The Bequia Wind Tunnel

Route from Mustique to Bequia.

As we rounded the southwest point of Bequia and were blasted by 20+ knots of wind right on the nose, we should have taken the hint. It was late in the day and rather than short tack for another hour we elected to motor sail directly into Admiralty Bay. It was shallow, around 12 ft., but we found a nice spot close to our friends on Escape Velocity and just off Princess Margaret Beach. With the anchor firmly set in a little patch of white sand we collapsed in the cockpit and enjoyed the beautiful view of the green hills of Port Elizabeth which surrounded the boat on all three sides.

We had originally decided not to come to Bequia based on reports of increasing crime in the area, but wanted to see it for ourselves.  Many times one cruiser tells you horror stories of a port while another says it’s his favorite place in all of the Caribbean. Whatever. In this case we’re super glad we decided to visit Bequia because we love the island and the people are wonderful. Not quite as friendly as the Grenadians but they warm up once you get to know them.

View from top of Fort Hamilton of Port Elizabeth on Admiralty Bay, Bequia. We are anchored on far right side of photo.

The next morning Jack and Marce from Escape Velocity picked us up in their dingy and we headed over to the Deck House Restaurant for a short hike up to Fort Hamilton. The fort was constructed in the late 1700s by the British to protect Port Elizabeth from attacks by the French and American privateers. It affords a 270 degree view of what must be one of the prettiest harbors in the Caribbean.

Meryl in fruit and vegetable heaven.

Freshly caught fish are available each morning at the fish market.

After drinks at the Deck House, owned by a handsome Brit and his wife, we headed into town to explore the environs of Port Elizabeth. Our friend Marce is the world expert on vegetables (she’s a vegan) and the ladies beelined it to the town vegetable market. Right behind is the fish market, where a guy blows the loudest conch shell I’ve ever heard to let the harbor know fish are now available. They will even clean and fillet the fish for you for a small gratuity.

Bequia is known for it’s local boat building industry and fast sailboats. Another specialty is handmade models of the local sailing craft, but at US $300 to $500 they were a little out of our budget. It was fun to look, however.

My new favorite soft drink.

On the opposite side of the bay from the fort is a waterfront area with lots of good restaurants. They’ve constructed a cement walkway along the waterfront making for a nice walk under the shade of giant Green Boley trees (called Almond Trees by the locals). At the Gingerbread House (next door is where Bob Dylan had his first sailboat built) we even scored some great local ice cream.

Not really sure how to interpret this image.

If you are living in 400 sq. ft. in a sailboat these villas look awfully inviting.

 On Wednesday we took a long walk over to the other side of the island to Friendship Bay. Taking a short cut through the woods we met lots of locals who were kind of surprised to see us there. The high-end Bequia Beach Hotel is on the east shore, where for a $100 day pass they let you have lunch and lounge by the pool. We just walked in and wandered around, finally eating our picnic lunch under a Boley tree along the beach. We are what are you would call a “cheap date.”

That night we went to the well-known Frangipani Restaurant  for a “jump up,” a BBQ and steel pan dance night. We just had drinks but met an interesting couple from Newport, Jerome and Mary. He runs the 12-meter America’s Cup corporate challenge sailing program in Newport, RI. They have been coming down to Bequia during the same week for the last 15 years. Having traveled all over the Caribbean, they say that Bequia is the “last real Caribbean island” that isn’t overrun by mega hotels and sun-burnt Americans. They seemed to know all the locals and gave us a great run down on the best local restaurants.

On a more depressing subject, our genset issues continue (see very long blog post http://sailingflyingcloud.blogspot.com/2013/04/the-genset-from-hell.html). Three days ago I noticed white crystals forming on the exhaust stack. I took it off the engine (I’m getting good at this since it’s at least the forth time I’ve removed it), took off the asbestos wrap and examined the multitude of welds on the top. Everything looked OK. It was rebuilt to make a taller loop when we were in Trinidad last August, and instead of using a preformed 90-degree bend they cut straight tubing with 45-degree angles and welded it into a bend. Took it to my Ferrari/Ace Machinist buddy Robin in Bequia and he professionally commented: "It's a piece of shit."

Apparently all the welds on the loop were leaking. Robin, a recalcitrant Scotsman, luckily had a pre-formed piece of 1-inch stainless and welded it correctly (and at a Ferrari price). I reinstalled it and the genset ran like a champ.

After several days of fixing things, I finally thought that "Today will be a day of rest and relaxation" (which we all know is a kiss-of-death thought for any cruiser). Last night the genset overheated and shut down. I said "I'll deal with it in the morning" (thereby preserving my day of rest).

Troubleshooting it the next morning I found no coolant in the tank so I refilled and restarted it. Ran like a champ. Luckily I took a peek in the far side access door (other side of the genset) and saw coolant spurting out of the coolant temp sensor pipe on the bottom of the engine. Turned out the bronze nipple had broken off clean inside the fitting (well actually it was holding on by one thread until I touched it resulting in red-hot coolant (sounds like an oxymoron) pouring all over my hand. At one point it looked like I’d have to take the whole genset out of the boat to access the fitting, but luckily I found a way to get a mini pipe wrench in and slowly remove the fitting.

Back to Mr. Ferrari to get him to ream out the broken nipple inside the fitting. More amazingly, I found two 3/8" bronze nipples (what are the odds) at the nearby Grenadines Yacht Supply (I've been in there four times in four days looking for other stuff and they didn't have anything) to replace the broken nipples. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Remember I mentioned we should have taken the hint when we originally arrived in the harbor with the strong headwinds? Well, each day we’ve been here the wind seems to get stronger and stronger. The locals call these the “Christmas Winds” since they occur each year around Christmas time. Meteorologists call them “enhanced trade winds.” With our big 73-lb. Rocna anchor we weren’t too worried, but the boat was literaly leaning over in some of the stronger gusts. Admiralty Bay is very protected, however, so the waves never get a change to build which is what usually causes us the most discomfort.

On Saturday night Escape Velocity invited us over for mango/passion fruit ice cream on their boat, anchored about 100 yards to the north of us. As we were enjoying the incredible ice cream and great conversation a series of gusts started rocking their boat. We had been getting ready to go back to our boat, but wisely decided to wait until the gusts calmed down. We finally jumped in the dingy with the wind still whipping the water into a froth and told Jack, “Watch us all the way back to our boat because if this motor dies we’re on our way to Panama.”

When we got back to the boat the wind was a steady 25 to 30 with frequent gusts up to 40 knots (46 mph). Everyone was out checking their anchors and putting “anchor watch software” into their computers to tell if the boat is dragging backwards. Our boat would literally shutter every time a 40+ gust hit and even though the boat is super well insulated we could still hear the wind whistling in the rigging and the halyards (which were tightly secured) slapping on the mast.

This is what our boat track (in magenta) looks like after a fun night in 40-knot gusts.

The next morning the wind was down to  a mere 23 to 28 knots so I went up on the foredeck to check out our anchor. I was amazed to see my brand new anchor bridle (which I had just spent three days carefully constructing out of heavy ¾” three-strand rope) was literally shredded to pieces. It looked like a mop hanging off the anchor chain and only one of the six strands was actually holding the boat. The bridle consists of two lines going out to a hook that is attached to the anchor. You let out enough anchor chain until the rope bridle is taking all the stress. In theory the 3-strand nylon will stretch when a gust hits the boat and absorb the shock. In my case the anchor chain must have rubbed against both ropes and chafed them clean through. Time for a redesign.

I spent the rest of the day salvaging one leg of the bridle and trying to remember how to make an eye splice. It was both sad and comical with me looking at four different books, two animated “knot tying” programs on my iPad, and several prints outs of how to splice that were in my bosun’s bag. It took me FOUR HOURS to finally figure it out and get a decent splice in the rope. Once you understand it, it’s amazingly simple, but the instructions in the books were all different and extremely difficult to follow. To confirm I’m not the village idiot I talked to other cruisers who’ve had the same problem. The new design of a single line seems to be working well, time will tell if it’s the right way to go.

One of the advantages of spending the summer in Grenada is that you get to know a lot of cruisers through the various sports and social activities. While listening to the morning radio net in Bequia we heard Geode answer a call. Hans and Hazel, on the Amel 48 Geode, are friends of both us and Escape Velocity so we decided to all meet for lunch at the Port Hole. Hans and Hazel, who are from Duncan, British Columbia, have been cruising the Caribbean 10 years and are a great resource for local information.  Both EV and us pumped them for info on how to sail from Bequia to St. Lucia in this heavy weather and for good anchoring spots along the way.

Bequians celebrate the "Nine Nights of Christmas" with colored lights and singing/bands every night along the waterfront.

Hans and Hazel from Geode with Meryl at Fernando's Hideaway.

We ended up going out to dinner the next night with Geode to a place Jerome and Mary had recommend, Fernando’s Hideaway, down near the Lower Bay. We took a taxi from downtown and wound our way along the southern shoreline of the harbor then up a steep hill to a tree-house like setting. The restaurant is run by two sisters who offer three choices every night, a fish, chicken, or lamb dish. We had a great time getting to know Hans and Hazel better and thoroughly enjoyed the food and ambiance.

Marce and Jack had opted out since they were leaving early the next day. They are on a little tighter schedule than us and decided to brave the wind and waves and leave today (Thursday the 19th) to make the run from Bequia to St. Lucia, then on to Martinique. They stopped by last night before we went out to dinner and we wished them a safe journey. We’ll check in with them and see how the conditions were during their crossing our before making our decision when to leave. Hopefully we’ll be out of here by Friday or Saturday and be able to catch up with them in Le Marin, Martinique for Christmas.

Almost every evening there is some type of large sailing ship anchored behind us.

Interesting story to this ship, the Seaborn Spirit, which is anchored behind us. It was the first passenger ship attacked by Somali pirates. A chunk of an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) is still embedded in the superstructure.