With the weather window holding and with great anticipation I weighted anchor and departed St Thomas this morning just after 7am. Once again with heavy heart I had to leave Wandering Dolphin waving. They did video my departure and maybe they have uploaded the clip. Check out Wandering Dolphins blog under my sidelinks. So the first 3 hours of the trip were more than I had anticipated. 15 knots straight on the nose with a 4 to 6 foot chop. I hate punching into slop, so I tacked back and forth and by the time I was south of St John the wind as predicted eased right up to about 8 knots out of the southeast. Today has been downright beautiful. Crystal clear skies with light winds and a sea that is smoothing out the further east I go. I motored sailed along the south coast of the British Virgin Islands and left Virgin Gorda to port and now am on a rum line for Simpson Bay on the Dutch side of St Martin. Doesn't look like I'm be getting much sailing in. Winds are forecast to stay light all night. At present Christa is motor sailing between 4 and 5 knots. The Yanmar is running perfectly and all systems are G. I anticipate to be near the south coast of St Martin between 8 am and noon time. Late tomorrow afternoon the cold front will be approaching with 10 to 15 knots SW breeze which would be a perfect broad reach. However once the front passes the winds will clock to the NNE at 16 to 22 knots with a 9 to 11 foot sea rapidly following. That would be nearly straight downwind which is a real pain and the wind velocity predictions have varied amongst several sources. So I think instead of soldiering on to Antigua I'll make a stop. So I have a couple of other sailboats on the horizon and I would think a gaggle of boats will take advantage of the current calm conditions to move east. I'm getting close to being done with easting. Bout time, I've been easting since September of 2007!

Capt Chris