About an hour and a half after we left St. Maarten Friday afternoon, I realized that we had our first "sailing off into the sunset" moment so far on our journey. We had a very pleasant overnight sail from St. Maarten to St. Croix, due west magnetic, where we will catch up with one of Heidi's oldest friends in Frederiksted. What was also amazing is that a bit before sunset we were joined by a small pod of leaping dolphin. It all happened so fast, I couldn't get my camera in time ... maybe I didn't want to get it and miss out on the spectacle! After they arrived (and they arrived with gusto, leaping completely out of the water, almost vertical, seeming to surprise even themselves with how far out of the water they came!), they settled in at the bow where Heidi almost fell in trying to touch them as they leaped left and right seemingly right over the bow sprit. Magical indeed!

We are now settled in at a very protected marina on the north coast of the island. This is key, because for three days we are expecting large northerly swells deriving from a combination of a large low with gale force winds west of the Azores and a large high pressure system pushing east, both generating lots of northerly winds over a very large area in the middle of the Atlantic. Hopefully they will be settled down by Thursday, and we can go anchor somewhere. We are finding out just how exposed this island is!