An awful sound, riiiipppp, and again some more rriiiipppp. I've been talking about getting new sails when I get to St Maarten and now I'm acting on that thought.

We sailed out of Luperon in a 15 to 20 knots and a reef in. The reef was in because we had a small and difficult to repair tear in the sail. The 35nm sail was pleasant for all but Charlotte. Our destination Sosua. The guys found this lovely little bay while traveling around on bikes and so we knew it was a good staging point for the trip to Samina Bay and then Peuto Rico. We love the town. Lively yes, prostitutes yes, ugly tourists looking for prostitutes yes and a dive boat that tried to make us move on from our anchorage yes. We didn't move as we are in a recognized anchorage. Needless to say it not overly boatie friendly with no dingy dock....but doable never the less. Oh and I'm now 13 games up on Oli in the first to 100 pool comp.

We actually like the town and can recommend it for sure.

The plan was to depart here on the 12th for a night motor sail with predicted 5-10knots from the east all the way. We also had the hope to find some land breeze in the evening. We left at 4pm with 15knots. My mistake. There were storm cells visible to the west...the same as the day before. So everything looked the same as what we had experienced. Within 30mins we had 30knots as the cells fought each other for the right to make wind. And the land breeze fought them back. This isn't good I said and then rriiiippp. I could actually see clear seas between the cells and we were heading for it. We hit ten knots of speed in seconds while Oli, Charlotte, Dakota and Mark frolicked on the tramp up front. The rain was cleansing. The air temp dropped alarmingly.

Working like a wet but well oiled machine we had the ripped main down and genoa furled in seconds. We turned and ran for home. These sails hadn't been cared for and as I mentioned before when we lost battens. The things you learn by experience is astounding...but not very helpful at this point.

The rain was such that Mark wore a dive mask to see. Cold and with Ooroo cleansed of salt we re anchored.

In the warm light of day....I was up at 7am, I inspected the damage. I went to shore and requested quotes for new sails and Mark and I inspected the genoa and set the main with its second reef.....as the huge tear is below that. We still have half a sail and genoa....but only just. We will baby this thing to St Maarten were Ooroo will rest for 6 months....will be re clothed and made ready for the remainder if the journey.

These amazing and unpredictable waters are to be respected. With new sails we will set a new protocol to ensure it doesn't happen again and we know that 5-10 knots means nothing.

Dakota has only 5 more days here. So Charlotte and Dakota are now flying to PR for some R&R. Oli wants to be with them as his friend Jen is also meeting him there. But we need him for the next 3-4 days so we can make the passage. Oh and the poor guy has a belly bug and fever that may actually mean he won't be much help at all.

It's now 3pm, the wind is like yesterday at 15 knots. But the afternoon storms are not as visible as the last two days. The forecast is like yesterday's....perfect. We won't leave until night, when the heat of land stops fighting the coolness of the ocean. If no storm cells are visible by eye or radar we can only hope that we get the promised still night....and that our worn out double reefed sail holds.