Rodney Bay, St Lucia

Our friendly Hawksbill turtle came to say goodbye before we left Bequia

We left Bequia on Wednesday 13^th November at 0745. As we weighed anchor, we saw the sky darken and soon enough the wind gusts and rain started to make us wonder why we had chosen that day to leave. However, we did a pretty good job of it; the mate and I never shout (as other boats seem to do), instead, we use a series of hand signals so there is no doubt as to proceedings regarding the anchor. Anchor up and with two reefs in the both main and genoa we were away. My first intention, prior to the squall, was to see if we could head up the windward side of St Vincent – sadly no chance – the wind and pretty decent swell was heading exactly from that direction so the ‘usual’ route of leaving St Vincent to starboard was to be the order of the day.

The Caribbean never seems to ease you into sailing days but it was still a rather rude awakening to be bashing to windward through the Bequia Channel in hammering rain, and dodging a cargo ship and then a ferry from St Vincent! Our anemometer hadn’t been working since we left Grenada (we think it just needs a clean and some TLC) so I don’t know how windy it was, but Stargazer was romping along at over 7kts [Mate].

Overall we had a pretty good sail, there is always going to be the possibility of some motoring when in the lee of the larger islands and this was the case for us this time. In the St Vincent Channel, Stargazer laid a great course with great speed under sail (occasionally over 9kts with some current assist). We sailed under the lee of Vieux Fort and on towards the Pitons. Soon after passing the Pitons the wind died and we motor-sailed the rest of the way in failing light. Along the way, we had to avoid a very large tanker at anchor off Castries which I was busy doing when the mate said “ooh, look at that cruise ship with its pretty fairy lights on. Hang on, is it moving?!” A pretty decently sized cruise ship was just leaving Castries so after the tanker we veered to starboard allowing plenty of space between us and the cruise ship then continued on to Rodney Bay, arriving at 2000. We had three attempts at setting the anchor and finally settled down at 2100. Holding in Rodney Bay is good when you have the anchor ‘in’ but there are places where there is a lot of dead coral. Our lovely Manson Supreme anchor, although I wouldn’t change it for any other, doesn’t like dead coral, or too much weed.

In the morning, we saw we’d chosen a good anchor spot and just sat enjoying the bay for a while before calling the marina and heading in. Anyone who’s been paying attention will know that the reason for heading in was because our friend Phil was coming to visit and we had a new dinghy (P2) on the way from the UK. Also, it would be good to catch up with old friends who live here on their boats, share some news and of course beers (and rum – Mate)…