by steve, on June 29th, 2009 (
Bequia, St Vincent)
Ok – so I took the privilege of not writing too much yesterday. It was my birthday after all. This blog is for my own future reference so lest I forget, here’s a little more detail on the last couple of days.
On Saturday, after our trip to Montreal Gardens, we decided to go ashore on Young Island to look around. As it is a private island with a private resort built upon it we were restricted to visiting the bar. Given that they had decently priced cocktails this didn’t feel too limiting.
While sitting there we met a couple from Texas (Sandy & Tom) who had just arrived without their luggage. Their last flight had been aboard a LIAT plane which just reinforces the “Luggage In Another Terminal” expansion of their name. They joined us to chat and we soon learned about each other. Tom was an avid sailor and made a proposition to go sailing which we readily accepted.
The evening progressed with Tom and Sandy coming aboard Dignity for drinks, nibbles and further conversation.
The next morning we picked them up from the jetty at 7:30 in the morning and soon we were off sailing to Bequia. Being slightly east of Admiralty Bay we survived the current and made it there on one tack. As we approached Bequia I turned on the genset a little earlier than we would normally as we’d been using the stored power in the drive banks to avoid running the genset for the last week or so and were getting low on juice. For the first time we’ve experienced the genset gave a couple of ‘burps’ where it almost stopped but picked up again. Didn’t cause us any issues but it was concerning.
I dinghied Sandy and Tom into Bequia so they could explore the town. While they were ashore I checked the water strainer to the engine and cleared out a few small leaves and a baby crab. Not enough to cause issues but I was looking so I felt I should free the crab at least. I also completed my final oil change on the hookah as I had been putting it off and we wanted to go diving.
When Tom and Sandy returned I took them over to the dive site we’d been to before. Finding it was difficult as the bottle float that marked the end of the line to attach the dinghy to had lost it top and had sunk. Furthermore there was at least a knot current driving the bottle down and us away. I jumped into the water and dove down to retrieve the line and after a few goes with Tom steering the dinghy we were safely tied.
The current became a bit of an issue so we kept the hookah tied to the dinghy and limited our swim to the length of the hoses. This was far from limiting as it forced us to look more closely at a smaller area and we saw just as much as ever including a couple of lobsters hiding away.
In the afternoon we sailed back to our intended destination in St Vincent, Buccament Bay, where we’d heard a new Taiwanese restaurant had opened which was supposed to be quite good and had fair prices too. The timing was perfect as the currents would be in our favour at that time. The genset problems continued and this time it cut out. Not that it posed a great risk as we had the batteries now charged – more than enough to get into a safe anchorage. I tried switching to the opposing fuel tank and this time the genset ran fine. Again – we made the trip on a single tack. We anchored in a section of the bay that neither our charts nor guidebook suggested for anchoring. We found a great spot with the anchor biting first time and on inspection it had buried itself without dragging at all.
We dinghied Sandy and Tom ashore and found a taxi to take them back to Young Island. We also found the Taiwanese restaurant but also discovered it closed for the holidays. Not sure if this is just for the carnival week here in St Vincent or for the entire hurricane season. Either way it meant dinner back aboard Dignity.
Our plans for the next few days are now focused around the genset and the weather which is threatening winds in the mid 20s from Wednesday for a few days. As of writing we’ve ran the genset for an hour doing the laundry and it has run perfectly. Maybe I have an issue with the original fuel tank – maybe it was just something in the fuel line. Either way it needs investigation at a place with access to parts and people. Given the current successful test we’ve decided to move round to the next bay, Petit Byahaut, where there is an exclusive resort with reportedly great dining. We’ll celebrate my birthday there. Tomorrow we’ll head back to Bequia where we know the anchorage is sound and try and determine the cause of the genset anomalies while the weather passes over.
