We tried to leave Martinique on Thursday morning for St. Lucia. As soon as we passed the protected leeward side of Martinique, we ran into waves and wind that were much more fierce than predicted. The wind was over 30 knots and waves so high and steep that, as we fell down one wave, our bow was completely submerge into the next. This is the first time we ever heard the propeller come out of the water. The engine makes quite an interesting noise when the prop is out of the water. This happened several times.

At Last was being thrown around and this was the first time we felt out of control. We quickly decided to turn around and head back to Martinique. We were not up for another tough sail. All the other boats that left that day returned as well so we felt we were in good company.

We had already looked into nearby anchorages to divert into in case the weather was not agreeable so we went to the anchorage called Grande Anse D'Arlet. Despite being in a somewhat protected anchorage, we had over 30 knot gusts while anchoring. Luckily our anchor set quickly. We let out a whole boatload of chain and settled in for a somewhat uncomfortable 2 day stay. The forecast now predicts the 30 knot winds for the next 36 hours. We set up an anchor sail on the stern of the boat to try to keep the boat pointed into the wind which we found helpful. We listened to the wind howl through the rigging hoping the anchor would hold.

The most disappointing aspect of all of this was that we once again had no internet access to post to the blog and our arrival in St Lucia will be postponed at least till Christmas eve if we are lucky. We have spent the last four days on the boat at anchor in poor conditions, losing sleep and worrying about the 30+ knot winds and anchor holding. We are anxious to get to St Lucia.