First night in Bequia

Tatt av vinden
Bjørn Larsen
Sun 22 Feb 2009 12:23
Yesterday morning in Union island we woke up early, not because of noise,
but because of no noise. The wind had been blowing hard all night, and now
it was down to 15 knots. It seemed perfect for sailing, so we decided to
head for Bequia and skip Tobago cays. The forcast for the comming days
promised more than 25 knots - and that normally means 30 knots and more for
periodes. That's not the weather for Tobago cays.

Just after we left the bouy, we discovered that we had steering problems.
Not very serious, but not something to sail with either. Because sailing
with it for some time may cause damage. The same thing had happened two
years ago, so we immedeately knew when we heard a bad noise, what caused the
problem. Back again behind the reef, out with the anchor, and after less
than half an hour Bjørn had fixed the problem. And around 0900 we were on
our way to Bequia.

The forecast for yesterday was 21 - 22 knots of wind. The metherologists
delivered. For periods we had 25 and in squalls up to 30 knots. 60 degrees
to the wind and heavy seas. The last third of the way we had to go closer to
the wind, and we chose to motorsail to be able to make it on one tack. The
wind was strong even far into Admirality bay, and it felt good to drop the
anchor in five meters of water after six hours sailing from Union island.
After all it is only 25 nM, so it was not exactly very fast.

The good thing is that there is no swell here, nor rolling. And between the
squalls it is kind of pleasant. But the first night in a new anchorage with
the wind exceeding 30 knots in the squalls does not make for good sleep.
Especially after reading in Chris Doyle's book that the holding here is
poor! Well so far we have not dragged. And the anchor had dug well in from
the beguinning, Bjørn asured that by snorkeling yesterday. No one else
dragged during the night either, so the holding is maybe not so bad after
all?

We were just shortly ashore yesterday, but we got the impression that this
is a nice place. It seems to be more life in the bars and along the beach
than we have seen before. When the wind becomes a little more moderate we
will explore it more in depth.