Sunday, April 13, 2014

Up at 5am for early breakfast. Forecast winds look good for passage to Montserrat Island, but the day dawned with lots of clouds and gusty winds into the anchorage. We decided to go for it, so after breakfast we dropped our mooring and headed out by 6:30. Sailing down the west coast of St. Bart's we had quite gusty winds, which is to be expected sailing on the lee side of the island. As we cleared the south end of the island, the wind settled to a steady 20 knots on the beam, and the seas were running 4 to 6 feet. The wind angle was great for our course, until about 10 am, when the rain squalls all around began bending the tradewind more to the southeast, turning it into a headwind. The squalls also increased the wind velocity into the middle 20's, so we headed up and put a reef in the main. At the same time, we took about 45 minutes to replace a block (pulley) on the mainsheet that was plainly failing. While we changed that, we looked up to see a waterspout (funnel cloud tha t touches the water) dropping out of a rainsquall about 4 miles away, so we were anxious to finish up the repair and get back underway.

Eventually, the squalls bent the wind so far south that we gave it up and changed course to cross the north end of St. Kitt's. With the wind on the beam and a reef in main and jib we were surfing down the crests at over 12 knots, making 8 knots up the backs of the waves. It was an exhilirating ride that lasted about three hours, until we turned the corner to sail down the west side of the island. Then the wind got so shifty that we dropped the sails and motored the last 8 miles to the check-in anchorage at Basseterre, St. Kitts. The waves were rolling in there, so we dinghied in, did the check-in, then rehoisted the dink and headed down island to White House Bay, which was calm and secluded. We shared the anchorage with our friends on Edgar and Hella on Lucky Palima and two other boats. St. Kitts and Nevis are English speaking islands. St Barts, St Martin, Guadeloupe: French.