Cinco was confused this morning so we had to take special care of the puppies on and off the boat. He also ate only 1/2 of his breakfast this morning. He has been sleeping most of the day.
We went to Gingerbread for breakfast and the pup's morning walk. Here is a photo of the ocean front walk that covers most of the north side of Adm Bay.

This is one of the things that makes Bequia unique. You can walk from lower bay, to Princes M Bay to Adm Bay into down town on a clean ocean front path lined with shops, hotels, restaurants, dive shops etc… all along the path.

There is a cruise ship and three mega yachts including two mega sail yachts next to us today. The sailing yachts are pretty.

It is really windy here in Bequia today and the roll has shown up again (started at about 6AM this morning). Taking it easy after all the hair cuts today. I think I'll make shrimp creole tonight with fresh tomatoes and a side of fresh slaw.

Yes the puppies and I spend 5 hours on the beach this morning just chilling.

Here is our dink at the dock on PMB.


And our boat is the black hulled boat in the back ground.

Today I removed the staysail (the heavy staysail) and brought her to the loft to repair the UV covering. The Sun eats into everything that is exposed and the UV protective cloth has worn paper thin and is shredding. They will give me a call when it is done. The light weight staysail is hanked on for now and I will keep her up until I need to make a long trip. The light weight staysail should work fine (especially if I replace the Gib with the Yankee). Replacing the Gib with the Yankee is a job for this weekend. I need to check the weather and see what the winds will be like. It is really difficult to take down the Gib and fold her up small enough to fit in the bag while on the boat. It will be even harder if the wind is blowing.
I have a few more small projects to do, but in no hurry to get them done. We are enjoying Bequia. The dogs have claimed Princess M Beach as their own personal property (as they do every beach we have visited).
I am planning to "lime" on Saturday morning with the pups on the beach. I have to get some gasoline and check out the local hardware store on Saturday as well. We are surrounded by Mega Yachts all flying those TAX haven flags of former British Colonies. These aren't the biggest yachts, but definitely the most we have ever seen, each day two or three leave and two or three come to replace them at anchor.
Bequia is a yacht haven. It is like Grenada, but on a much smaller scale. Everything you need is in Adm Bay and the bay is huge and lined with dinghy docks. So what ever you need is never more than a couple hundred yards from you dink. The south side is the tourist side with Food, Bars, small hotels, etc. the East side is down town, about 12 square blocks, and the North side is where most of the match services are found from canvas, sail, mechanics, fuel, etc. The water is clean and clear and the beaches that line the Bay are spectacular. What a great place to drop a hook!

Filled up the tanks today using the diesel boat that delivers to you at anchor. We took 130 gallons of fuel (engine juice). i have a bit more shopping to do and then we are heading to the southern Grenadines for a couple of weeks.
There was a rainbow over devils table this morning.

If we go down to the Grenadines there are limited sources of food and it is expensive and rare. So I started shopping to day to fill the freezer. I know I'm buying too much, but it shouldn't go to waste. Now there are a few things I should have sourced in Grenada (like more chocolate and cafe) but I didn't so I'm looking to see if any local SVG companies exist with these products. Not much luck for now.
The swell in Princess M Beach has gone down considerably this afternoon. The were warnings that the seas would be 2.5 to 4.0 meters for today and calm as the sun went down.

It was so nice for one week, there was no swell and only small waves. I knew this wouldn't last. The swell returned today and it is a nice long period swell with high winds. So still not really a problem. Things are not falling out of cabinets. It was nice napping at high-noon to the swell. I'll see how it is tonight.
Finished sewing repairs on the dodger and chaps today. I cleaned the dodger as best I could and hung her back on the boat so I can keep the hatch in my bedroom open tonight. I had to close and open the hatch several times last night cause of periodic showers. I have yet to try and fit the chaps back on dink.
It has been cool at night lately. I have to use a sheet to sleep. Drops down to about 78F at night and the water temperature is about 80F. I have to get fuel, have a rigger fix a spreader light, and provision a bit, then we will be heading south to the other Grenadine islands for a couple of weeks.

We are anchored off of Princess Margaret's beach. This and Tony Gibbons Beach are two of the most awesome beaches I've seen. On any other island there would be high rise hotels but not here. I've been to Bequia several times in the last 20 years and it gets better each time. The walkway on the edge of admiralty bay has been raised and improved. You can now walk from the ferry all the way to Princess Margaret's beach with out being slammed by waves for slipping on algae coated rocks.
It appears that St Vincent has realized that their foreign money comes in from the Grenadines and not from the main island. There is only one place on the main island that attracts boats or tourists and that is the southern most point called Young Island and Blue Lagoon. The rest of the Grenadine Islands are fill with tourist and yachts. Bequia is a yacht haven and the other islands (with the exception of Canouan, no body would go there unless they were on a golf tour for the filthy rich) are money makers for those that support the diving and yachting business.
Here is a picture of the main street in Bequia. There right side is for cars, the left side is for people.

Every time I go sailing the next day I find bruises and sore spots that weren't there the day before. While sailing "shit happens" and you deal with it as quickly as possible. You bang and arm or your leg and you don't notice it at the time. The next day you feel the pain. On my trip up from Carriacou to Bequia we had a great sail, winds just below 20kts and 2ft seas. The heading was great leading all the ways past the lee side of the Grenadines to Bequia. But we did have a few big waves wet the deck. On one instance I was standing on the cockpit seats holding on to the dodger and getting ready to trim the main for the new squall that was coming in to us. My feet slipped off the deck and I went crashing down onto the wench then rolled and hit the other wench. My chins are bruised, my forearms are bruised and I have two bad bruisers on my left and right abs. The forearms and chins have done okay, but the left side of my torso is still bruised and in pain when I move certain ways.
Other than that accident, the sail was awesome!!! Full Gib and reefed main at 6.5kts of speed right on course, even with the current setting to the West.
For the past 4 days I've had pain when rolling over at night. Otherwise it is good. I was clipped in so no chance of going overboard on this (I always clip in).
Hopefully in another couple of days I'll be good as new. I have lots of Vit C with all the citrus fruit in season. A bit of Rum helps as well :)

Yep, they have walking papers for SVG. We sailed from Bequia this morning and took a mooring at Young Island Cut. Dink took us to Blue Lagoon where we met the vet. She said that I should ignore the BVI about requiring rabies tests every year. I will do that as those test cost lots of $s. We had to go to the vet to get lime and heart worm tests cause our were more the 6mos old. The Gov of SVG drove us to the Vet for the tests and then the Vet drove us back to Blue Lagoon. The Vet test cost, but SVG doesn't charge to import animals. Yeh. Here for a month I think.
Two mega yachts just anchored and are blocking our view of the ocean. One is 135ft the other is 204ft.

Really nice sailing yesterday. Waves were small and the wind was between 12 and 20kts at 128deg. That wind angle was perfect for scooting up the island chain.
Today I cleared into St. Vincent and tomorrow we are going to Blue Lagoon where the puppies have an appointment to clear in at 11AM. Should be a short 2 or 3 hour sail up there if the wind doesn't shift to the North-East. We may stay one night, but we may sail back to Adm Bay once the puppies are cleared.

This morning I woke to the sounds of big splashes and noise outside the boat. I got up, poured a cup of OJ and went to the cockpit to see what was going on. There was a huge school of small fish all around my boat and deep down I could see big fish in a broad circle. Every 5 minutes or so the big fish would rise up and attack the small fish. All the small fish would jump out of the water and the big fish would follow them making big splashes. This went on for about one hour until the Boobies showed up. I was hoping they wouldn't shit on the decks. The Boobies starting diving at my boat and that sent all the small fish running and the big fish with them.
Tyrell Bay is really clean water, you can see the bottom (over 20ft where I'm anchored). It is really nice to be in such clear water again.

The VooDoo Stick fell off the top of the Mast last night. I guess it worked for 22 years, so now we are prone to lightning and St. Elmo's fire. Jupiter likes Elmo cause he is such a nice muppet, and "Elmo knows your name". I don't think I'll put it back up cause it is just VooDoo and Gris Gris. There is not scientific proof that these things work. My mast is grounded to a huge silica-bronze plate on the keel of the boat that should ground a strike, but not really protect all the electronics on the boat. That's why we have Insurance!

We started by pulling the anchor up in Clarks Court Bay yesterday and then around to the West side of Grenada and up to Carriacou. The South side of the island of Grenada was fun, mostly down wind sailing with just head sail until we reached the airport then a turn to the North. About 1/4 of the way up the winds shifted (this happens when you are on the lee side of the islands). So we motor sailed for a while, then back to sailing once the wind flipped to the East. Two squalls blew of the mountains but on one of them dumped rain on us. The winds stayed steady at about 114deg and would shift either to 80deg or 124deg with the squalls depending on if the storm was ahead or behind us. As we passed I. De Rond, we had to make more easterly at about 56deg, but the squalls kept hitting us and the current kicks in with about 1.7Kts of speed going to the West. So I tried motor sailing again, but the waves are bashing as well. We end up motor sailing but heading at about 20deg, that put is 33deg off our target. As a result I took an extra 3 hours to get into Carriacou vs my worst estimate. I had to pass the Island up and the tack back to makeup about 10 miles of offset. Once in the lee of Carriacou the waves calmed down. I did sail into the anchorage at night, something I don't like to do at all. Dropped the hook, set her with good scope (the winds were 25 to 30Kts at the anchorage) and kept watch for a couple hours to make sure we wouldn't drag, then off the bed for me and the pups.

Here is a picture, this one uses three u-bolts. This should stay in place!!!

Now I just have to get the rest of the hardware up on that rack.

There was a Mega Yacht here for the last week and they were jerks with their illegal seadoos and other toys, but yesterday two other MEGA Yachts showed up and made the other yacht owner's organs looks small. These are HUGE yachts with heliports and all the fixings. The smaller yacht left today with his tail between his legs. So now we just have two MEGA Yachts in Clarks Court Bay, Six or more levels to each of these, likely 200ft long or more. Two too many mega yachts, but they are nice looking. Their tenders are bigger than most of the sail boats here. Though I will say they have been polite, while I was varnishing the toe rail of my boat while in Dink, they slowed their tenders (34ft+) down as to not make a big wake… The other yacht never did that.
We are preparing to sail out on Saturday morning… Lots to do and not much time.

I'm did the next round of sanding on the bright work and will lay down another coat of varnish today. Then I can peel the blue tape off the hull in preparation for sailing up island. We will likely spend 6 weeks or so in the Grenadines before heading to St. Lucia and then to Martinique. A neighbor will come over in the morning to help mount the radar pole rack. It will be nice to have that up again. Not sure when I'll get the wind generator back up on the rack as well as the radar. I may wait until I'm on the hard back here in Grenada this summer.
So much to do to get sailing again, but it will be nice to be in crystal clear water again.

It was a blast. I started at 5:00 with the dog walks on Hog Island and I dropped of the generator that would be used to power the music. After walking dogs and socializing with lots of friends and helping a some get their BBQ fires started, I took the puppies home for a feeding and bedtime. Once done I returned to Hog Island for the night. The music was the usual Sunday live mix from cruisers. But at about 7:00 PM as French Gypsy group came down the beach playing music (accordion fiddle, horns, drums, guitars, etc). They worked their way to Rodger's Beach Bar and played for about 30 minutes. From then on it was a mix of musicians and styles for the night. We even had a "flame" juggler (well he wasn't juggling, but more like holding to flaming oil soaked wicks - spinning and twirling them). The rain hit really hard starting about 10:00 so we all squeezed into Rodgers with the musicians and equipment and kept the party going. The rain let off about and hour later and then it was mostly on and off drizzle. At midnight Secret Harbor Marina started their fireworks not far from us and in the distance it looked like St. David had fireworks going as well. At about 12:30 the Carnage Fireworks started and the high fired shells could be seen at Hog Island. The party broke up at about 2:00 AM. Though there were lots of folks that could not stand straight are walk a line, I only saw two people pass out over the night.