Having anchored and with the strong winds, I stayed on board while Pete went to clear in, in Clifton. He took the dinghy ashore in Ashton. The dinghy dock had gone, courtesy of the hurricane, so he left the dinghy on the beach, where 2 guys at a bar would look after it. They told Pete that the bus should come by, so he didn't need to walk up into town. Despite it being only just after 9am, they persuaded him to have a beer while he waited. The bus didn't come, so the bartender, Julio, ordered a taxi, saying it would only be 10 EC. Sure enough, it was only 10 EC, even though the driver waited the 30 minutes it took Pete to visit customs and immigration. Pete gave him 20 EC. More beers were drunk on return to the bar and Pete decided to donate his spear gun to Julio. We needed to be rid of it before reaching Colombia, where they are illegal. For the 2 hours Pete was away, I watched the kite surfers, as well as keeping a careful eye on the anchor holding. There were no problems, fortunately. We lifted the dinghy and engine and had a fast (7 mph +), downwind sail west, towards Chatham Bay, dropping the sail and motoring round the headland and into the bay. We anchored, in sand, with 2.8 metres of water under the keel. Chatham Bay remains beautiful but all of the bars have gone and the boutique hotel, with pool was in the process of being rebuilt. Rumour has it, that the bay will only house the hotel in future, ensuring that the beach remains pristine. It's a shame if the Sailor's Bar is not allowed to return, as this was a meeting place for all the cruisers. Despite the desolation, the anchorage became busy. I saw the green flash, the final refraction of light as the sun sets on a cloudless horizon. It was a gorgeous evening, with a light tropical breeze, the waves lapping gently on the shore and a myriad of stars out, in the night sky.
Overnight, we suffered the extremely gusty katabatic winds, blowing up to 35 mph and making sleep impossible until they calmed around 5am. After a couple of hours sleep and having consulted the latest weather forecast, we decided to head to Mayreau today. The winds were going to continue to increase, over the next few days, with the swell getting higher. We weighed anchor at 0910 hours and raised the main, with 2 reefs and the foresail with 1 reef, while still in the bay. The swell was around 2 metres and the wind was gusty and not in a fortuitous direction. Consequently, we did 3 long tacks north, with 2 tacks east, in between, to arrive in Saline Bay. The trip took 2 hours for a distance, as the bird flies, of just 4 miles. Sean and Zak were anchored, way off the shore. We tried hailing them, as we passed but they didn't hear us. We anchored quite close to the dock, so we had the option to row ashore. As we were sitting in the cockpit, watching yachts and catamarans anchor, the common pastime of sailors, the Bequia Express came in, sounding its horn. It came very close to Sean and Zak, before approaching the quay. It needed to reverse onto the end of the quay, so swung round and nosed its way towards our stern, almost within touching distance, before engaging reverse gear to turn around. As there was no horn sounded, we made the assumption that we weren't in the way. On departing, the boat actually went on the inside of Sean's boat, again very close.
Mayreau had also suffered at the hands of Hurricane Beryl. The little beach bar was closed for repairs and we could see roofs being repaired up the hill. We rowed ashore and were met by a local named Aswell, who said his was the only bar available, essentially a cool box and a bench under a piece of polythene, tied under a tree. We sat down and had a Carib each, Pete quickly moving on to a second. We were joined by 4 Danes, so had another round of beers with them, exchanging information. The owners of the Danish boat were Henryk and Dorte and they had 2 young friends with them. We talked a lot about insurance and they said they had managed to get insurance, quite cheaply with a German insurance company, although they had to use Google Translate to decipher the forms. We said we would all probably catch up in Bequia, where we planned to sail tomorrow. We were back on board before sunset and in bed by 7.30pm, asleep in no time at all, being very tired after 2 nights without much sleep. We slept well and awoke briefly around 5am, actually feeling a little cool. I was wide awake by 0615, waiting for Pete to rouse himself, so we could depart Mayreau for Bequia.