Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Bequia to Canouan .... Sunday 4th Feb 2018

Bequia to Canouan
Sunday 4th Feb 2018

With some difficulty we found a place for breakfast ashore.  It just happened to be the place where we ate lunch the day before.  Having eaten ourselves into a near stupor, we returned to the boat to start preparations for the sail to Canouan (about 20 miles).  We set off motoring to the west.  The significant swells from the north-east along with the relatively shallow water created an unsettling rolling motion.  Despite the sea-sick prevention medication, I found myself thinking about that quote by Thomas Jefferson. “I have seldom regret of having eaten too little”.

After settling on our southerly course and turning the engine off, we found our speed under genoa alone to be inadequate.  Turning as close to windward as possible we raised the mainsail.  Sadly once again we found that the electric winch failed.  Simon was called into action to grind the sail up to the first reef point.  Then it was my turn to pull in the reef line. In theory this should be easy to do.  What can I say—I had to have help!  After what seemed like a lot of messing about we were sailing again with the reefed main and genoa.  During the early part of the southerly sail the seas seemed reasonable.  Probably the island of Mustique was providing some protection from the swells.  As we travelled further south, the seas continued to build, I continued to regret eating that breakfast. .  .

Eventually we were approaching Canouan.  Turning into the harbor meant heading almost into the wind.  We dropped the sails and worked our way into a small anchorage called little bay where a few boats were already anchored.  A small squall blew through just as we were trying to anchor.  After the squall, the sun came out the wind dropped and it seemed like a different world.  The boats pivoted around in different directions due to lack of breeze.  We all went for a swim. Dinner of spaghetti with meat sauce was enjoyed by all. 



Stormy sunset - Little Bay Canouan



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