Bequia, Grenadines

We left Jalousie Bay around 6pm local time just as it was starting to get dark and strategically as the marine ranger arrived to take mooring fees. While a solid 15kn of wind was forecast we had less than 5kn and ghosted along at around 3kn for a few hours until we entered the St Lucia – St Vincent channel. With the wind and swell increasing to around 20kn and 2.5m respectively, we went from full sail to three reefs in the mainsail with a scrap of genoa!

The coastline was clearly busy with passenger liners lighting up the horizon. Apparently, they ‘circle’ and ‘waste time’ as they take passengers from island to island overnight to seemingly arrive in daylight. The Caribbean coastline is no place to be sleeping while single handing!

Due to various recent violent crime reports we decided to boycott the island of St Vincent and head straight for Bequia. As we cleared St Vincent around 6am local time we could see heavy rain squalls coming off the St Vincent mountains. The last 5nm across the channel saw winds to 32kn and short, steep 3m seas. These were the worst conditions Kat and I had ever encountered while sailing together (in Brighton), although strangely neither of us were even slightly phased, indicating how far we have come in terms of sailing experience.

We entered Admiralty Bay while being completely drenched by wall after wall of rain pelting us in the now 25kn winds.

This wasn’t exactly the picture of Caribbean sailing I had imagined!
As we approached nearer and nearer the shore we could see areas of mooring buoys and anchorage. I must be getting soft as we opted for the security of a mooring buoy yet again after we negotiated $100ec ~ £25 for three nights. Things were certainly made easier by name dropping Christian and asking for either ‘Phat Shag’ or ‘African’ in advance as these two characters are the official moorings boys.

Despite being completely knackered, we decided to have ‘breakfast’ of croissant and jam in the cockpit and then go ashore and clear in like good little yachties. As the sun made an appearance, it was hot work getting the dinghy off the foredeck and the new outboard fitted. I was however, grateful to not have to row for once!

Once ashore, we queued at Immigration for about 30 minutes only to be told you have to go to the Customs desk (4ft to the left) first; more queuing! When we were finally served, we handed over our ESeaClear reference number, only to be told once again ‘its not ready’; more paperwork! Finally we handed over our $70ec ~£17 cruising tax and headed out of the door. With our courtesy flag flying and paperwork stamped we were all legal and ready to start our adventure in the Grenadines.