CaribbeanCruisingOffshoreWorking on the boat

Passage from Nevis to Bequia in the Grenadines

By August 15, 2019 No Comments
Looking down on Guiding Light

After exploring St Kitts and Nevis I had a good weather window to make the 260 mile sail to Bequia in the Grenadines.

I had a couple aboard that wanted to get some blue water experience, because they want to buy their own boat when they retire. The weather called for 15-20 knots of wind on a close reach with 3-6 foot waves. Well almost as soon as we left the protection of Nevis, the guy started getting seasick. Both of them had put a patch behind their ear and as soon as he said he was not feeling well I had him put on wrist bands that have a plastic tab that hits a pressure point. I also had him use some peppermint essential oil under his nose and behind his ears, but he was down for the count. It took him almost 24 hours to recover and be able to do anything more than lay down. My original plan was to have each of us run a four hour shift with the first and last hour overlapping with another person’s shift, but that changed with him incapacitated. His wife and I took our shifts and then split his until he was able to help the second 24 hours (the total passage was 47 hours).

We were able to to get 6-7 knots most of the time, but as we passed each Caribbean island we would get into a bad wind shadow (Guadeloupe is always the worst). After fiddling with this and that I finally made the decision to use the engines to get through the wind shadows and just get there. Once we were behind St Vincent (about 20 miles north of Bequia) I told my crew not to use the engine for several hours as we made 1-2 knots. The reason I did this was because it was the middle of the night and I did want to arrive before sunrise (DO NOT enter a harbor in the dark unless you know it well). If we were going to bob around wasting time I would rather do it when the seas were calmed by the island.

The funny (but not in a haha way) thing was after all the hard work I did sailing and setting sails, I pulled my back putting away the last line after anchoring the boat. I was laid up for three days with a heat pad (where is the Nevis hot spring when you need it?) while they explored the wonders of Bequia.

At the end of the third day I sent him to the top of the mast to replace my mooring light that burned out due to a massive thunder and lightning (just one huge boom though, weird). He really wanted to go up because he wanted to take a photo with his GoPro while he was up there. Now that I was mostly healed it was time to head to Mustique, which I will write about next.

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