We are now anchored off Fort de France, Martinique after a 250nm sail down from Sint Maarten. That was one hell of a 'warm up'.... We knew the first night would be 'lively' but if we waited any longer we would probably have been motoring most of the way. Anyway, we were not nearly hardened enough for total darkness, pouring rain, 8' seas and 35kt squalls. Just staying oriented was actually quite a challenge. We had a few dramas and thoroughly tested the new furling system which performed perfectly - unlike the crew - oh well... Anyway we got through the first night without any breakages or injuries and the weather settled down to absolutely perfect sailing conditions, 3' seas and 15kts on the beam much of the time, allowing us to tear along at 7kts and make up for the slow first night and the longish stretches hove-to sorting things out and getting a breather. We only had to motor a little down the wind shadow of Dominica and again along the Martinique coast. We had a thorough debrief at the end of the trip and came away with a number of really important lessons-learned which I will articulate in different posts for my own future reading. We are still not happy with our squall-management techniques and will be talking to a few more seasoned sailors about that.

Anyway, we have 'arrived' in the sense that the to-do list does not dominate our lives and we will very soon be somewhere we can swim and perhaps even dive. We are determined to slow things down and enjoy the 'being there'.

We hope you are all doing well.

G&J