Category: Sailing Logs

Sunday, December 22 The sun is low behind heavy clouds and the afternoon has been low-key for the last few hours. No storms in a while, after being chased by monsters throwing lightning. No birds or flying fish either, unless I’m just being impatient or inattentive in my gazing. We’re going to be very near a marine conservation district called Lang Bank as we pass east of St Croix, but it will be dark then. There’s so much famous snorkeling around this area that I’m surprised not to see more life, even this far out. Where do dolphins hang out? It’s been a while. I wondered about the weather band on the VHF radio and, sure enough, the US National Weather Service does broadcasts in both English and Spanish with a transmitter on St Thomas. I barely caught the end of the English language version and entertained myself through the Spanish by picking out words I know, like medianoche. When it got back to English, it sounded dire! Thunderstorms, lightning, gusts to 30…but that was for Puerto Rico. Of course, it made me edgy though (forecasts are always right said no one never). I passed the edginess on to James. My first long watch has turned out to be beautiful. We’re almost to the east end of St Croix so there’s been a little traffic, but nothing within 3 miles. The sky has been starry, mostly with a clear bright sparkle so not even light clouds. One dense cloud patch passed over and brought nothing. No worries. Now. Here’s hoping it stays this way. The forecast also has a 50% chance of rain, so it likely won’t. Still, a good watch is a good watch. Monday, December 23 So far, no drama! No rain, no boats nearby, definitely no lightning.[…]

Saturday, December 21 We’re in an area with a lot of names. I’m certain we’re in the Caribbean Sea. The Leeward Islands are to the east a little ways but I’m not sure we’re in them. I know we aren’t “in” Montserrat, the closest island, nor St. Kitts and Nevis, the next ones up. We weren’t in Guadalupe, but we got pretty close to Dominica. We were in Martinique but on this trip one of my strongest memories and hardest watches was passing the bay that harbors Fort de France and we certainly weren’t in that bay. I don’t think about the ramifying names of bodies of water as much as I used to, but the Caribbean has countries you have to check in and out of in areas like Maine’s Downeast waters. I don’t think anyone whatsoever cared whether or not we were “in” Jonesport while anchored at Mistake Island. The people who were taking a family holiday on a family-owned lobster boat off Cutler definitely didn’t ask if we’d checked in. It’s different, I’ll give you that. And yet, you can sail to islands while “in” Maine that have cultural particularity and a sense of a separate selfhood. And we’re sailing to a place where we’ll be in Vessup Bay on St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands in the Caribbean…and I didn’t even mention the town name though I think it’s Red Hook? For now, I’m just sailing in the Caribbean Sea on the planet Earth. The wind slacked off around sunset but it’s coming back a little. We’re making decent speed, 3.5-4 knots, and when it steadies we do even better. I’m burned by the squalls though so I only have the main (single reef) and the staysail out. I don’t want to wrestle the yankee[…]

Friday, December 20 For us to pick up the mooring they offered by 6am on Monday and get the dinghy launched, make me presentable, and row in by 10am, we’d have to average 4.283333333 knots. This past period we did less than 3.5 and there’s light winds coming tomorrow. Crap. Well, we’ll see how they take the no-call no-show if I can’t get a whisper of internet signal. I’m thinking about calling them on the VHF if we’re close enough. Meanwhile…a few hours later and I’ve been taking my own advice from yesterday…focusing on the sailing! I’ll admit that’s a more pleasant prospect when the winds are full but not strong and the waves active but not uncomfortable. We’re also celebrating a whole set of storm cells that have missed us…maybe a dozen? We got clipped this morning by the edge of one right before change of watch and I did an extra 5 wet minutes in the cockpit monitoring LoveBot. I just took over for my first long watch. Even though we’ve been doing one hour watches anyway, it’s been dark since 6. I hope that means James will sleep but he’s excited all over again about the big celestial event from last night. We’ll check with other sky spotters and see if there’s an explanation. It’s as breezy as promised passing west of the gap between Guadalupe and Dominica, but a little less so than last night between Martinique and Dominica. Somewhat nervous because of the broken leg attachment on LoveBot. Currently, it’s held together by a twist of seizing wire so I’d rather not make it work so hard. Sitting downwind means leaning back more comfortably instead of bracing myself, but I don’t know how long I’ll want this wind in my face! I’ll probably lay down[…]

Thursday, December 19 We took our time getting out of Sainte-Anne and I later realized I was in trouble. I did bad math and I don’t think we’re going to make it in time for my job interview. Oh well, guess I’ll focus on the sailing. Except that we got absolutely pounded by rain before I finished my first watch. Wow! Friday, December 20 Long night of high winds on a reach with a couple of random die-outs that left us at the mercy of the pitiless waves. As we came into the Dominica channel, it turned rather nerve-wracking again. Neither of us slept well so I’m hoping for some napping. Birds are cool. I enjoyed the last hour of my 6-9 watch with a couple of what I think were brown boobies, one adult and one immature. It really felt like they were either showing off for me or teasing me by doing the coolest things when I wasn’t pointing my phone at them. Still cool. Noon position: N 15° 11.705’ W 061° 47.913’ Distance 22h 5m: 75.9 NM Average speed: 3.48 kn Trip distance covered: 75.9 NM Distance to destination: 257.3 NM

Monday, December 2 James asked me to get some video of this weather “if it’s safe” and if that caveat isn’t a hint about what it’s like out here right now, I don’t know what would be. It’s so hard to get images, still or video, that really communicate the feeling of a large wave bearing down on us from astern. I tried. And then I got the deluge. Very satisfying to have caught it happening; totally shocked that it happened. Now it’s dark and I’ve begun my first long watch of the night. We’re on pins and needles about when we’ll arrive. If tomorrow has strong winds like today, we really could arrive before dark tomorrow. We’ve talked about our approach in case it’s dark when we arrive. Either way, it looks like we’ll be sleeping together in the forepeak tomorrow night. Wow. And ha! We’ll see. The clouds seem lighter tonight? Maybe not squalls with high winds and rain? I hope. Tuesday, December 3 What a terrible book. I’m a fan of Iain M Banks’ SF but his literary work is harder to stomach. Some are excellent though difficult, but Song of Stone is…not. With at least 18 more hours, I have time to finish something else short. Let’s go romance! About to wake James for his 0600-0900 and Martinique is on the screen now without zooming out…we’re getting close! It’s 1115 and wow, if I had a hard time resisting the urge to do the time-speed-distance calculations earlier in the trip, looking at 40 miles remaining and a sunset arrival makes it a gripping topic. We’ll be anchoring first in the larger bay, so that reduces the distance a bit. The inner harbor might be packed full and we definitely won’t have time to toddle around looking[…]

Sunday, December 1 With fewer than 240 nautical miles left to go, I’m starting to think about how to slow down right at the end so we don’t come in during the night. Between pot buoys, anchored boats, and the unfamiliarity of the harbor, I’d really rather have light to navigate by. James is cooking my birthday dinner, spaghetti using the leftover red sauce and adding more yums to it. As is, it’s pretty spicy because of a red pepper pesto, so this should bring it into the realm of warm rather than hot. The sun is far enough forward for the cabin house to cast a shadow over my legs and the breeze is from the port quarter. The only part of me getting hot right now is the back of my neck and even that is mostly protected by my hat. I love the cooling off part of the late afternoon, all the way to sunset. Monday, December 2 What a rough night and morning! Squall after squall, winds variable in the extreme, and the dinghy slipped port and forward off the flat fenders creating a noisy dangerous situation. I tried going to sleep at 2100, not knowing about the dinghy problem, but the noise of it moving got me up. I spent the next fifteen minutes pulling the dinghy back into place and making the starboard side more secure, all in the dark. It was fine for half the night but then James had to go retie the port side, also well before dawn. New moon darkness is harder to work in. Meanwhile, some of the squalls were introduced by a brief gale on the leading edge. Cetacea and LoveBot did the most amazing thing, basically heaving to (stalling our forward motion) when the wind got too[…]

Saturday, November 30 Tomorrow is my birthday! I’m going to make biscuits and gravy for breakfast, no mushrooms though. Speaking of breakfast, I finished a whole bag of muesli! Fastest I’ve ever done that. It’s all about the shelf-stable yogurt. Even if it’s basically pudding because the beneficial enzymes are deconstructed in the UHT process, it was a good vehicle for some whole grains. Which reminds me, I mentioned being constipated and I gotta admit, this is a weird situation. In the last 20 days, I’ve had 4 bowel movements. Ordinarily, they’d be painful and bloody with gaps like that, but they haven’t. Just ordinary in size and composition…you know, just poop. Shrug. I’d rather go a while between BMs and have them be easy than strain over them and hurt myself. And in other news, it’s nearing sunset and the sky is a gift that keeps on giving. How many photos can I take of one sunset? A lot. I’ll just share my favorites here. And… Sunday, December 1 New moon birthday. Really nice to think in terms of newness rather than returning. I guess it’s both/and, as usual. The sunrise wasn’t too shabby either! Birthday breakfast was excellent! I’m getting the hang of making gravy. No measuring, just deciding how much butter to start with, enough flour to get the right texture, and enough milk or cream to make it was thick as I want it. If I’d been a little less nerved up by some bad weather heading our way, I might have remembered to add a little Worcestershire sauce and paprika like I do with packaged gravy. I baked the biscuits on a cold cast iron skillet and that worked perfectly. The top and bottom were browned at the same time, unlike the bottom-first browning I[…]