February 08, 2009

Island Hopping

We are island hopping our way up to Bequia. We anchored for the night on Union Island in Chatham Bay. It was nice and only a few boats. We took the dinghy in and walked along a secluded stretch of beach as the sun was setting. The kids made a fantastic sand castle. They are trying to make one at each beach we arrive on. The Perry 4 now are pros at beaching the dinghy. We get it as close as we can to shore and Graham heaves up the engine and Alex rows the last couple of strokes, I jump out at the last possible second and pull us in with a wave and VOILA we are beached!

Unfortunately right now to get up the island chain you are heading just off the wind, so you need to sail the closest point of sail you can. Our boat doesn't point that well into wind, so the closest we can get it is between 50 and 60 degrees off the wind. When we are moving into the waves and wind our boat goes very slow but is heeled WAY OVER. arrgggg......ok I am not afraid to admit it, I hate being heeled WAY OVER. If you were on board you might of heard me yell, "Graham, ease the fricken main" more than once :-).
On our sail today from Union Island to Canouan Island we had beautiful clear skies. We tried various sail combinations to try and get as close to the wind as we could. Lots of learning going on. So much fun to arrive at a new island. The kids are usually beggin to go ashore to the beach. Right now the winds are very high and since it is the full moon, it is really rolly. Probably the most rolly of any anchorage we have been in. We decided to grab one of the charter companies mooring balls. There seems to be so many of them and it is a Sunday and we are leaving early in the morning. The security fellow just came out in his boat and told us we had to pay $50ec for the ball for the night. Graham could tell he was lying because he waited until the office was closed, so he said that he had talked to the charter co and it was fine for the night since we were leaving early. The fellow said well ok then and off he went! hope we don't see him later tonight, ha!

Tomorrow we will sail to Bequia. We are all excited to see our friends Ross and Wei and Ishbel! We checked the weather and it looks like a really bad system is moving in later this week, so we may just stay put there til it clears. We will see.

8 comments:

  1. Sounds like you are all having a great time. Enjoy the good weather and stay put for the bad. Hope you didn't get in trouble because of that ball thing. Let us know that you got away OK On Monday morning. Have a good week.
    Love you lots.
    Mom and little Sparkseys.
    P.S. nice to chat today

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  2. Happy Birthday Graham! I am
    sure it was a good one with all that sun and warm weather and good company.
    I loved the shadows on the sand. That was SO cool.It would make a great picture for the wall. The walks on the secluded beach at sun set sound so relaxing. Glad that things are finally turning around for you and you are able to enjoy your trip.

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  3. We can relate sailing close to the wind - that is all we did coming from Curacao. Mystic Journey doesn't mind that though thank goodness
    Yes, best hunker down a bit - the same system with the wind and swells is here tonight for a few days.
    Take Care
    L
    Dad and Cheryl

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  4. Trese you comment on every single blog!!!!!!

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  5. Everyone should comment as I am sure that is what keeps Julie, Graham, Millie and Alex going...knowing family is there with them all the way. We love to read your bloggs and know how things are going good or bad. I for one will always comment.

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  6. For some reason they said I was anonymous ITS ME TRESE in case your wondering :))

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  7. i like that shadow picture...very cool!

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