Moving north to Bequia

Persevere
Pat and Bruce
Tue 21 Feb 2012 00:17

13:00.60N 61:14.70W

 

21 Feb 2012

 

Petit St Vincent was a very nice anchorage.  Quiet, calm, a little current to move the boat around and change the views and great weather by chance.  We decided to move north to Bequia and Admiralty Bay again to get a head start on some predicted higher winds.  Not that far to go so we headed out at 09:00, civilized time I would say.

 

With the reefs and shallow areas due north I decided to take the safe and easy path by going west till we had deep water and then north toward Union Island.  Since the wind was from the east we put out the genoa only and figured we will determine the next sail plan once we got going north.  Turns out that the winds were in a favorable direction and we just continued to sail due north with only a genoa out.  Still made 8 knots and the autopilot was not really complaining about the biased sail plan.

 

We headed straight for Clifton on Union Island.  Once there we dropped the sail and motored through the channel to get a correct position through the reefs to head safely north.  Once east of Union Island we put out the headsail again and slowly sailed north until the wind dropped too much while we were west of the island of Mayreau.  Then we needed to motor again to get out of the lee.  Very beautiful island and the southern anchorage has a great long sandy beach with few boat if you do not count the 300 foot small cruise ship.  Looks like a great anchorage for a few days.

 

Now that we were clear of the island we again set sails.  This time with a partial main and full mainsail.  Of course the wind guage is no longer working properly, giving reading that at times are random.  Winds at 0.0 knots immediately followed by 65 knot wind then a complete wind change of 180 degrees.  Nothing like that was really happening so back to basics and sailing by the set of the sails and the wind on your face.  Not bad sailing, we were averaging 6.8 knots for hours on end.  Course was further west than I would like but so what not a big issue.  So we sailed to the west of Bequia then dropped sails and motored right into the wind and waves to reach Admiralty Bay again.  A little choppy and wet but reasonable.  A ketch that was heading north with us kept closer to the wind but was slower.  Velocity Made Good was not that bad however when we reached Bequia.

 

Entering Admiralty Nay we called Daffodil who I had called the previous day.  They have good mooring and are located on the northern part of the bay that is better protected from swells.  Once on the mooring they gave us a ride to the customs/immigration office and took care of our trash bags (at a cost but that is fine).  Immigration was fast and I bought a few supplies at the grocery store before they gave me a ride back to the boat.  Nice people.  Nice mooring.  Nice night.

 

Rising Sun 4.JPG

 

This is Rising Sun, a superyacht that was originally commissioned by Larry Ellison (Oracle software).  It was apparently too small so he sold it to one of the movie producers.  Still well over 400 feet long is impressive.  We were at the same anchorage in Amalfi, Italy with this boat before.  Maybe I should call it a ship since it dwarfs the local ferries.  Anyway this is its view from our mooring in Admiralty Bay.