17 March 2012 | St. Martin
Jackie/77 degrees
Hello all! Well, we are finally on the move again. We left St. John's USVI on Monday night at 11:00 pm and arrived in
St. Martin at 6:30 pm on Tuesday. I wouldn't say it was the worst sail we ever had but it was right up there with the
crappy ones. We were supposed to have 15-20 kts of wind with 6ft seas at 6 sec. What we actually had was 20-25 kt winds
and seas 7-10 feet at 4 sec. Of course it was pretty much on the nose as we were heading east. Had to tack a couple of
times thereby losing some time so a 15 hour sail turned into 20 hours. Neither of us got any sleep so we were pretty
tired once we arrived. It did take a couple of days to re-coup.
The crane that picks up the dinghy motor had failed in St. Thomas but is repaired now. We have also installed new cables
for the controls in the cockpit, they were so stiff you could barely move them. We have a few small jobs yet to do but
they won't take long.
Our new VHF with AIS is installed and working well. On the way over here all the cruise ships showed up and several other
large yachts as well. Nice to be able to see their speed and heading, especially when it's nightime.
We now have a new e-mail address and will be losing the "ocens" address soon. Please send any new e-mails to:
higheeled@gmail.com.
We hope to be in Antigua in a couple of weeks. There is a large regatta happening mid April and we would like to get there
early so we get a good anchoring spot.
Not much more to tell for now.
Be well, be happy!
Chris & Jackie
Sailors at Large