Hello everyone: We've just been through a most unusual Caribbean gale. A front wandered down from the temperate latitudes and after it passed by a high pressure system with a center pressure of 1040 mb filled in behind it. The winds have been blowing an average of 30-35 knots with higher gusts from the NE or NNE for the last 36 hours, and now have moderated to 25 knots. When we arrived in Marigot Bay on the northwestern side of St. Martin on Friday, we worked our way into a spot close behind the small breakwall that's only recently been completed. The breakwall protected us from the waves and swell that built up, but we were exposed to the full force of the wind. Of the hundred or so boats in the anchorage when we arrived, only about 30 are still here. About 5 AM yesterday boats were dragging left and right, and those not in behind the breakwall found themselves in the surf line as the waves started to break a half mile from the beach. Most boats went around to Simpson Bay on the southern side of the island or into Simpson Bay Lagoon.

Our 110-pound Bruce held perfectly. We've become quite dedicated to this anchor, which has now held us without dragging in Newfoundland gales, hurricane Lenny and this gale; in sand, mud and kelp/rock bottoms. We hate the weight on the bow when we're sailing, but it's worth it for how well we sleep at anchor even when the wind's howling outside. A good anchor is really worth it's weight in gold!

By late yesterday afternoon, seas were reported to be running 18-20 feet. Search and Rescue boats and planes were fully employed trying to find an overdue yacht and someone from a charter boat who'd been swept overboard. This morning a huge freighter is on the rocks just outside the breakwall and a yacht's on the beach in Simpson Bay Lagoon. Everyone else is heaving a huge sigh of relief and thinking that reinforced trades of 25 knots are not so bad after all. Evans and I both wonder how often they get gale warnings here - maybe once a decade? There's now a cold front stretching from Barbuda to the ABCs, a most unusual occurrence as well. And it is cold - relatively speaking - we've been sleeping with two light blankets as temperatures fall into the low sixties at night. Everyone's wondering about the strange weather.

We arrived on St. Martin Friday afternoon after an overnight sail from Barbuda, which we'd been trying to reach since before Lenny in November. The island was as beautiful and unspoiled as we remembered it from our last visit back in 1995, and we had the 11-mile long, perfect white sand beach on the northwest side of the island all to ourselves while we were there. The sand above the surf line was so soft and deep it felt like walking in fresh snow. Our feet sank in six inches and the fine sand filled in on top of them like powder. Barely thirty miles to the south, hundreds of boats sit in Falmouth and English Harbour, their crews complaining because the anchorages are so crowded...

Before we left Antigua, we had one more try at getting our prop pitch right and finally succeeded. Evans had increased the pitch when he hauled out while I was home over Christmas. When I returned, we discovered that the engine belched thick black smoke under load, starting at about 1,900 rpm. We both suspected the prop pitch was now too great and we were overloading the engine, but to be sure we had a Yanmar dealer go over everything. He pulled the injectors and found two of them to be fouled, probably from running the engine under too little load for all that time when the prop was under pitched. While that helped, it didn't cure the problem. We hauled the boat one more time, dropped the pitch back, and finally we're right where we should be. We can't redline the engine but we can reach the rpm recommended by Yanmar, and we can now motor along at hull speed even in a chop. It's taken two years and four tries, but we've got that problem sorted out.

I'm flying home for SailExpo at Atlantic City on Thursday and I look forward to seeing some of you there. When I get back, we plan to head south for a couple of months to visit more of our favorite Caribbean spots - the Saints south of Guadeloupe and Dominica among others.

We wish everyone moderate winds and good holding...

Beth and Evans