Sailing Another Close Reach, to Bequia
14 January 2025
• Bequia, Grenadines
by Ken Hilk • Cloudy and warm

Another victorious sail! And again a close reach, sailing from Chatham Bay to Bequia. Not as sporty as Sunday's sail, since yesterday the northerly swell largely went away and our seas were relatively flat at 1-3 feet. We took no green water over the bow, and for sailing upwind in such an un-gentlemanly like fashion, it was really quite a pleasant sail.
Pictured here is a "green flash" we saw at sunset in Chatham Bay on Sunday night, we never get tired of seeing these!
Yesterday morning, we did motor out of Chatham Bay, and because our wind angle to Bequia was very very tight, the skipper chose what turned out to be a wise move (also recommended by Predict Wind so I can take almost no credit) to motor-sail for 50 minutes northeast to the rocks west of Mayreau Island. Once there, we switched the engine off and headed off on a course setting of 18°, the rhumb line. First Mate was at the helm, with 12-15 knots of breeze in a relatively calm seaway, on a close reach doing 7 knots. Life was pretty good, and the skipper was thinking, if this could only last for four hours we will steam into Bequia before noon!
You know where the story goes,sailing is not ever quite that easy. The wind backed, and we had to start falling off and sail quite a bit west of the rhumb line. The wind pressure also fell substantially to 8-10 knots true wind speed, of course on the skipper's shift, and boat speed dropped at times to 3-4 knots. For some periods which seemed interminable we were sailing 45° off course having taken a massive adverse wind shift. Patience. In the end , the early motor sailing put the good ship Lover Of The Light's position well to the east "in the bank" and it paid off. As the wind filled back in and veered to the forecast true direction of 60° we were able to sail back up to our desired course heading to reach the lighthouse on the western tip of the rocks off Bequia. Then, as is usually the case in Bequia, the prudent move was to switch on the motor for 25 minutes again to go directly into the wind for 2.5 miles to the anchorage off Princess Margaret Beach in Admiralty Bay.
Skipper is happy this morning, having sailed 30 nautical miles yesterday in 5.5 hours and about 1.25 hours motoring.
We have sailed now just north of 13° N lattitude, still well in the tropics.
Next up, we are going to study weather windows, hang out a bit in Bequia and look for an opportunity to sail north to Martinique.
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