We never got off the boat in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia and pulled the anchor the next morning at 0540 and headed for Bequia which was 41.5 nm away. We had 4′–5′ seas with ocean swells coming from the east and were cooking at 6 knots. About 0830 a fast storm was approaching us from the east and the seas and winds were picking up. The seas built to about 5′–6′ but none coming over the sides which is a good thing. We decided to put our life jackets on and fastened ourselves to the boat in case the storm hit us. John also put the hatch boards in the companionway just as a precaution, which was the first time since leaving Florida a year ago. John’s favorite remark “everday is a new adventure”. We were fortunate the storm finally went behind us and we didn’t get the full brunt of the storm. As we got to the lee of St. Vincent the swells decreased to 2′–3′ with no wind and now we were only doing 4 knots. We finally arrived safe & sound, totally dry, at 1540 in Admiralty Bay, Bequia and anchored in about 14′ of water and thought that was it for the night. We had happy hour at 1700 out in the cockpit to celebrate another safe passage. After dinner went to bed and were out like a light when around 2400 we both awoke to the pounding on the hull hearing “Sweet Caroline, Sweet Caroline” in anxious voices. We thought now what is the matter. We stuck our heads out to see what the commotion was about. The people from the boat behind us were in their dinghy and yelling at us that we were dragging down on their boat and getting closer and closer by the minute. It was pitch black out with no moon to light up the area. John told me he was going to pull the anchor, move the boat, which is even hard sometimes in daylight. We don’t have one of those systems that all you do is push a button and up comes the anchor. Ours you have to hand crank the wench (manual windless) to get the anchor up. We probably had about 100′ of chain out and this takes awhile to get it in. I (Carol) was supposed to steer the boat to a new location in the pitch black and not hit any boats in the process. To make matters worse I didn’t have time to put my contact lens in so it was blind leading the blind. We thankfully made it by two sailboats and John started to drop the anchor and it caught inside the chain pipe and wouldn’t go down. “Not to worry he said” and proceded to lower the other anchor we had up on the rollers on the bow sprint. After he got that anchor set he worked on the other anchor with a long screw driver and hammer and finally after an hour got it worked loose so it would go down. We moved the boat up a little and put that anchor out also and I think we finally got them set good so we wouldn’t drag. It was now 0130 and neither one of us was ready to hit the sack. We stayed up a couple more hours just to see what the boat would do and then finally went to bed. When we awoke the next morning I started reading the Doyles Cruising Guide about Bequia and noticed that there were two sunken boats in the anchorage. When John set the anchor for the second time he noted our GPS coordinates and I had written them down. We were at 13?00.67 N, 61?14.47 W and the two wrecks were according to the guide book 13?00.6 N, 61?14.0 W. Pretty close I thought! We looked down but didn’t see anything and because we were holding good and had not hit anything yet we decided to do nothing. We went into customs around 1500 and had to pay overtime because it was Sunday. Total customs/immigration was $53.20 US. After clearing customs we walked around town for awhile but being Sunday not much was open. Bequia is an island of sailors and boats and linked to the outside world by sea. Boats are built here on the beach with everything from little two bow fishing boats to grand schooners, built by eye and using only simple hand tools.
We departed the next day at 0945 and headed for Carriacou. The sail was pretty uneventful with seas 4′-5′ with the Jib and Main Sail up. We arrived in Hillsborough, Carriacou at 1645 and saw only one other boat in the harbor. I got a little nervous but around 1730 more sailboats started arriving so I started feeling better about the anchorage. The next morning we took the dinghy and cleared customs/immigration as soon as they opened. To enter Granada which we would do later in the day, you either had to clear here in Hillsborough, Carriacou or St. Gerorges in Granada and this was due to the H1N1 virus. The customs/immigration fee was only $50EC or $20US and I thought this was pretty reasonable. We pulled the anchor as soon as we returned to the boat and were on our way at 0915 with 34.5 nm to Granada. We were moving right along with the Jib and Main Sail up and had the starboard rail almost in the water most of the way. We decided to pull into St. Georges lagoon in Granada instead of going to the south side of the island at this point in time. The approach to the lagoon was well marked with buoy markers so it was an easy entrance. We arrived in the lagoon at 1700 and a dinghy came by and asked us if we wanted to take a mooring. We asked the cost and figured for our size boat it would be $40EC or $16US. We said OK and he helped us pick up a mooring. This was a good decision because we wouldn’t have to worry about dragging, at least not that night. Tomorrow we would check with the local boaters around us and see if we could anchor and where the best place for us to do this.

Stay tuned for more adventures from John & Carol aboard the S/V Sweet Caroline.