Moorglade's Voyage - The circle completed but rain, rain and more rain

The circle completed but rain, rain and more rain

Moorglade's Voyage

Ted Wilson

Wed 13 Apr 2011 01:41

Our position is 13:00.42N 61:14.41W

Tuesday 12 April 2011

Saturday 9 April dawned overcast and breezy so, after paying the park rangers a nominal visitor's fee, we dropped the mooring and set off to sail the 5 miles to Canouan. We were able to sharpen up our navigational skills by successfully negotiating the narrow passage between Baleine rocks and Horseshoe reef, but even this did not mean we could avoid motoring to make up to the East for Canouan. The sun was shining when we arrived so we could spot a good, sandy anchoring spot easily, and there weren't many other boats there, although we did spot our French friends from the "things that go bump in the night" incident from Carriacou. Fortunately they had picked up a mooring so we felt no threat.

After lunch we went ashore for a quick look round and to see if we could pick up any wifi codes. We tied to the Tamarind Beach Hotel dinghy dock and wandered along the beach to find a bin for our rubbish before hitting the town - well what passes for a town on an island of less than 10sq km, half of which is a gated, secure holiday resort. However the local supermarket had a surprisingly good range of stuff, although we only needed bread and milk and couldn't resist the rock buns (rock being the operative word when we got them back!) Then it was back to Tamarind Beach to see if we could crack the wifi. A drink at the beach bar made us realise how lucky we had been up to then - nearly £8 for a small beer and a club soda - obviously a resort for the well heeled. We chatted to 2 Americans, crew on a private jet taking a one night stopover, presumably on expenses. They were interested in Moorglade's ocean voyage but said they'd prefer to fly. The wifi came with a fee (on top of the price of the drinks). As Ted said, probably the most expensive wifi we'd had.

We were very grateful for it later, as that evening the wind got up and the rain came down in buckets and continued to do so through Sunday. It was a good day to stay below and catch up with some work for me and boat jobs for Ted. The rain continued on Monday morning but just before midday it cleared and the sun tried to come out so we pulled up the anchor and set off for Bequia. It was a cracking reach, with the wind slightly south of East and blowing c15kn. There were plenty of other yachts about, coming and going; they'd probably all waited for the rain to stop before setting off.

It was good to approach Bequia from a different direction and to return to somewhere we'd been at the beginning of the cruise. Admiralty Bay was a lot less crowded than it had been at Christmas. We might have liked to try a different anchorage but needed to clear customs before sailing to Martinique so settled for going over to the other side of the bay and picking up a mooring, with the help of Sky Blue. Ironically we'd hoped for a mooring at Christmas, but they were all full and this time had intended to anchor again and ended up on a mooring. There was time for a quick trip ashore to refresh our memories and arrange for some much needed laundry, and then back to the boat to spruce up before going back to the Fig Tree for a delicious dinner taken in splendid isolation - we were the only people there and there were at least 5 staff members attending to us. All those who stayed away missed some really good food. Unfortunately their wifi wasn't working so we will pay for some HotHotHot Spot later.

The rain came back in the night and continued on and off through Tuesday so we took the opportunity to sort out the remaining tins of food and move a lot of junk from the foc'sle in anticipation of Kirsty's arrival later this week. Ted did have to sortie out to retrieve the laundry as Miranda's outboard wouldn't start (I think she just didn't want to come out in the rain) but otherwise we stayed on board.

Tomorrow we will be up early to shop and clear customs before heading off to Martinique where we should arrive on Thursday morning.