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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