13:00.17N 61:14.63W

Sat 26^th and Sunday 27^th March

Due to the forecast for deteriorating weather, we brought forward our departure from Martinique to Saturday late afternoon. The trip down to Bequia is around 90 miles and rather than push ourselves by trying to rush this in daylight, we opted to make an overnight passage leaving Martinique at 1700 hrs and hopefully arriving in Bequia around 1000 hrs the following morning. We are heading straight past St Lucia as we have already spent quite enough time there this year and we want to squeeze in some time in the Grenadines before we fly home from Grenada in early May.

As a result Saturday morning was spent sorting out customs and immigration (we checked in and out all in one fell swoop) and in between monstrous downpours of tropical rain we visited various shops and the internet cafe. In the afternoon we prepared Serafina for the night passage and got some rest in preparation.

We left bang on 1700 hrs amidst more torrential downpours and as we emerged from the protective lee of the island out into the Atlantic for the 25 mile crossing down to St Lucia, we had virtually no wind and a surprisingly flat sea.

We again opted to have 4 hour watches which means that one of us sails the boat single handed whilst the other sleeps, changing roles every 4 hours. Sarah rather lost out this time as her watches included the open water stretches between Martinique and St Lucia and between St Lucia and St Vincent, whilst I had the easier runs down the west coasts of both of these islands. Consequently Sarah saw virtually nothing at all in her watches, whereas I had dolphins and fishing boats as well as yachts and cargo ships heading in the opposite direction to  us to contend with. In fact we had a very close encounter with a large yacht that had been heading safely past us heading in the opposite direction, when inexplicably I noticed very late that its light configuration had changed and it was now heading directly for us. Fortunately as we were motor sailing at the time, I was able to apply full power and drive Serafina flat out so that the other boat passed just behind us. I am quite certain that they remain unaware of the incident and that either they had not seen our lights against the backdrop of the lights on St Lucia behind us, or more likely the person on watch was paying no attention at all and they had altered course without realising we were there.

The weather was not great and we enduring repeated heavy showers usually preceded by squalls of 20 plus knots of wind and in between the wind dropped to 3 or 4 knots and we had to use the motor. Finally for the last stretch from St Vincent south to Bequia itself around 0900 hrs, we had a healthy 25 knots of wind and although the waves in this bit of open sea were quite a bit bigger, we had a great final sail to end a long night.

The small island of Bequia has a reputation for being a wonderful place to visit, but the anchorage (Admiralty Bay) and the town of  Port Elizabeth at its head, is known to be a bit difficult in that the holding is very patchy. After pottering around big bay looking at the various options, we selected a spot close to Princess Margaret Beach and were lucky enough to get a really good patch of sand first time. We then noticed that barely 30 metres away was ‘Saltscar 3’ with John and Sue who had been moored near us back in Puerto Calero, Lanzarrote in November.

We had a quiet day watching boats leave and arrive and took the opportunity to relax after the night’s exertions.