Mixed conditions.
Oriole
Mon 29 Mar 2010 11:17
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Admiralty Bay, Bequia 13:00.631N
61:14.625W
After ten very pleasant days anchored in St
Anne, Martinique close to the baguettes, pizzas, acras, boudin and
cheap French wine, we finally decided to light out for Bequia to be in good
time for the Easter Regatta. The winds had been up to 25-30 knots for a
few days so we waited for a lull before the broad reach to St Lucia. The
winds were certainly down to a much more pleasant 15-20 knots but the seas were
still enormous but we managed to keep them out of the cockpit. There were
not many other boats out sailing on Wednesday. Next morning we were
underway early in heavy overcast and drizzle, and the scenery on the west side
of St Lucia combined with the low cloud reminded us of the west coast of
Scotland. We had chosen a bad day and we had calms of 5 knots and squalls
of rain with the wind suddenly back to 25 knots as a little weather system came
through. This was combined with big swells and a 1.5 knot contrary
current. Nevertheless with occasional use of the engine and frequent
adjustment of the sailplan we made Bequia before dark and in the late afternoon
the conditions became idyllic. One large motor yacht would have run us
down had we not made a radical alteration of course. It was quite clear they
were either not keeping a lookout or had absolutely no manners and got the rough
side of the skippers tongue. A liittle earlier a large tanker on a
very close approach when contacted on the radio was very happy to alter course
to avoid us and two other yachts not far away. It is very pleasantly
surprising how friendly and accommodating the watch officers of large commercial
ships are when you can call the ship on the radio by name as indicated by the
AIS signal on the chart plotter.
  There are some wonderful wild places
in Bequia - one of our favourite islands.
Our good friend Eric Mackie who has been
transmitting daily weather forecasts from Trinidad on the ham frequencies
to whom John has been talking on a regular basis has had to give up his early
morning radio net in favour of a new job. We are really missing his
early morning humour and chats with the various local and yachtie hams who check
in with him each day. There are alternatives but the flavour is not the
same.
Meanwhile Andrew has had his first week as skipper
of Gitana and seems well pleased with his new charge. Extraordinarily
his engineer used to work at Queen Anne's Battery Marina and knows John and
recognised Oriole when they were in the same anchorage as us in
Antigua. Sadly we did not have our radio on when he tried to call us or we
might have had a conducted tour before Andrew was even appointed!
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