We've certainly took our time coming south this year. We've been keeping a weather eye for storms, but after 5 years down here, we have learned that generally they come much later in the season, plus we know a number of websites for weather and we get emails from Chris Parker with detailed info.

We came to Rodney Bay "for a couple of days", and it has two and a half weeks of waiting for acceptable weather for us to jump down to St. Vincent. We prefer not to get the tar beaten out of us when we cross the channels, and so look for reasonable conditions. This has been a pretty long wait, but certainly not the first one this year, as it has been a boisterous year, wind-wise.

So now we are anchored out in Rodney Bay, with the anchorage as empty as we have ever seen it (Ken keeps commenting on how weird it feels). Our plan is to up anchor at 1:00 am (yes, 0100 hours), and go straight to the south end of St. Vincent. Since we aren't the fastest boat around, we are giving ourselves pl!enty of time to get there with sufficient daylight. This timing also gets us to the bottom of St. Lucia at daybreak, so we can do the rougher channel in daylight. It is a comfort level thing. We've done night passages, and are fine with them, but that channel can throw junk at you, especially at the north end of St.Vincent where the wind comes careening around the corner of the mountains.

We will spend a couple of days in St. Vincent, visiting friends and stocking up on our favourite pepper sauce. A couple of days in Bequia to visit " my boss", the owner and editor of the cruising magazine I write a monthly column for, and then down towards Grenada.

So, a few more boat preparations, some more napping, and we are off. Finally.