Island hopping 3. Bequia to St Lucia

Thisbe
Sun 14 Jan 2007 12:26
Tuesday 9th Jan 07. Hung out all day with a new found friend, Garth Baker,
a mathematician from Jamaica, nice man and good informed company. Then spent
the evening preparing for an early departure to St. Vincent, first leg of
the trip back to St. Lucia.
After a short sharp crossing between the islands the following morning,
arrived in a little anchorage we wanted to try called Cumberland Bay on the
leeward coast of St. Vincent.
Help in getting lines ashore etc from the boat people was gratefully
received followed by a very pleasant dinner ashore. The owners
representative called on us to show us the menu and ask what time we wanted
to eat, we agreed that 6.45 would suit us all.Very small but charming
restaurant where we sat until 7.30 drinking our rum punches. The waitress
came by and just happened to mention that they were running late, seems the
French fries we had ordered meant that someone had to go to the village a
few miles away for oil. Our resolution to have only one rum punch as we were
going for the early start the following day, promptly went out the window,
we now had time to kill. Returned on board after a very pleasant evening and
did some planning for the following day. But of a kafuffle at 6.30 am the
following morning trying to unravel the anchors, a French boat had arrived
after us and dropped his anchor over ours. Got them out of bed with all the
racket, serves them right. Finally got away at 7.30 for the 52 mile trip to
Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. The sea was leaping between the islands and the wind
was too much on the nose for a comfortable sail. Thisbe had to punch her way
for about 4 hours giving us a good wetting along the way. It seemed to take
an age to get into the lee, and in sight of the great Pitons looming through
the mist, to leaving them behind. Finally entered Rodney Bay in the dark, no
problem as we now know our way around, alongside after twelve hours but well
in time for the plane Friday afternoon.
'Cleared in' with customs etc Friday morning, filled in a few forms as Sue
was leaving the ship, and set about tidying up. Bit of a problem with the
charger, a blown component due to the petrol generator going haywire in
Bequia, took it apart and managed to fix it so all is well and enjoying the
luxury of shore power and unlimited water for a couple of weeks. Managed to
get Sue onto the bus run by Virgin Airways for the 2 hour trip to the
airport at View Forte, the other end of the island, and returned to the
marina, alone now after a great family Christmas and eager to get on with
the maintenance work, Thisbe is starting to look a bit rusty all around and
in urgent need of some attention.
Manny