On Sunday, the Heron crew (Emily, Pete and Jay (me)) flew into StT along with the Freestyle crew (Don and his gang Ed and Hank). We weren’t so thrilled to be stuck in Philly for 2.5 hours while US Air found a plane that could fly, but we made it just in time to hit the Westin beach buffet and wide screen superbowl party. With our toes in the sand and palm trees all around, we watched one of the most exciting superbowl games I’ve ever seen –right down to the hail Mary pass. The Pats lost, but it was a great season. The NY Giants fans were, shall we say, over the top. But that made it fun too!
On Monday we had one of the nicest ocean sails I can recall. We made the 34nm crossing from St. John to St. Croix in E15, 055 AWA in exactly four hours, under single reef and #3 working jib (average SOG 8.5kn), Occasional rain showers drifted down on us, usually carrying a wind shift and a few more knots of wind. Flying fish leaped out of the waves as the bow surged in the swell. Bright sun on blue-green water with mountainous green islands in the distance, shrinking off the stern and growing off the bow. The autopilot did the steering. Pete and I tweaked the sails while Emily (16) slept off her end-of-semester exhaustion. Freestyle was right behind us. We dropped the hook in Gallows Bay, then changed our minds and picked up the tee head at St. Croix Marina so we could top off tanks and provision without needing the dinghy. (I hate dinghies.) My in-laws of 30 years, Sam and Shirley picked us up and took us to their condo for dinner and great conversation, overlooking an ocean sparkling with the light of the full moon. Ahhh. Are we having fun yet? Oh ya.
Tuesday we provisioned and did boat chores in preparation for the 400nm trip from here to Grenada, scheduled to depart Thursday morning. To give you an idea, boat life is full of chores, just like at home, but more so. It’s hot here at mid-day, so you do chores in the morning and in the evening. We changed the oil in the genset and the engine, filled water and fuel tanks, organized and stored gear, got the wifi booster going, downloaded the weather grib fils, checked out the ocean buoy along the route: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=42060
checked into the Carib Maritime Mobile Net (7250 kHz at 0700 AST, changed jibs to the #4 (better for 15-20 kn close to the wind—our next leg), provisioned $700 worth of food and drink, etc., etc. I was hoping to do nothing. I’ll have to wait.
We went to lunch with Sam at the Golden Rail Marina Café, a wonderful but out-of-the-way place that the locals love. Sam is one-in-a-million. He has been a professional musician and entertainer all of his life. He will strike up a conversation with anyone at any time, and it will often lead to a change in the space-time continuum. I’m not kidding. So it went this day. As we stepped into this marina open-air restaurant, he was well into a conversation with two couples when lightning struck. It was Henry and Judy Paap, who live a few miles from me in Wellesley, and who are recent BYC members with a boat in Marion harbor! You’ve got to be kidding me. 2000 nm under the keel and here we are having lunch in the same place as the same time as folks from home. Again on Wednesday, we ran into them at Whim Great House, a historical sugar plantation on St. Croix. I’m telling you, Sam makes these connections all the time. It’s just weird.
Wednesday, today, we rented a cab for five hours and the six of us went touring. The Cruzan Rum factory was an amazing place, as was the Whim Great House. I’ll post pictures when we get broadband. We bought more food and did more to prepare for the 400nm leg to Grenada, and welcomed Betsy K. and Jon G. aboard for the next week. We now have five aboard, and are ready to leave tomorrow at 0800 for Grenada with Freestyle and the three aboard. As we did on the trip down, we will use AIS to stay within a few miles of each other for the next seven weeks –about 1000 nm. The forecast is great. Here we go.
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