Passage to Bequia<\/p>\n
We left Rodney Bay Saturday morning. Leaving a harbor involves
\nso many steps: filling the boat’s water tank ( up to 1000
\nliters), checking out with customs, checking out of the marina,
\nmaking sure that everything is stowed away, tying up lines,
\npulling up the ladder, closing the hatches, putting away the
\nfenders, taking down the courtesy flag of the country we are in,
\nre-fueling ( only occasionally)… It is really a big process.
\nWe keep a check-list that we go through each time because
\nwithout it we invariably forget something. We ended up at the
\nfuel dock at about 11:00 a.m. under the scorching sun. It takes
\na while to fill up a tank that holds 600 liters of diesel.
\nLuckily it was only about 1\/3 empty. It was a relief to pull out
\nof the harbor and into the sea where the air was much cooler. We
\nsailed to the Pitons – the famous mountains on the S.W. side of
\nSaint Lucia, and got some help picking up a mooring from one of
\nthe official boat boys in the area. The moorings are safe, but
\nit takes some getting used to as they are incredibly close to
\nthe side of the mountain. It was so hot that we immediately went
\nfor a snorkel to cool off. Sunset was beautiful, but the
\nanchorage was very rolly as it is quite exposed to swells. We
\nset up our “rocker stopper” for the first time. Without going
\ninto detail at this time, the rocker stopper is a gadget that we
\nbought that we have to hook up to a pole off the side of our
\nboat and it is supposed to reduce the amount of rolling the boat
\ndoes in a rolly anchorage. Since it was the first time we did
\nit, it took almost an hour to set it up. It was hard to tell if
\nit worked at first, because just as we finished setting it up,
\nthe winds calmed and the whole anchorage seemed flatter.
\nHowever, starting about 3:00 a.m. the boat was rocking and
\nrolling like crazy – so we are still not sure if the silly thing
\nworks at all. We will have to try again another time.<\/p>\n
Today, Sunday, we got up very early ( since we were up early
\nwith all the rolling in the anchorage), and by 7:00 a.m. were
\nheaded south for the island of Bequia which is part of St.
\nVincent and the Grenadines. Our sail took us past the Pitons
\nwhich were magnificent from each new angle we saw them, and then
\npast the beautiful, rugged island of St. Vincent. After a
\nbeautiful 8 hour sail we arrived in Bequia – exhausted as usual
\nby the heat and the sun. We said, wouldn’t it be nice if it
\nwould just rain for the rest of they day – and guess what? It
\ndid. We assume it will all blow through tonight and be sunny and
\nwarm again tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Only one more day til Ricky and Leon arrive. Hooray !<\/p>\n
L.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Passage to Bequia We left Rodney Bay Saturday morning. Leaving a harbor involves so many steps: filling the boat’s water tank ( up to 1000 liters), checking out with customs, checking out of the marina, making sure that everything is stowed away, tying up lines, pulling up the ladder, closing the hatches, putting away the … <\/p>\n