We’re up very early and ready to go at first light. Don’t want to leave in the dark so dawn is fine and it’s a fair haul to Bequia.

Sometimes we forget how long it takes to traverse half the length of even a small island like St. Lucia. Takes at least two hours of motor sail before we can feel the wind coming around from Vieux Fort. The wind curls around the islands and it’s another hour before we get the steady East wind blowing abeam. Good speed but pretty rocky still with big swells directly abeam. We take turns napping but our ripped bimini flapping in the wind makes it difficult to do more than rest your eyes.

Soon enough we reach the north end of St. Vincent. It’s a beautiful sail down the coast but unfortunately we don’t get those following winds like St. Lucia and eventually we motor sail, then motor. We bring in the sails completely and I definitely regret not putting them back up for the crossing of Bequia channel. We motor all the way.

We anchor in Christy’s favoured position off Princess Margaret Beach. We missed Happy Hour at the Plantation, oh well. Anchor gives us a little grief and it takes us 3 tries to get it set where we want it. A bit embarrassing. Tomorrow we will see a boat do it right. They barrel on in in a fairly tight spot, drop the hook and reverse as they’re unwinding the chain. Once they’ve let out enough chain, they stop and open the drinks. 2 minutes. We think that’s the key – reversing as you’re letting out chain. We drop a bunch of chain and then the wind moves us somewhere we don’t want to be. Next time.