As we head south to Grenada we have just realised that we are directly underneath the sun at mid-day. Our northing matches the sun’s current declination, and shade is sparse. It gets really warm when the wind drops, but thankfully the trade winds are pretty much constant to cool things down.

We enjoyed some more time on Bequia before we sailed away. We wanted to see around the island and the only way to do so seemed to be by local taxi. They have open ‘safari’ style trucks for doing the tours. It was good to get up high and see some of the views around the island. The day we chose to do this there was a cruise ship in, which meant there was a trail of people all doing the same, which somewhat detracted from the experience but hey ho – glad to have seen more before we sailed away.

For our last night we bought lobsters from Angus Alexander the lobster man (who also catered for us Xmas 2017) and enjoyed dinner with Dave and Karen from New Destiny. Not sure when we will see them next as we head our separate ways – it has been great fun seeing them again.

Our sail down to Grenada has been in two parts – both downwind, at last. Firstly, we had a gusty day, broad reaching the 37 miles down to Carriacou, where we anchored for the night in Tyrrel Bay; and then a further day heading the final 38 miles for the south end of Grenada, drifting under headsail only. The second leg took us past ‘Kick ‘em Jenny’ which is an underwater volcano that occasionally gives a spurt, so you have to stay out of the 1.5km exclusion zone. It’s on yellow alert at the moment, which means it’s ‘grumbling’.

This is our last sail of the season (and probably our second-to-last blog). We sailed as long as we could but in the end the wind tailed away behind the island and the engine went on.

We will now gird ourselves for the next few days of cleaning and tidying as we put the boat to bed until our return next winter – G has a to-do list of about 140 separate items. This time in a fortnight we will be home.