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Larry's LogDiane wanted to go to Mayreau Sunday morning, as a number of others were also leaving; Kristali, Footloose, Lady M and some others. I felt it was still a bit windy and the seas were still up. The only problem was that another tropical wave was coming and supposed to reach us by Monday night. If it accelerated, it might get to us earlier (as a couple had done already) and hit just as we were making our passage. The trip from Bequia to Mayreau is only 25 miles, and is in the lee of several islands, but you still don't want to get caught out in one if possible. Although Diane REALLY wanted to leave, we didn't. That morning I did several small repairs and Diane caught up on her logs and email. We were going to clean the bottom that day but it was a little too rough and the boat was rolling. We went to the beach in the afternoon and got ready to leave the next morning. Friday morning we got up a little early and started to leave. I was getting the anchor chain up when I saw a lot of growth on the chain itself. I knew if I just hauled it and left it in the chain locker, it would start to SMELL, so I got a scrub brush, asked Diane to turn on the wash down pump and I scrubbed and washed the chain as it came aboard. That took about 45 minutes, although "only" about 25 feet of chain were affected. What a job! After that, we finally left at around 8am the trip was really pretty pleasant. We had about 15 knots out of the southeast. As we got down to the end of Bequia, we could see the small development called Moonhole, which was started by an architect some years ago. It's a series of offbeat houses built into the rocks and cliffs and are made of stone to blend in with the surroundings. We didn't see any windows but then again, they may have been open or just not there at all. They were pretty strange. As we turned the corner at the end of Bequia, we hit some fair sized waves, probably created from the opposition of the wind against the current, but since it was only a 15 to 20 knot breeze and we were on a reach, they weren't too bad. The remainder of the trip was occupied in figuring out which island was which; they are pretty close together in the Grenadines and you want to make sure you know as there are LOTS of reefs and rocks here and the current flows at up to 2 knots. Diane and I did have a disagreement about identifying Mayreau; turns out she was right. The current was very evident as we passed Catholic Island, a small island (mostly rock) just before Mayreau. As we passed it and the reef extending about 1/3 mile offshore toward Mayreau, I continually had to adjust my course to stay off the reef. It wasn't a problem since we had the wind on the beam originally and I could see the reef easily, but we were almost close hauled at one point trying to stay off the rocks. As the saying goes, "I'd rather be on a boat with a drink on the rocks then in the drink with a boat on the rocks." We sailed into Saline Bay in Mayreau and saw our friends anchored there. Saline Bay is a wide bay with a beautiful beach and trees backing the beach. As we came in, we got a call on the VHF from Lili on Avemar. We had first met Lili in St. Anne, Martinique when her husband, Bill, was away for a bit. We were invited to beach baci ball at 3:30 and then cocktails and munchies on the beach at around 5. Thanks, we'll be there. Hello Mayreau. |