We dropped our anchor in Admiralty Bay, Bequia on Wednesday afternoon 17/1/24, after a 24 hour crossing from Barbados and we were soon joined by a rather larger neighbour. A modern, 5 masted, square rigged sailing cruise ship. As night fell she lit up like a Christmas tree....
Rayelle and Elliot had joined the ship for a few days. They flew into Barbados on the night of the 14th and met up with me Sharon and Mick at Port Saint Charles at lunchtime on the 15th.
We spent an enjoyable afternoon on the local beach with plenty to eat and drink including another bottle of champagne that Sharon brought in with her on her flight 2 weeks earlier.
Rayelle and Elliot flew in from Miami having toured various US states visiting Rayelle's family. They were to stay with us for our trip to Bequia and then return home to the UK via a further short interlude in Barbados.
That evening Rayelle and Elliot treated us to a posh meal in Speightstown...
Sharon flew home to a cold London on the evening of the 16th having previously waved us off from Port Saint Charles.
We had a gentle departure from there, but once we were out of the lee of the island the breeze freshened from the East and the swell mounted. We were soon rocking and rolling downwind under a single reefed goose-winged mainsail and genoa. It was quite uncomfortable and poor Rayelle and Elliot were a bit worse for wear. We continued in much the same fashion throughout the night with showers sweeping through now and again.
As usual I made the wrong decision about which tack to run downwind on (and therefore, which side to pole out the genoa on during the last vestiges of daylight). With the wind blowing from just to starboard of a dead run to reduce the risk of an accidental gybe, we were tracking northwards of our destination. However given we had lost the light we continued on until daylight when we gybed and made a better course to the channel between Saint Vincent and Bequia. I took the first off-watch, but couldn't sleep.
Later during my watch, the wind died considerably and with what little there was coming from almost directly astern, the sails were slatting too and fro and we were making very little progress. So, despite the dark, I decided to gybe the boat onto a more southerly course to bring the wind more abeam and therefore increase the relative wind speed and therefore the boat's speed as well.
After a few hours the swell went down and we had a much more comfortable sail towards Bequia. Rayelle was well enough to get up and watch the sunrise with me. Elliott emerged a few hours later looking more like his old self despite not being able to get any sleep.
Around midday on the 17th we gybed once more to head directly through the pass between the islands and a couple of hours after that gybed for the last time to lay Admiralty Bay and Port Elizabeth.
We all swam off the boat after the anchor went down and that evening Mick cooked a splendid Lamb Curry.
The next morning - Thursday - we went ashore to check-in and explore. A lovely walk along the south of Admiralty Bay led us to Princess Margaret Beach where we all went for a swim before returning to the boat. Having earlier visited our OCC neighbour on our way ashore to say hello, we bumped into the crew ashore and were invited aboard for Sundowners that evening. Skipper Simon, with his wife Kate and his father entertained us royally. I drank far too much rum punch and have only a hazy recollection of dinner back on board Bonny later!
Friday was Rayell's and Elliott's last day. Rayelle treated us to a lovely lunch before we waved them off on the Ferry...
...to Kingstown, Saint Vincent, from where they would fly back to Barbados.
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