Strange passages

Although no where near the most difficult passage, yesterday’s trip from St. Lucia to Bequia may well be the strangest that we have encountered. We raised our anchor from Vieux Fort at 3:20 AM and had our sails set shortly after that. Even though the wind was blowing 15-20 knots, and we were on a pretty good point of sail, we were making very slow progress. Faced with an ETA of 8:00 PM, we even started an engine. With full sail, in good wind, on a good point of sail, with an engine running at relatively high revs, we were still only making about 4 knots (at some times less than 3). Yes, the waves were setting us back a bit but there still must have been a wicked current out there. I would have known for sure had our knot log been working but it is a very finicky beast and the little paddle wheel which lives under the boat goes on strike quite often. Oh well.

The slow speed we can deal with but the second thing that made the passage strange was that it really looked as if we were off course. We had set a waypoint on our GPS to take us along the leeward (west) side of St. Vincent but both Rebecca and I could have sworn that we were heading towards the eastern shore. The poor visibility caused by the haziness around the island didn’t help matters but I was so concerned, I even went and broke out our backup GPS unit to verify our position and course. As it turns out, all was well and we were were heading where we wanted to. It was apparently just an illusion of sorts.

Strange thing three occurred mid morning. Rebecca was working out on the bow when suddenly the port engine made a very weird sound and the boat slowed considerably (almost stopped). I immediately throttled back and then killed the engine. Thinking that perhaps we had run over a fishing net or something like that, we raised the engine to check but found nothing on the prop. After lowering the engine back down and locking it into place, I tentatively started it again. Perfect. Hmmmm. Off we went again. Shortly after that though, I was tending to our fishing lines and what did I see immediately behind us? A whale! He breached several times before disappearing. Could we have perhaps bumped him while he was relaxing just under the surface? If so, I bet he wasn’t too happy.

On the subject of fishing, we are really not having a lot of luck. We ran two lines from sun up until we reached the coast of Bequia and we saw no action, save for repeatedly having to remove weeds from the lures. Our speed was up and down and we went in and out of deep water repeatedly. Frustrating. Any would-be cruisers out there who think that they’ll be able to catch all their food while on route should come up with another plan. Although I have heard “stories” of one or two people being able to do that, most people report results very similar to ours. 🙁

I’ve mentioned on many occasions the book The Gentleman’s Guide to Passages South by Bruce Van Sant. There is a very detailed weather section in the book but like many things, until you experience it first hand, it doesn’t really mean all that much. He describes things called the Cape Effect, the Channel Effect, Katabatic Winds, Sea Breezes and Land Breezes. We experienced all of these things in various degrees while sailing through the islands. I won’t go into a ton of detail on this subject right now but I will say that the land has a huge effect on the strength and direction of the wind and it is not as simple as just sheltering you from the typical strength of the trades. Get the book and keep it on hand, if for no other reason than you can look back as we did and understand why these weird wind effects keep happening to you while sailing through the islands.

Enjoying a local brew after clearing customs in Bequia.

Anchorage: Admiralty Bay (Tony Gibbons Beach), Bequia.
Internet on boat with Alfa: Yes. Free.
Internet on boat without Alfa: No
Internet on shore: NA