua.  Arriving on Monday 1st or Tuesday 2nd December.

That  plan got changed again because of the weather predictions for after the weekend, so we had 2 nights in Rodney Bay, St Lucia, and then  decided to miss out Martinique and

Dominica and sail straight to the Saints – about 100 mile trip.  We left at 3.30 pm Saturday and had a really nice sail across to Martinique, a bit of motoring, more great sailing to

Dominica; more motoring in the lea of Dominica, and another good sail across to The Saints, arriving at 9.30 Sunday morning.

Then another change of plan due to the weather forecasts.  We had intended leaving The Saints at 3 in the morning and sailing straight to Antigua.  The Sunday forecast showed the winds moderating for the next few days – certainly until Wednesday, so we had 2 nights in The Saints, and have today – Tuesday 2nd December – sailed (well mainly motored) up the

side of Guadeloupe and are now anchored in a bay (Des Hais) in the north west of the island.  We leave at 6.30 tomorrow morning for the 40-50 miles across to Jolly Harbour on

Antigua....

More blogs to follow with our exciting testing of the bilge pump alarm while in open sea; and Chris’ inflating lifejacket (whilst inside the boat – not been listening to those safety

announcements on the plane!), and our strange engine/sail drive noise....