Bequia -Mayreau 1 February 2024
We woke around 7.00am and it was a pleasant day. I hoped that the man to splice the davit lines would come at about 8.00am. We also had to pick up the Red Baron which was having the additional repairs. We had cereal and fruit for breakfast and the anchorage was full of yachts. Ian had dropped a coin which fell out of his short pocket into the heads (toilet) so I gave him a long pole with a bit of a magnet on the end. He managed to fish out his coin which was good otherwise it could have broken the macerator.
The man to splice came about 8.50 am but said he could not do dyneme so he suggested we speak to the sailmaker, which was annoying. David and I went ashore and spoke to Alik who was repairing the Red Baron. We explained the issue and he agreed to come to Stormbird to help but needed half an hour to finish off the Red Baron. David also had a pair of shorts which were 47 years old and were an old friend and which had a hole in the back. Alik said he had a pair of shorts like that and could put a patch on for David which he did and David was so pleased. After David and I wondered down to the model shop and asked whether they had a model of Stormbird (I had been told that the model shop had done a number of models of Stormbird. There in his shop was amazingly a model of Stormbird and the man said that the model had been made for Tim Pesk, the former Skipper of Stormbird of the previous owner. It was a great model but was US 5,000 which as quite a lot of money. I WhatsApp’s Tim and he said he had yet to pick it up.
We returned to the sail loft and it took time to get the Red Baron into its sock and fully repaired. We put it on a trolley and wheeled it round to the dock and got it into the dinghy. David, Alik (sail man) and I returned to Stormbird and I left the crew to get the Red Baron back on board whilst Alik and I looked at the davits. There are fixing points in the floor of the dinghy which we attach to the davits and then we wind up the dinghy to the top of the davits and out of the water. The attachment lines had to be spliced to the new davit lines. Once done we wound the dinghy up and then we had to make series of adjustments so that the davits came down on to the dinghy sides and this took some time to get it right but we got there in the end. I returned Alik to shore and thanked and paid him. He was a nice man and had been born in Bequia but had sailed to America 9 times and at Martha’s vineyard had been taken into a US household for a while and he was going back soon to say hello to this other family.
We pulled the dinghy up on the davits and had a light lunch and we were then on our way to Mayreau, the Island beyond Canouan. The wind was similar to the day before and 10-15 kts and once passed Bequia we were soon sailing well on a close/beam reach doing 7.5 -8.5 kts. This was a lovely sail with a good breeze and a flat sea. It only look us 3.5 hours to do 25nm and we then anchored in Saltwhistle Bay on Mayreau. It was idyllic with a horseshoe bay lined with palm trees and sand and looked beautiful. The issue was there were too many boats moored or anchored especially catamarans. We therefore anchored a little back in about 5.5 meters of water. Stig, Simon and David went for a swim and saw Stingrays.
We decided to stay on for supper and Simon cooked a delicious chicken curry. After this we put on the underwater blue lights and saw a barracuda and a large turtle came by. We then played another game of Wizard. It had been another busy day but we were somewhere new and very beautiful.
Mayreau is a very small Island (less then 3 sq km) and has many pristine beaches with lovely views. For many years the Roman Catholics dominated. It relies on tourism and welcomes yachts. It is part of the Tobago Cays Marine Park.
The blog will continue as we explore the Caribbean further and beyond.
If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com I can only upload one picture a day.