So, last time a blog was posted, I believe we/I had fallen in love with Bequia.   A gorgeous, small, relatively unspoilt and very vibrant island.  The main harbour had lots of anchorage, with plenty of cafes, restaurants, a small veg market and supermarkets onshore and the inevitable visits on the water from boat boys, usefully offering laundry services, water (boat tank refills) fresh fish...and none of this as aggressive as it was in St. Lucia.
The island is easy to explore on foot, and we did...lovely hikes to fabulous bays with great views.  We will be coming back up the 'chain' with two friends who we are picking up in Grenada on 25th January, so it was good to be able to recce the island first.

For me however, a great  surprise (and apologies for repetition in earlier emails)  was going to buy an ice cream in a bayside shop and recognising instantly an American guy who was chartering out his boat with his girlfriend (now wife and mother of two 30+ yr old sons) back in 1979 in St Vincent;  this being the time and place of my introduction to sailing with Nicky Cooper in the "Brussels years".  Even better, as a result, and on instruction from Nicky, I will try to look up a lovely couple in Grenada from the same time.  All we need is Nicky onboard to complete the nostalgia/excitement.  

We stayed on Bequia for 5 nights in all - I think we liked it.  Oh, apart from losing the boat twice on our dinghy trips back "home".  That, my friends, is pretty impressive, as a lot folk routinely lose their dinghies and don't even get back home!  Something about being "knotless" [i.e. the state of being incapable of tying secure knots due to being legless].

So, from Bequia, we sailed to Canouan on 6 January.  A fairly brisk sail in cheeky wind, so a change of sail was required to allow me to handle the boat. We anchored out in the bay, offshore from a posh but practically deserted resort.  Having visited a colourful little village (as evidenced by the "flag shack" shown below) outside of the resort we retired back onboard and there followed an awful rock 'n rolly night, with gusty winds whooshing down the cliff face, dropping like depth charges around the boat all night. So we up-anchored and scarpered off to Mayreau the following morning.