Woke up with the sun; got up and chilled out.  Lazed around a bit, then tightened up the starboard lifeline, as it was dangerously slack (and it was something to do).  After observing the state of some of the rope ends, Dad and I have decided to acquire some whipping twine in Bequia, along with a sailmaker’s needle, and we’ll practice our ropework, and tidy up the ropes at the same time.

Ten-thirty rolls around, and Barefoot call on channel 68 – LIAT have found my luggage, and it’s waiting at the airport.  Mum and I go ashore, and rather than catch a taxi (30 EC), we catch a route taxi instead (1 EC/head).  It’s a bit of a tight squeeze, but it gets us there in the same amount of time, and we get some good music on the way.  A quick diversion to the supermarket for some proper ham (to replace the blech bologna), some cinnamon rolls (no longer made) and some fresh milk.  Over to the airport, and after 10 minutes in the wrong line, and 3 minutes in the right room, I have my baggage.  Back over the road, and wait for another route taxi back.

While waiting, we had a chance to watch a slice of island life go by:

• A route taxi with a 50 kg bag of rice, several other large bags and some rather large boxes of frozen meat,
• A dump truck with someone riding in the back – the truck was empty, the guy was standing up,
• A dump truck, fully laden, with someone firing a good sleep on the top of the load, face down.

The ride back was interesting, with a tale of 4 children gone missing in Dominica; all the churches apparently declared the Sunday to be a day of prayer for the children, and on Monday the man who did it turned himself in.  Somewhere in there was a bit about how children these days need to be closer to God, and how the man (or was it the children) had been skinned.  The conversation then moved on to how the woman (telling the tale of the 4 boys) had to pay $1.50 US for 3 green, rock-hard bananas.  Where that came from, I don’t know.

Once back at Barefoot, we had lunch on board – fresh bread, ham and cheese, with copious amounts of water on the side, and a discussion about kettles and V = IR.  A call to Barefoot to say we were ready to go out the cut, and away we went.

The channel over to Bequia wasn’t quite a millpond, but it’s was the flattest we’d ever seen.  Main and jib up, ~4 knots across the water, and barely a need to touch the helm.  A pleasant crossing indeed.  A touch of engine for the approach around the headland and into Admiralty Bay to anchor.  A word about our anchor; unlike the previous charter on ‘Tight Five’, where the anchor couldn’t even hold a single yacht properly, this one could hold a small flotilla of yachts.

A nice swim to check the anchor, and a casual afternoon flipping through our ‘TV’ channels.  So far, it has tuned to the Nature channel (frigate birds, brown boobies, turtles and fish), the Discovery channel (the French boat to port is a dive yacht, complete with compressor and solar panels) and the ‘Allo Allo’ channel (resplendent with the Fallen Madonna with the big boobies).

And now, dinner.  Curried mince and rice and veg.  I have it on good authority that the guave cheesecake is quite good (this time, the last time we threw it overboard).

The Discovery channel is back; fork lightning to the north and south putting on a good show.

Wind is much gentler than last time, a nice cooling breeze (that promptly died later in the night).