RTW, Leg 7: St Lucia to Grenada

2022 the first leg of the year

This might be a long one! Sorry…

Whilst crossing the Atlantic. The 3rd mate had a massive panic attack. She had completely forgotten about Christmas! How? Maybe it was the small matter of a wedding to organise, and then a rushed week before flying out again, that it had slightly got shoved to the very bottom of a very lengthy ‘to do’ list. Thank the Lord for Amazon and the fact that our lovely flat mate Phoebe was working from home to take deliveries.

We got home and had a wonderful Christmas with the family. Sadly, the newlyweds managed to catch the Rona and were isolating. Lily, 3rd mate and captain delivered Xmas presents, food parcels and had mulled wine on their doorstep. New Year was equally as joyous and was spent with lovely friends at home on Coll. Then, back to the mainland. Various more vaccinations for overseas travel and then a very nervous few days trying not to catch the Rona before returning to the good ship ‘Broadsword’ in St Lucia.

Thankfully the journey and re-entry were pretty easy and I’m sure this is down to the captain’s research and organisational skills. Sadly, however, we were missing some very important crew, our dear friends who were supposed to be joining us on this next part of our adventure had decided that it was just too much to risk. A decision they did not take lightly and we absolutely understand with all the uncertainty they would be dealing with. We will miss them greatly.

Swimming with Turtles in Tobago Cays

So that is you all brought up to date. What follows will be snippets from my own personal log book, which my lifelong friend Susan gave me to write up my own stuff and feelings about the trip. They are so lovely, personalised with Broadswords and my name and surprisingly doesn’t just say ‘I hate John! ,’on every page

15th Jan

Our fridge (which has been on the blink since the middle of the Atlantic) needs fixed and the only place to do this, is in Martinique which is north of us, completely in the opposite direction of where we are going, it’s all a bit of a pain but we can’t go anywhere without a working fridge. The 3rd mate has now been promoted to 1st mate. A position she would rather not have, as it means more work. But sadly, there is no one else! We checked out of the marina on the Wednesday 12th Jan. Waving good bye to St Lucia for the last time. We needed fuel so we were just going to pop over to the fuel station as we were leaving……

……oh dear…another incident!

When the 1st mate talked about the incident with the gas tank running out in the Atlantic, that was nothing. This could have been catastrophic. 1st mate had been given the responsibility of holding the pump as it was pouring the diesel into the tank. Suddenly the whole pump, exploded out the fuel dock (the result of an air block.) On doing so, it jettisoned diesel fuel…everywhere. 1st mate was absolutely covered in the stuff. The captain, on hearing the 1st mate’s yells, came rushing up on deck to see his beautiful boat covered in fuel. There were lots and lots and lots of rude words! Ones which couldn’t possibly be repeated here. The fuel attendant rushed off to get detergent which is the only way to clean up a fuel spill like this. Brushes and buckets were sourced and the 1st mate stood grimly holding onto the pump, which was now back filling in the fuel dock. Still covered in diesel. She asked if they could just go, leave. More rude words followed from the captain about how ‘Broadsword was ruined!’ ’It is a total disaster and will take hours to clean and sort out’ and ‘It will be a miracle if Broadsword would actually survive this ordeal.’ It was at this moment that the 1st mate’s patience ran out. Still dripping in diesel and not really enjoying the whole situation one bit. She suddenly snapped and told the captain that she was fine, actually…thanks for asking! No, it’s ok, no diesel went in her eyes or mouth. No, no, don’t you worry at all!! The captain realised his error of his priorities and relieved the 1st mate to go and get a shower and change her clothes. The good ship ‘Broadsword’ was soon back to her lovely clean state and all was calm again. The crew didn’t think they’d seen a fuel attendant or the 6 boats who were queued up to get fuel so pleased to see the back of us…the captain and the 1st mate are still married!

To press on after the shock and delay to the departure was foolhardy so the captain decided that it would be better to delay to voyage to Martinique, especially if we had to arrive after dark, and after a bad start to the day. So, we snuck round the corner in Rodney Bay, put our anchor down and decided to destress there with a lovely swim and resumed the journey the following day.

When we set off the next day and the weather and wind was amazing. Broadsword was on top form and the captain’s grin was from ear to ear. We arrived in Martinique on the 13th after about 4 hours but grew more and more nervous. Not only was the marina huge, spread out and very busy but it had absolutely no idea of our booking! Thankfully they managed to find us a tiny place beside the fuel dock (the irony was not lost on us!)

The occasional squall to remind us of home.

On Friday 14th we happily skipped off to get our PCR test for St Vincent. Only to be told that we could only get one the following Wednesday!! Emmanuelle in the marina office came to the rescue and booked us a taxi and got us up to another clinic about 20 minutes away. Thank goodness she did, as we were the last ones that day to get the PCR test!

All our documents are now sorted and uploaded and we are waiting to see if we can go to St Vincent!

Monday 17th January

The weather is very hot and humid.

With chubby thighs like mine…. .ooph the chaffing can be shocking!

Oh, the chaffing

We left Martinique on Saturday lunchtime and sailed through the night to Bequia arriving at about 8 am. Health check-ins, then Customs, then immigration. Our travel document folder is bulging with all the PCR certificates and documentation we need. By this time of the week, we were feeling down. It seemed that nothing was going well. Everything we did, seems to have massive hoops to jump through. A very privileged problem to have but stressful all the same. Trying to get a PCR test, in the timespan for arrival into another country, when you are potentially going to about 3 countries in a week is a logistical headache. But in the sage old words of the captain…’If it was easy, everyone would be doing it!’

Clifton on Union Island which we liked very much.

Anyway, I will finish up with some happier news. The world is actually tiny….

We had just passed Bequia, when we received a message from lovely friends of Harvey and Sara’s. Could we pop into Mustique for dinner with them? Well! It’s not often you get an invite to supper when you are in the middle of sailing round the world. So, Broadsword did a handbrake turn and shot back up to Mustique for the night. It was absolutely rubbish. The house was awful, the private chef just passed muster and the private buggies driving us back and forth to Broadsword just a tad ungainly! I jest…It was awesome and we had the most wonderful time.

The world famous Basil's Bar on Mustique

Then the following day, I kid you not, the son of other lovely friends of ours, shot up to us from the boat mooring behind us and said (behind the tan and beard!) ‘It’s me Sean!’ Another delightful treat and we proceeded to enjoy a few beers and lots of catching up.

Sean moors his 60ft cat right behind Broadsword. How small the world can be!

I’m sorry if it been a bit boring and haphazard but I think we are up to date now. Next stop is Grenada where we pick up our Best Man Matthew. PADI courses lined up and a big trip to Bonnair and Aruba.

Dawn as we approach Bequai