"13.00.17N 61.14.65W"

Starcharger
Fri 4 Jul 2014 15:17
Bequia.... A 24 hour sail through winds up to gale force 8, no not in the forecast, saw us arrive here this morning. It was sad in Tobago, our first theft we lost our all round white dinghy light, all of £2.00 worth but still! Also when reefing the main in said force 8 we lost one of our PLBs overboard, much more serious and very much more expensive! A real problem, we have all this very expensive electronic gadgetry in case we ever fall over the side, it has to be readily available and always on our life jackets otherwise it is useless. Also, one must wear a life jacket and clip on while reefing in a full blown gale. But that makes these things vulnerable and it fell out and straight over the side! Must email Falmouth CG and let them know!
As I hoisted the Q flag I was as always reminded of Wil's comment when he gave it to me....and then I looked back through the log book to see how often we have raised the Q flag this trip....22 so far, thanks Wil and Ellie! Which lead to how many countries have we visited....we have hoisted 15 different courtesy flags, the French still classify several islands as Departments of France otherwise it would be higher!
However that then leads one to question what is a country? I classify it as requiring Customs Clearance, having a flag of it's own and largely governing it's own affairs.....So Gibraltar is a country but Scotland isn't.....yet! I would be really interested in other peoples opinions, let me know what you think.
Woke up this morning and thought it was a bit windy so I turned the instruments on, maximum gust was 31.4 knots, Force 7 if you prefer. You do get used to anchoring in windy places, I wouldn't have considered sleeping while anchored in a force 7 before we started this trip.
So, with love
Alasdair, Gill, Habitat, Pickles and Star Charger

Sent from Alasdair's iPad