This was supposed to be a nice, relaxing sail. The winds, which had been blowing from the ESE at 25 to 30 knots a few days ago had eased down a bit. They were now projected to be 10 to 15 knots from the ESE and then sifting to the E around early evening. If that were the case, it would make our passage to Sint Maarten an easy sail.

Our thoughts were to first slip between Norman Island, the first of the BVIs coming from the SW, and St. Johns. This would place us in the western part of the Sir Francis Drake Channel and then we would sail up between the various islands that make up the BVIs, heading to the NE. This would yield a wonderful sail with the winds off our port bow and the islands preventing any significant swells from entering the channel. The views of this part of the passage would be wonderful as we sail past each of the very scenic islands.

Once we get to the end of the channel we would approach the along reef that extends off of Anegada Island and trends to the SW. We would tack to the SE and, with luck, keep sailing, as by then the winds should now be from the E. Once we cleared the reef and the end of Virgin Gorda island, we would now be back in the open Caribbean Sea. We would then tack to the NE keeping the easterly winds off our starboard bow. Once we got east enough, we would tack back to the SE and our long run down to Sint Maarten.

Well, the first part of the sail plan worked great. Our sail up Drakes Channel was magnificent with the winds behaving, the seas knocked down by the wall of islands to our starboard, and the islands in all their glory. We did have to deal with a number of charter boats, however. Many people who charter sailboats just do not understand how to sail and what the rules of the road are. As it turned out, even though we had the right of way, we ended up changing course a number of times to avoid a collision with some fool who as determined not to change course, even thought that would his responsibility. Sigh.

When we were approaching the end of our first leg, that being the run up Drakes Channel, the winds had not sifted so we ended up having to drop sails and just motor out of the channel and through the long cut in the Anegada reef. We were now just 80 nm from Sint Maarten and with the winds not cooperating, we decided to bag the idea of tacking since it would take us too far off the route. Thus, we just turned toward Sint Maarten and continued motoring through the night.

The seas were bouncy as we bashed through 3 to 5 foot swells coming from a few directions. Spray was flying up over the bows as we marched toward our destination. The winds slowly moved to the ENE which allowed us to raise the headsail and keep it full. This added 1.5 knots to our speed and allowed us to reach Sint Maarten by 0930, giving us plenty of time to clear in and then catch the 1130 bridge opening.

Once through the bridge, we then proceeded to Simpson Bay Marina, where we fight the 25 knots winds, to slip in between two tight concrete fingers. It was ugly but we made it. Yea!