MARIGOT BAY TO BEQUIA

I don't usually make this in one passage preferring to stop off in Wallilabou and make the last 15 miles some other day. However I could here the surf booming on the coast of St Vincent and the masts were moving uneasily in Cumberland Bay so I pressed on with memories of a night in Wallilabou on Carpe Diem when an unannounced big westerly swell had entered the bay in the early hours and made it untenable. I dropped the stern line which had been tied to a tree and with Jenny at the helm on a compass heading had retrieved the anchor and 200 feet of chain by hand, initially amidst breaking waves,then escaped into the night.

But the early start paid off and the NW trades kept a sailors breeze blowing down the lee side of St Vincent so we made good time without having to motor. But I was tired and glad to get a good nights sleep tucked up in the corner of Admiralty Bay in Bequia, well away from that pernicious Northerly swell which was rocking the boats further out. Even the big sailing cruise ship was moving a little.

I had also done something unusual in Marigot and paid for a mooring inside the inner lagoon as the swell was making it's way in and the wind was westerly. I fell foul of the old illegal mooring scam and finished up too close to a gaudily painted French trimaran.




After some negotiation I finished up on an official mooring with a little more swinging room.

I had noticed this sad sight on a previous visit a cute little wooden ketch had sunk in the lagoon. However unlike this one in Rodney bay someone was working on at least salvaging something from the sunken hull or possible even trying to refloat her.