2024-06-30 Hurricane Beryl - Run Charm Run

We stayed in Bequia a bit longer.  Had a couple of rainy days, so defrosted the freezer, and Kris made some banana, oat, walnut bread.

Freezer a bit overdue for a defrost and clean

Very happy with my new bread recipe, easy to make and delicious

We took a nice but short walk along a pathway that runs along the shoreline of the Port Elizabeth harbor in Bequia.  It seems a bit sketchy in places, but no mishaps

Some sketchy looking stairs mounted to the hillside

Nice view at the top of the stairs

Any walk deserves some ice cream

Ice cream before lunch - sure why not

Taking the walkway back, old concrete walkway on left no longer is safe to use

And what better way to top off some ice cream, than with some lunch.  Stopped at Jacks bar, which is at the end of the walkway for a nice lunch.

Dean got some unexpected company who thought his burger looked pretty good.

Lunch looks yummy

Kitty jumped right up on Deans lap hoping for some burger.  Kris had a veggie burger, so kitty could have cared less about that.

After a nice lunch we headed to the boat, thinking that the next day we would go enjoy some snorkeling, but then we looked at the weather, and found that a front developing off of Africa looked poised to turn into a Tropical storm.  So we decided that prudence was in order, and we should head south out of the path.

Next day we headed in and checked out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, upped anchor and sailed to Carriacou which should be safe and out of the storms path.  We arrived to late to check in, so anchored and relaxed on the boat for the evening.

Next morning checked the weather, and UH OH - storm strengthening, and heading our direction, so went in and checked in, and upped anchor and sailed to the south end of Grenada - which should be safe and out of the storms path.  (Seeing a trend here?)

Next morning checked the weather and UH-OH - storm strengthening and heading our direction. We would probably be fine, - not too bad looking, just on the edge of the storm, but we decided better to be safe -  so upped anchor and moved to Prickly Bay to check out.  Got checked out, and decided to have a nice lunch out, as we new we would be sailing all night.  Had a nice lunch, and at the end the rain starting pouring down.  Did not want to wait an hour for rain to stop, so we had a very wet dinghy ride back to the boat.   

Dumping rain outside.

At 8:00 that night we upped anchor and set sail for Trinidad which should be safe and out of the storms path.  We were joined by several other boats.

Charm is the green boat, all the orange marks are other boats sailing south as well

Passing an offshore oil rig when the sun starts to rise

First 4 hours were lumpy, but then it was a decent sail.   Got in around 10, and went in to check in.  Saw an updated weather report - UH OH - storm now Hurricane Beryl, and has moved south a bit.  Everyone who thought like us that south Grenada would probably be fine is now is concerned to stay or go.  We made the crossing with about 20 boats, and after the weather update we looked and 100 boats where now all moving south.

Check in was slow, as so many boats checking in at the same time, but we were a group of 20, can't imagine what will happen when 100 boats show up within 3 hours timeframe.

With that thought we decided to leave the main anchorage which was already crowded and  deep, 30 to 40'.  Headed to the bay off Port of Spain which has 15' of anchoring and lots of open space.

Leaving crowded anchorage in Chaguaramas Trinidad

Large sunken boat near Port of Spain anchorage

Bay near Port of Spain

We will be south of the storm here, so should be no issues.  Glad we kept moving south.

Where the hurricane is predicted to hit on Monday, which is right where we were thinking we would stay.