13.00.610N
61.14.523W
What a beautiful day! We hoisted anchor about 7am this morning, raised our main sail, waved good-bye to Rainbowrider, who thought that they would be following shortly, and motored our way out of the northern entrance to the Tobago Cays. Hardly anyone appeared to be up and the water was still. We did see a couple of early risers on the beach preparing to snorkel around the island we had explored a few days earlier. Probably a good idea to beat the rush.
After we cleared all of the coral heads surrounding the islands forming the Tobago Cays, we turned to get the best angle we could to the winds to sail north to Bequia and unfurled our jib. The Palace responded by listing to the port side, so we turned off the engine and sailed almost the rest of the way to Bequia about 35 miles away. I say almost, as the wind was just a bit north of east, so we had to pinch into the wind all the way. When the winds picked up, we pinched a bit higher.
It was a great transit. We would speed along at 6 knots at times and then drop to 2.5kts at others; it didn‘t matter, it was a gorgeous day and we were in no hurry. A bit of rain did pass over us but surprisingly, the high winds normally associated with passing rain was on the back side of the cloud instead of the leading edge. At the highest point, we saw 23 kts. The Palace took it in stride with simply easing the sails out a bit to control the list but not enough to jeopardize the pinch we needed to make good on our course. As a result, we made it on one tack but then had to turn on the engine to actually enter Admiralty Bay and make our way into Port Elizabeth.
On our way into the bay, Linda & Jerry on Summer Breeze hailed us on the radio to welcome us in. They suggested that the turtle preserve was well worth seeing. We decided to save it until we meet up with Gerry & Nicky so that we could all see it together. Unfortunately, Summer Breeze was preparing to leave for St. Vincent so we wouldn’t be able to catch up with them tonight but promised to try to meet up with them later up-island.
We found a nice patch of sand to bury our anchor in on the north side of the harbor and Dale jumped in to check the anchor and all of the flying gurnards. While he was doing that, I dove below deck to fetch the computer to make sure we had found a spot with good internet connection possibilities. Eureka! There were four in the area. Unfortunately, the best price I could find was $10 a day. Boy, they really know they’ve got you if you’re addicted to the internet.
Rainbowrider radioed later that they wouldn’t be making it up today but that they were able to borrow a prop from their friend and had to go to another island to purchase a used one for themselves and to return the one that they had borrowed. We’d be seeing them tomorrow probably by noon.
The rest of the afternoon was consumed with the normal after transit routine; eating, sleeping and fixing anything that hadn’t made it. It was at this time that Dale fixed the dinghy engine. Apparently the throttle body was stuck in the open position. After applying copious amounts of silicone spray on anything that moved, after drenching the throttle body, and a little tweaking of the idle speed, we were back in business. I, on the other hand, found a can of seasick tomatoes in the very back of my storage locker that had decided that it wanted off this boat and leaked a black sticky substance all over the cabinet in protest. I complied with its wishes and dumped it in the trash then spent an inordinate amount of time in very ungraceful positions trying to sanitize the area. We ended our evening at sun down by bellowing on the conch horn, eating our Thanksgiving leftovers and listening to island style Christmas music coming from the shore. Tis the season!
