Moorglade's Voyage - New Year, New dinghy and family

New Year, New dinghy and family

Moorglade's Voyage

Ted Wilson

Fri 7 Jan 2011 21:18

Our position is 14:05.44N 60:57.82W

Some time has passed since we were celebrating Christmas in Bequia, but we don't seem to have had time to draw breath, let alone write a blog. Ted and I had a very informative taxi tour of Bequia on Tues morning (28 Dec) including a visit to a turtle sanctuary. Challenger, our driver, had lived there all his life and seemed to know everything about what went on. We aslo managed to get to the post office to post cards and a package for Jack, Ollie and Freddie as well as clearing out with customs and immigration (also in the post office building). It had been quite windy the night before and there were stories of boats dragging their anchors but ours held firm in spite of being in an area with notoriously bad holding (but sheltered from the swell).

Back on board, courtesy of our helpful water taxi Carty (he sorted out our laundry and brought bread as well) we set sail at 9pm to go to St Lucia, hoping to catch some favourable winds to the North of Bequia and avoid the strong NElys and be able to sail up the East coast of St Vincent and free off to the West of St Lucia. However we were doomed to disappointment and Ted quickly decided that motor sailing as high as we could to the West of the islands was the way forward. It felt like a long and somewhat dreary night as we plugged along, with NE 4 winds doing the best we could, finally arriving at Rodney Bay around midday on Wednesday. We tied to the Liferaft and Inflatable jetty, as invited by Francis, with the intention of trying to sort out the dinghy, but customs came by and shouted at us that we should be going to clear in first, so we went to a temporary berth in the marina to sort that out, only to discover they had closed for lunch. When we were finally legal - a very simple process thanks to the prior electronic advice of entry completed through the e-sea clearance scheme - we walked back to Liferaft and Inflatables and discussed the options with Francis. He had a dinghy in a bonded warehouse at the airport in the South so we arranged to take a trip down the next day to see if it was suitable. Back at the boat we decided it would be nicer for Guy, Kelly and Elsie to join us in the marina, and so moved to a permanent berth, with 240V electricity.

The next day he picked us up at the marina and we headed South down some roads still showing the effects of hurricane Tomas in October. In one place the bridge was destroyed and the road had been rerouted through the (now dry) river bed. In others the road was single file as parts of the carriageway had collapsed. And we didn't go through the worst affected parts! Apparently it rained torrentially for 24 hours during the hurricane, which had only been forecast as a tropical storm, and several rivers re-routed themselves through communities, destroying homes, land and crops. Many people were killed and the relief efforts continue. The North of the island appeared unaffected, although in the immediate aftermath the only way to get from North to South of the island was by boat. However we made it through without a problem and viewed his Avon 260, which we felt was a bit small. Fortunately he had a 280, which had just arrived at the dock, so his agent made every effort to get it cleared through customs so we could take it back with us, while we went for a lovely lunch in Vieux Fort. A computer crash at customs scuppered our plan, so we came back empty handed and Francis sent someone down again the next morning to collect it so we were finally able to take delivery just before the customs office in the marina closed for lunch again!

The advantage of being in the marina was that there are many long term residents that know what's going on, so we were able to book for New Year's Eve at the yacht club - an interesting experience as most of the people there were transient visitors like ourselves. Some, but by no means all, had come with the ARC, and everyone had an experience to share. The food was barbecued. It wasn't as posh as the restaurant next door, but we shared their music, the fireworks along the beach were for everyone, and it was a fraction of the price! The yacht club was at the beach so we travelled into town by bus and walked the last bit through streets that had been pedestrianised for the night. I fell in a hole before we had left the marina (and before I had imbibed any alcohol) and had to retire to the showers to wash off the mud, but a certain amount of dampness went unnoticed as it rained heavily during the walking and we had to take shelter in front of a bank.

We had intended to return to the yacht club for a bring your own food, lunchtime barbecue on New Years Day, but there were too many jobs to ready the boat for the family's arrival, so the day was spent fixing Elsie's cot, cleaning, and moving all our stuff into the focsle in anticipation of the next day. Ted had arranged a hire car, so first thing on Sunday we headed for the supermarket to stock up with food that wasn't tinned tomatoes and tuna and then it was off to the airport, accompanied by Lance, who was flying home and had been put in touch through the Rodney Bay VHF net.

Their arrival has already been the subject of a blog, so suffice to say that after Elsie's first night there were suggestions we might like to move to a space among unoccupied boats, but she soon settled down and readjusted to the new time and has been having a whale of a time in the dinghy (it sends her to sleep), on the beach (fearless in the face of big waves) and in the pool at the marina. We have now moved out of the marina and are anchored off Pigeon Island. This morning Ted and I had a walk around the island (no longer a real island as it has been joined to the mainland by an artificial causeway) while Guy, Kelly and Elsie played on the beach before returning to the boat for lunch, and sleeps for most of the crew.