A Tale of Two Chemists: Open water sailing 4th January 2018

January 4^th 2018

Since I arrived in the Virgin Islands, I’ve been pretty nervous about the sailing. The winds are strong and the seas heap up readily. Fortunately, we were mostly doing short hops between islands stopping in well-protected harbors. The occasional up-wind sail tended to illustrate that the winds and sea-state are unlike most of my sailing experience. Then suddenly, Mike started to talk seriously about using an approaching period of light winds to make the hop to more easterly islands. After dropping Tasha at Charlotte Amalie (to catch the first flight of her long travel ordeal), we planned to depart from St. Thomas for St. Barts.

By 9 am on the 3^rd of January, we were motoring out of the harbor on a south-easterly route. The forecasts were suggesting the winds to be 8-12 knots out of the south-east, becoming more powerful (13-17) early in the morning of Thursday. The winds were indeed light as we set out. Combined with moderate seas, we could only manage 3 nm/hour under sail. Our 120 nm trip could be very long at that rate of speed! We used the engine with the mainsail up for stabilization. These benign conditions allowed me to settle down a bit as the hours clocked by. We reached our southern most waypoint at around 2 am. From there we turned east and the winds and waves started building. The last few hours were pretty tough. It helped me to know that we have a relatively small distance left.

I’d like to blame the scopalamine patch for my very frequent naps while under way but who knows. I am certain that I really would have struggled with the “mal de mer” without that patch. At 4 am I got up from yet another nap and watched the sky lighten as we approached St. Barts. Now we are anchored in the “outer harbor” of Gustavia. We ate breakfast and then re-inflated the dingy got the engine in place and zipped to shore to check-in. We walked around the harbor area of the town.

Gustavia is a stark contrast to many of the towns in the Virgin Islands. This town doesn’t show any signs of hurricane damage. I did see one roof being repaired but no blue tarps, no boats up on shore or building collapsed. Over all it seems very beautiful, and full of ritzy shops (maybe certain cruise ships stop here?). The anchorage has lovely sky-blue water. It also has a pronounced roll. Mike has created a bridle with the anchor chain and a line. The hope is that will hold the bow of the boat into the swell and minimize the long axis rolling). We do think it’s improved. With luck it won’t keep us from a much-needed sleep tonight. We hope to spend a couple of days here and then take a shorter hop to either St. Kitts or Nevis. Currently, the forecast is for bigger winds and bigger seas over the next few days. We will explore the island and wait for a better forecast.

Gloria