We left at 6:30AM for Bequia. I put one reef in the main and the full ginny expecting 15kts of wind. This worked great delivering 5.5 to 6.5kts of speed until about 1/2 way through the channel I decided to tweet the main. My tweak was not good, I was spilling too much air and we dropped down to 4kts of speed, but Otto was better able to handle the gusts up to 21kts. So I undid my tweak and now were were up at 5.8 to 7.4kts of speed. This worked great until we go into the lee of St. Vincent. At that point the winds were 12kts normal with gusts to 24kts. The gust would only last for about 3 minutes, but with the amount of main sail I had up it was too much weather helm for Otto. After three of these events, I took control and turned Otto off. Wow, Otto was doing it's best, but there was way too much weather helm on the gust, I even had problems maintaining the heading. After about 5 miles in a lull, I headed up and took another two reefs in the main. Now Otto was able to handle the rig, but our speed dropped about 1/2kts. About 30 minutes later in the lee of St. Vincent the wind dropped to below 10kts. So I fired up the Yanmar engine and we motor sailed for another 5 miles. The wind then picked back up and I shook out 3/4 reef on the main. So now we where just below the top spreader on the main with the full ginny up. This worked great until about 5 miles from Bequia when I tried to make a course adjustment and Otto ignored it. The helm was balanced and Otto wouldn't take a 5 degree adjustment to wind. So then I requested another 10 degrees to wind and Otto still refused to move. So I turned Otto off and took the helm, she was well balanced and after getting the course adjusted, I turned Otto back on and she worked perfectly (not sure why she refused the adjustment). We sailed into Admiralty Bay, dropped the sails and picked up a mooring at 4PM.
After I cleared customs/immigration and stopped by the grocery it started to rain. I got the dink and headed to the boat and then it really started to rain. By the time I got home I was soaked and there was an inch of water in dink. Unloaded quickly ran down below, closed hatches and it rained hard for 20 minutes or more. I have not yet opened the dry sack to see if everything is dry.
I have no phone service here and will not get server in St. Vincent since I'll only be here for three nights. I'll wait until I reach Grenada to get new SIM cards for the phone.
Hopefully I'll find a good wifi spot here.