A Tale of Two Chemists: Cruising with Tasha Mon 25th

Monday 25^th – Wednesday 27th

Tasha is amazing! Yes I know everyone says that about their children so I’ll spare you the parental gloating and focus on one specific thing. She is probably the most motion sensitive person that I know and yet here she is on our boat cruising with us. Although she spent a couple of weeks on Cotinga over Christmas in 2012, we were at a dock in Vero Beach, Florida and this is actually the first time she has sailed on this boat. We met her at the airport in Charlotte Amalie and returned to Cotinga via taxi and dinghy. Tasha was exhausted after a trip of almost 24 hours from Lander, Wyoming to Salt Lake City to Miami to St Thomas, and very little sleep. She had already been feeling sick in Miami and as we ate our Christmas dinner in the cockpit (Pork and mushroom stroganoff with rice and salad, followed by home made mince pies) she looked decidedly doubtful. Anyway we gave her a Scopolamine patch and then all retired for an early night. A good night’s sleep certainly helped and just as well. When we left Charlotte Amalie to motor sail up to Christmas cove we encountered 20-knot winds, more or less from where we were headed, and short period, steep 7 foot seas. It was a baptism of fire and she handled it like a trooper. The journey only took about 90 minutes and then we were tucked in at Christmas Cove, in beautiful surroundings. We had a good snorkel around the island and saw a school of cuttlefish as well as many other beautiful fish. In the afternoon we had a quick walk on the beach, which turned out to be private and then a cozy evening on board.

On Wednesday morning we dropped the mooring and motored across Pilsbury Sound to St John, another rough section of water, and Tasha again took it in her stride. We pulled in to Hawkshead Bay and picked up National Park mooring. This is not a particularly well-protected bay and there was a significant swell and Cotinga was rocking quite a lot. However, we dropped the motor onto the “dumb dog” and took the dinghy to shore. We hiked up to Peace Hill and got some great views as a squall passed north of the island, then we snorkeled round the Elkhorn coral beds off the beach – which appear to be in pretty tough shape. Once back aboard Cotinga we decided it was too uncomfortable to spend the night and made plans to head east to Francis Bay. This of course meant taking the engine off the dinghy. We have a pulley system attached to the radar pole and if one person releases the motor from the dinghy the other can pull it up onto the rail of Cotinga. It sounds easy and isn’t too hard when the boats are steady, but with the rocking and rolling you need to work hard to stop the outboard (which weighs ~90 lb) banging into the hull of Cotinga. I was down in the dinghy and did a quick step up onto the deck, balanced myself with one leg either side of the rail, and then lost my balance as Cotinga and the outboard rolled to one side. This turned out to be rather painful, and if I were narrating this blog it would be an octave higher than normal. The lesson learned (for my male friends and relatives) … never let a stainless steel wire guard rail get between your testicles and your center of gravity! Once I had regained my composure, we headed over to Francis Bay for a lovely evening.

Christmas Cove 18 18.5 N, 64 50.0 W

Francis Bay 18 21.9 N, 64 44.8 W