After the excitement of the Carnival and the fireworks the next day it was down to some serious sailing business - 600 odd miles to Grenada in a few days no less! So Sunday saw us part company with Serafina and Balvenie and the day one strategy was to beat all the way up to North Sound on Virgin Gorda to ensure a better angle for sailing to one of the Leeward Islands or in a worse case scenario to one of the Windward Islands.


Sex at the hairdressers?

As it happened the sail from Charlotte Amalie started out with a nice breeze and while it was a beat the sailing was great. Unfortunately the wind slowly died but we kept on sailing and made it to Cooper Island but found no moorings available so turned and ran back to Great Harbour on Peter Island. By the time we had settled in, had a great snorkel (and saw the most colourful reef fish yet) it was absolutely flat calm and not a breath of wind. A good night's sleep was had.


Siint Maarten welcome

On Monday 5th May we motored in flat water up to North Sound, filled up with diesel at Bitter End Yacht Club and cleared in and out of the BVI's at Gun Creek. It was around 1430 hours that we motored out past Necker Island and hoisted full main and headsail. The good news was that the wind had a lot of south in it so we were actually laying a course to Anguilla - if that held up we would have a chance to visit the northern islands in the Leeward Islands group again. After around 20 miles the wind died completely so we had to resort to the iron sail. This was the case until around 0200 hrs and 14 miles from Siint Maarten that the motor died. It was a case of again getting all sail up and trying to build the apparent wind and get some boat speed towards Siint Maarten. We managed to sail 10 miles in the next 5 hours until I finally discovered the source of the problem was air getting in through the fuel filter we had changed a couple of weeks earlier. Engine started and we motored into the bay outside the Dutch side of Siint Maarten. The catamaran Wonderful called by a little while later and then we dinghied ashore, visited the very touristy Filipsburg the capital on the Dutch side and then to Marigot on the French side (and US dollars to Euro's) which we much preferred. Pam made a few purchases at a small boutique on the marina at Marigot! It was then a quick visit to Wonderful for a beer and then back on board where we rocked and rolled all night.


Loading the raceyachts for passage back to France after St Barths regatta

The following day it was still calm so we motored the 15 miles across to St Barthelemy (St Barth's). Again the inevitable rolly anchorage but compensated by breakfast ashore the following morning. We wanted to visit the chandlery to see if we might find the correct fuel filters but found it was a bank holiday - chandlery closed.

The wind was forecast the next day for ESE and it was early afternoon when we headed off for somewhere - wherever the wind took us basically. As the hours went by it looked as though we would lay Guadeloupe and arrive mid morning. In the event we ended up on a buoy in Roseau the capital of Dominica after 180 miles and 30 hours sailing. It was a frustrating sail - wind shifts of up to 60 degrees, rain, electrical activity around us on three sides but not close and wind strength of anywhere between 5 and 25 knots. The only excitement came when had passed Montserrat and able to ease sheets a little, around 0200 hrs, black night, both of us in the cockpit awake when suddenly we said what is that light (white) - about 3 boat lengths to leeward. There were a couple of mumbled where the hell did that come from and what direction are they going by which time we had the red port hand light abeam and then gone. It seems this was a yacht, motoring in a reasonably nasty head on sea at around 2 knots, not coming up on radar or AIS and nothing on channel 16 (which we keep open when on passage). We were doing 7.5 knots at the time and if the skipper was awake (we deduce he must have been asleep) he would have had a heart attack if he had seen us bearing down on him at great speed. We were of course thankful that we missed him!


Chased down by a frontal system

From Roseau it was a case of long day sails - all quite hard mostly on the wind (and plenty of it) until the last sail from Bequia to Grenada, when we finally had a good easterly. So the route was Roseau to Rodney Bay, then Rodney Bay to Bequia. All starts at 0545 hours when Pam's automatic inbuilt alarm clock aroused me and 12 hours of hard sailing later drop the anchor.


Passing St Vincent

The motor was not running as well as it ought to, although it was getting little use, and at Bequia on a buoy at 0600 hours ready to depart, fired up the motor which gave a big roar and then died. So up with the mainsail and sailed off the mooring, which was well into the bay, managing to avoid any incidents (e.g. hitting other boats). A few hours later with Pam on the helm in 25 knots and quite an ugly sea I got down to the business of replacing the fuel filter on the main engine confident this was the problem. It wasn't!


Model maker at Bequia - the red boat is now ours

We sailed into the bay off Port Louis marina in Grenada and dropped anchor - another well executed manoeuvre conducted under sail we are pleased to say. It was then a call to Horizon Yacht Charters and we dinghied ashore to collect their engineer to review the position. After an hour or so the diagnosis was water in the diesel tanks so with some redirected pipe work directly into the top of one of the tanks we got a start and were able to get onto a berth in Port Louis Marina, late on Monday the 12th May - and very very tired but managed to stagger up to the marina restaurant for dinner and a beer or two.

Cheers
Keith & Pam