9:00 AM – We’re in the anchorage in Statia enjoying our morning. It hasn’t all been relaxing this morning; our anchor was dragging a bit, not enough to set off alarms, when the crew woke up we reset the anchor right after breakfast. We put a lot more anchor chain out so we should be solid this time.
A couple of the guys are snorkeling, Linda & Jim are taking some ASA exams and we’re getting ready to head ashore to check in at customs.
1:00 PM – Had a little lunch & a cocktail at a restaurant on shore and headed up the hiking trail toward town. Some of our group toured the fort, others spent some time at a museum, and the rest of us went to a grocery store to replenish a few key supplies.
There are a lot of goats wandering about on the island.
Back on the boat and Jonathan (with Linda as sous chef) prepared a simple yet incredible meal with chicken, rice and a little salad. I planned to lose weight by sailing for an entire month but I’m not starting well thanks to Chef Jonathan!
Night Sailing to St Barts
The guys split up into 2 shifts and rested until midnight when they all got up to ready the boat. By 1:00 AM we we’re underway.
We thought we had a reasonable weather window for the transit to St. Barts. I wanted two reefs in but when we got out there three reefs were in order. The sea was angry that night my friends, initially it was smooth near our anchorage. But it quickly began building waves and dicey. On the south tip of Stacia where there is a couple of knots of current the sea was like a washing machine with almost no predictable wave pattern. Only five of our crew are getting certified for ASA 106 which requires them to sail at night. Neither Jeanne nor Linda need the night sail so they took the night off. The other five crew set up watches and operated the boat.
We motor sailed from Statia through the St Kitts channel, when we turned north it suddenly got very real. We ran straight into 30+ knot winds and waves as high as 12 ft! Although we were not directly into the wind and waves. We were about 60 degrees off. This pretty much forced us to motor sail most of the way to St. Barts.
Fortunately it was almost a full moon and visibility was good. Even so, at one point we hit a wave so high that it completely soaked everyone on board, including the guys up on the fly bridge.
It was rough so the team decided to shorten the main to the 3rd reef. The boat is brand new so, as they lowered the main sail down, they realized the 3rd reef line wasn’t set up yet at the tack. Brooks and Jonathan went out to the mast, Brooks climbed up a little and jury-rigged the third reef with a round turn and two half hitches. It held all night!
We arrived into the anchorage at St Barts around 10:00 AM. The boat deck is covered in salt from all the waves, it took a while for the tired crew to set the anchor and then Brooks dived down and realized that a line had gotten wrapped around the port propeller (which they lost sometime during the night). He easily removed the line, we tested the engines and both were working properly again!
We’re looking forward to a relaxing day, dinner at Eddy’s to celebrate Brook’s birthday and a full night sleep in the anchorage here at St Bart’s.
Tomorrow we rent scooters and tour the island. Until then, thanks for following these posts!