We departed St. Croix at 9:00 a.m. on July 1st and set our course on St. Kitts. Incredibly, the wind was from the East North East. We motor sailed all day heading due east. As night fall came upon us, we shut the engine down and turned slightly to the south so we could sail the rest of the night. The silence that followed a day of the diesel engine droning on was a welcome relief.
Andrew took the helm from 10 p.m. to 12 a.m. My shift was from 12 to 1 a.m. Doug’s from 1 to 2. Then Andrew again from 2 to 3. Phil from 3 to 4. I took the helm at 4 a.m. for the rest of the night.
Up until 4 a.m. the winds were definitely in our favor at 23knts. I was surprised at our progress so far. Then at 4 the wind just died. The Adamo will not sail to weather in light winds. We had no choice but to fall off. Now we were heading due south, which was actually taking us further from shore. My concern was that if we got far enough out into the middle of the Caribbean Sea, the waves can build to a point where you just can’t head east anymore. With a tropical storm on the way from Africa, I most definitely did not want to get caught out in the middle of now where and no opportunity to ditch to an island for safety.
So, much to my chagrin, we restarted the engine and motor sailed east again. As the engine droned on, we set our course for Montserrat. We could see the island and it’s active volcano in the distance, but the current and the sea state made our progress painfully slow.
As we approached, the waves were coming from two directions at 90 degrees to each other. No matter which way we steered the boat, we were heading directly into oncoming waves with other waves hitting us from the side. Most uncomfortable.
When we finally made it to a spot to anchor up, there was a mooring ball with our name on it. We hooked up and the first thing out of Phil’s mouth was: “lets go diving!” So we did. An hour later we were having fresh caught ray-fingers for dinner.
I went to bed. Doug worked on his last bit of home school for the year until 12 a.m. He just wanted it to be over with. At 5:00 a.m. I fixed scramble eggs for breakfast for everyone and we were off. A quick check of the weather from our satellite system said: expect 14 to 19knts of wind. So we left with an un-reefed main sail. As we rounded the tip of Montserrat, a huge cloud from came upon us. Winds kicked up to 35knts. It was raining so hard the canvas could not keep us dry.
At the first lull in the wind, Andrew and I were on deck double reefing the main. As the wind kicked back up we were ready. The remainder of the day the winds blew between 25 to 30 and we were booking it at over 8mph into the current.
We did not reach the Saints, located just south of Guadeloupe, before night fall. Everyone aboard was dreading the upcoming unpleasantness: “anchoring in the dark.” The first anchorage was too tight. Twenty minutes later we dropped anchor in spot number two. The new chain got stuck in the locker. Phil wrestled that one free. The anchor was down, but would not hold. Then the new chain got stuck in the windlass; still needs tweaking before it will work right. The Boys pulled up the anchor by hand. Of course, it’s deep here so we had let out all 200 feet of chain. We headed to anchorage number three. Boats were all around, some with lights some without. "Great we get to pick our way through to an open spot." Finally, the anchor held and we settled in a good location.
Doug, who just wanted to go to bed, was near tears and mad. He was finish and exhausted, but had to change the sheets on his bunk because they got wet from saltwater intrusion from beating into the waves for 3 days. You know how sometimes you are so frustrated you get mad at inanimate objects. Well, he was there! He was mumbling under his breath and ripping things out of the closet trying to find the sheets. Finally when the bunk was all put together he hoped in and clocked his head on the ceiling . . . a perfect ending to a frustrating day.
Now with that said, when you wake up in the morning after a good night sleep and have a view like this:
Well, it just doesn’t seem that bad.
