days 6 & 7

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Hi Blog followers
Sorry I missed a day, but read on and you'll know why. Tuesday we made a double round tripper to St Vincent. The crew and I weighed anchor on the Friendship Rose at 7:30 and set off to St Vincent to pic up a load of guests from a British cruise ship called Ocean Village.

When we arrived at Kingstown we had to wait for a catamaran to move out of the way before we could reach the cruise ship dock. Once we got to the dock we collected 18 guests and started back to Bequia. We took them to Princess Margaret beach for an hour then back onboard for a delicious lunch, then we took them to town for an hour and back to St Vincent. They all really enjoyed the trip. They wouldn't stop bragging on the boat and crew.

We left one of our crew members in St Vincent for him to pick up some things for a friend and then catch the ferry to Bequia, so we were short one hand on the way home. That meant I had to step up and Really help the crew with the sail hoisting and anchor lines and such. By the time this trip is over I may just know a bit about sailing.

Captain Lewis let me helm the boat the second half of the crossing and even all the way into Admiralty Bay. I was a little nervous around the other boats.

When we reached the mooring line the captain took over and when he went to shift the engine to astern something broke in the shift lever and Leah had to run below and switch the engine by hand. It was a good thing it broke there in the harbour and not when we were heading for the cruise dock at St Vincent.

Alan sent Me, Simon, Leah, James, and Captian Lewis back to the boat to try and see if it could be fixed. By this time it was dark and it was hard to work with the light of a flashlight.

Leah tried to take the broken lever to a mechanic here on the island, but they returned to the boat shortly saying the mechanic was alread too drunk to do any work. Leah tinkered with it for a good two hours and finally got it fixed. He was as proud as a game rooster. And we were all impressed.

After all that I was too tired and it was too late to sit down and enter the blog, so yesterday and today will be combined.

DAY 7 Jan 27, Mustique bound.
I was awakened several times in the middle of the night by some fairly good rain showers. And when I awoke it was still raining. We had a full load of 25 guests scheduled for the trip, and Alan couldn't decide wheather to go or call it off.

Finally, the decision was GO, Go, GO. We lost four guests, but ultimately set sail with 21 adults and a 9 month old baby girl.

It rained for about the first hour off and on. The seas were rough (5-8 foot swells), but it still had a beautiful look to it with the white-caps glowing on the surface.

The guests were all excellent sports about the whole matter and only a couple of people went below to escape the wet. One lady sat out in the rain the whole time and just loved it.

About half way to Mustique the rains gave way to sunshine and the day was a perfect success. I know this because a couple of the ladies wanted to take their picture with me and one lady from Nova Scotia even gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek when she left the boat.

When we got back to Bequia, there were two tall ship cruises in the harbour. The Sea Cloud and the grand daddy of all sailing cruise ships, the Sea Clipper. They made our 100 footer look tiny in comparison.

All in all it was two great cruises back to back and a lot of happy guests at the end of the day. I hope you enjoy the photos.
Bequia, Mon,
David

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Photos

Capt.Lewis
perhaps the "most photographed man" on Bequia

Crewing
keeping tabs on our guests at PM beach

Sunset in Bequia
The sun sets behing the Star Clipper

Comments

[Karla]

BEAUTIFUL SUNSET PHOTO!