Shortly after midnight, the crews of Windancer IV and our new Canadian friends aboard Solitaire awoke from a brief sleep and prepared their respective vessels for the passage from the BVI to St. Martin - 72 nautical miles known as the Anegada Passage. It was Solitaires first overnight sail, and unfortunately the trip is almost always to windward.

On this early morning, we saw winds from the east (yes, that means sailing to windward) at less than 15 knots, and it looked to be the best day to sail as the weather was only going to deteriorate. Windancer's experienced dinghy captain, Connot MacKenzie had offered to crew aboard the Jenneau 43DS to assist the rookie offshore crew on their first passage. But Connor had not been feeling great for the days leading up to the passage, a bit fluish and not himself.

But at the last minute, he confirmed his intent to sail as crew and, after a safety check for safety gear, he boarded Solitaire. Windancer IV led the way through a icy dark BVI evening. The moon was about 3/4 full, but cloud cover sheilded much of the moons rays.

Once we maded the turn to the east as we passedf Necker Island, the moon came out to light our way, but onyl for about two hours. Then, complete darkness. but the team stayed together, Windancer IV leading the pack and Solitaire, motor-sailing the entire way, followed in her path.

The sunrise at dawn was spectacular, a full "ball of fire" shot out of the sea - a truely amazing sight. The morrning continued without incident, Windancer maintaining hourly radio contact with our friends from Solitaire. Connor's flu symptons (definitely not sea sickness) were visible and caused him to sleep more than he would have liked. But he was still available to note strange cloud formation (could have been dangerous squall activity) and to help out with night sights of merchant ships at sea.

At 1330, Windancer IV slowed to allow Solitaire to catch up and we noticed an unusual course change by the following sloop. Windancer had been unsuccessful at fishing in the mornign hours, but Solitaire landed their first fish of their trip, a little tunny!!!

After patiently waiting for the 1430 bridge opening on the French side of St. Martin, and constantly checking depth reading for Solitaire, we passed throught the lift bridge and slowly motored into the centre of the Lagoon, anchoring in the shallows in less than 10 feet of water.

Connor returned to Windancer along with the crew of Solitaire, including their exhausted captain Barry. After a quick chilli and baked potato lunch, Barry returned to Solitaire for some well earned sleep and Connor jumped into his cabin aboard Windancer to catch up on his rest.

Congratualtions to future delivery captain Connor MacKenzie
(Picture to follow)