Just gusted to 28 knots of wind between these huge peaks. There is a hotel on the ridge that charges rates that only theKivel would pay for these views. It’s spectacular. No need. For air conditioning with today’s breeze.
It’s almost happy new years y’all.
Make the most of it.
Some days like today you have to remind yourself that it is FUN.
Long day from St Vincent to St Lucia, not really that far, a total of 35 miles or so, but all the fresh water that rinsed off the boat we are now covered in salt again. Christine at the helm getting soaked all day in 30+ knots of head wind. We raised a little gib for a while but ended up just burning diesel to get past the huge waves and high winds that were absolutely no fun today. I slept or tried to as Christine helmed and Wayne hiding I hid from the spray off the bows. Wave periods of 2 seconds and huge we dropped in valleys and sails off peaks.
We made it to St Lucia with about 10 mins to spare to clear customs and immigrations. Oh the boat boys, the boat boys. After so many days it just gets a bit annoying but today I guess it all worked out. They followed us in for at least 60 minutes and we choose a mooring ball that ended up being reserved for bigger boats. No biggie we just wanted to clear customs any way. We took the ball temporarily and it’s a biotch that got wrapped around the dagger boards and then the boat boys wanted squabbled over the “reserving” of balls but I finally accepted a ride in their fast boat to make customs. And to,d them they would have to help us moor in the next bay over after clearing customs for the small fee of 60EC.
Customs and immigration was a breeze as I’ve been here before and and the end of the year every one is friendly.
Quick trip to the grocery for the beer and some bread for dinner and back to move the big boat over between the Piton mountains.
The boat boys held us a spot while I was clearing customs and we got hooked up pretty god and paid our fee to the boat boys and customs for spending the night here then of course the park rangers wanted their conservation fee too.
As we Re getting settled, that means a cold beverage and watching how the 30 knot winds blow us around on this mooring ball. Wayne says “Matt, come check this out on the bow”. So the boat ahead of us a 54 foot supper amel is driving quite close. No one on board. We had noticed a bit earlier that their briddle was a bit snug and the mooring ball was submerged but so was ours an
S the wind pressure on these balls is significant. However the Amel was within 10 feet of us and getting closer so obviously something wasn’t right. Basically the boat was a drift and coming down on us and the other 7 boats on the moorings behind us. Wayne and Christine grabbed some of our large fenders and prepared to fend off and I screamed like a little girl to the boat boy on the dock asking where the owners were. He came over and used his dingy to tow the boat and mooring away from us and the rest of the boats it was floating down on. A Canadian couple saw what was going on and came up from the other side and eventually released the mooring to the 120 Metternich water which allowed the boat boy to re secure the boat ant another mooring. Unfortunately it’s still ahead of us in the wind direction so we’ll still be keeping an eye out for it
Any way all is good, found some free wifi from a beach resort and catching up on old posts. A quick pasta and chicken and garlic bread after a snack of cheese and caper stuffed olives the crew is winding down early after a long beat into the wind.
No Internet there but the spray paint on the dilapidated dingy dock said wifi and pointed at a bar that we could almost order form the boat from.
Mooring here is an anchor down and a stern tie to a palm tree and ride out the swells. We split a monohull and a cat that was to leave before sunset. Which it did and was promptly replaced by another monohull. 14 boats in all in this pretty small place
We hiked up to the top of St Vincent’s north side and took in quite the view from on top of the hillside. A couple miles in the rain and flip flops and we were worn out and back to the boat. The pictures are on the other camera so they be posted later.
It rained and rained some more so we rigged up a couple of hoses to run into jugs to top off the water tanks and now have a 1/2 full boat of water.
Charlie served us right over garlic risotto and a portion of tuna that would break the bank in a gourmet eatery. A heated game of dominoes while we swung back and forth on the hook and stern tie.
All night the alternating bow lines and stern lines made just enough noise to let us know we were in the same spot. Even with the howling winds that came with the rain.