I mentioned earlier that I was not keen on the way this boat is set up to sail. My main complaint is that the winches for sail handling are both right beside the helm. The only room to haul sheets is standing on the deck beside the helm and there is only room for one person which pretty much forces single-handing of the sails. Now that is fine if that’s what you choose to do but the set up on this boat really doesn’t give a choice.
So I changed my mindset from viewing this as anything of a performance sailboat to a holiday vessel that happens to sail. Today we left Clifton Harbour and sailed under our foresail alone. Even though we would have got a bit more speed with the mainsail up it was just an easier way to sail, and we were still managing 5 kn. which isn’t bad.
A short sail brought us to a reef with an extremely tiny island known as Mopion. We hoped to anchor for a lunchtime snorkel on the reef but conditions weren’t great so we continued on to Petit St. Vincent. Here we found a nice spot to anchor with a nice view of the beach on PSV which is a private island dominated by an upscale hotel.
After lunch we took the dinghy across the bay to Petit Martinique to pick up a few grocery items. We enjoyed a relaxing drink at the Palm Beach Restaurant and Bar before heading back to the boat.
The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming and relaxing on the boat. I just don’t know how much longer I can keep up this pace!