Hurricane season
18 August 2014
After a restful break and some very nice French food it was time to continue on our southward voyage. We planned to go along the windward coast of St Lucia and St Vincent which would be a slightly quicker route as no mountains to block the wind. We set off from St Annes with a nice breeze and able to make a good course but the weather gods had other plans, a huge area of black clouds appeared on the horizon bringing some rain with it. Unfortunately the wind also died as the clouds approached us and the west setting current did it's worst pushing us off course. By the time the clouds and rain had past it was impossible then to get to the windward side of St Lucia so we threw in the towel and went to Rodney bay and anchored overnight.
Up at day break and a motor sail along the coast of St Lucia and then at last able to sail across to St Vincent although we seemed to be some what slow, towards the end of St Vincent we felt the effects of mount Soufriere blocking the wind so the engine was on for a short while. By day break we had sailed past Bequia and most of the Grenadines and Grenada was in sight, the wind and sea were a bit rough as we passed by kick'em jenny and under water volcano. Then an exhilarating sail down the Grenadan coast with the wind rushing down the valleys to St Georges all in time for lunch. We spent about 3 weeks in Grenada hoping for a weather window to head out to Tobago but no luck this time so we decided to head down to Trinidad and catch a ferry to Tobago for a couple of days to catch up with Helen and Stephen who were on holiday there.
After a nice little break it's time to get the jobs underway and this year Andy has the job to replace a few of the seas cocks as one had cracked and letting it a bit of water. A few other jobs that need doing involves a bit of varnishing and painting to keep the boat looking good. It is not all work as I get time to go hiking in the bamboo forest with a dip in the surf and on Sunday afternoon we gather to play Mexican train dominoes and the winner gets to fly the flag for a week, which i have manged once this year. Once the hurricane season is over end of October we will be heading off sailing again but where as yet we have not quite decided.