North wind in the night, made for a chilly eve. Thats a sheet over the sunburn, instead of letting everything breathe.
So…. we need. Internet, Beer and water. The first two sounds like my requirements, but you’d be wrong. The geek in me is being trumped, but I understand so it is a NEED.
Feeling adventerous, we also could use some diesel, as the gauges are less than 1/2 full. Now thats enough for this trip, and possibly the next, but strange how we used that much fuel on the down island trip, course we did cover 600 miles into the wind. Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling up to coming into the dock, no real reason, fuel is not a necessity .. yet. But this morning, its almost like a couple of beers and its time to do it. Course the wind has changed and the surge doesn’t look too bad, and shoot, another catamaran looks to just have returned from the fuel dock. The cheapest fuel dock in the caribbean, mind you. So yeah, we can do it too, on our way to find beer.
A 60+ cat is at the dock as we raise anchor, we are some 2 miles away, but can see that the big lagoon catamaran is getting fuel. At least it gives us a spot to shoot for. We ready the shack before pulling anchor, discussing the side of the boat, the lines, where to tie the fenders. And we are off.
En route we notice another cat which looks to be bound for a similar spot. Since we have never been to this dock by mothership before and the big lagoon catamaran was still there, we decide to do a drive by to adjust the fenders. Just as we get to our drive by the Lagoon finishes and backs down on us, okay we get out of the way, and scramble to adjust the fenders.
You could surf these waves. We come in slowly, Christine tosses the bow line, it lands on the dock. Wheew. The attendant ties it off. Grabs the spring line, midship line, I rev the engines, get the stern near, grab the line and step off. WTF, what was I thinking, anyway, tied the stern off, we are secure. Holy crap, we are here, and bouncing off the dock. I say out loud, good thing we got “big balls”, and the dock attendant chuckles, cause he knows Im referring to the 36 inch round fenders that are almost squishing flat with each surge from the sea.
He asks what he can do for us. I’m like, lets get this transaction over with fast. Diesel. We get the hose aboard, I start the port tank a filling, ask christine for a flash light, its so bright out, but still can’t see down the fuel tank. We get to fueling. Ropes creaking, like inches from parting. Its a sound I can’t understand how it comes from ropes. Then a POP, okay what was that. Fender #2, of 4, got caught on the surge, and we are now a man down, we had a backup, a dirty old fender was quickly replaced, but our nice taylor made fender was floating down the seaway. Christine went after it, no she didn’t dive in, just followed it till it came out the stern of the boat, and grabbed it. The breaking strength of the line that broke could tow most cars. But the fender is good, she tied a new line on it and dropped it back in place,
Creaks and groans, doubled up the bow line, and we finished our fueling. Stress, 200%, then we had to pay at the office just off the pier, can’t we just leave? Okay, Christine jumps on shore and goes to pay, we see the Catamaran, I sorta cut in front of was our Chatham bay friends from South Africa. We should have gone over for sundowners, but never really left our boat after xmas in Chatham. We had 3foot fenders they had 1footers, I hope they made it through that swell experience.
Course the attendant says ‘yesterday’ it was calm here and we were open till 5pm. Oh well.
Day of replenisment, fuel topped up, still missing internet and beer. Difficult to make a decision, but Clifton was still full, so headed toward Canouan, not a great place, but we could get beer there, and maybe internet. We got close motoring, but looked at the clock. If we stopped there, it would be for the night.
Executive decision, raise the sail and push on to Bequia, can’t make Mustique with wind angles, Bequia has everything we need, its closer to Mustique and we can make water along the way. Raise the double reefs and motor sail as high as we could. Made it by 4pm, 1 hr before dark. Tried a new side of the bay, it was crowded, anchor stuck. Damn too close to another cat. Tried to justify it, I would be pissed if I was on the other cat. Pulled anchor, which over heated the windless, it took a while to get the entire rode up and off to somewhere else. Found a nice spot, windless still acting up but we got hooked and set before sunset.
Pork chops and grilled veggies for dinner, couple of rum-n-diets as beer was finished on the first anchoring.
View from Sugar shack’s luxury suite
Boat boy recharge zone