I got going at daybreak at 06:45 and immediately set sail and cut the engine after manoeuvring past the anchored boats and shoal waters in the Marigot bay. I set course for the passage between Virgin Gorda and Neckar Island (the one owned by Sir Richard Branson) but it soon became clear that this course coupled with the north swell and east winds was going to make for a very, very uncomfortable corkscrew ride with the acoustic accompaniment of flapping sails, so I altered course about 10 and sometimes 15 degrees to the north to make the ride manageable and save the sails from wear and tear, but on the latter half of the passage I managed to steer a straight course for my target due to changing waves and the use of my engine to motorsail. I’d turned on the engine for an hour so that I could recharge the batteries and also run my electric oven to make bread, then opted to leave it idling at 1200RPM for the last 4 hours to speed things up.
I arrived in good time at 20:00 in the North Sound and set anchor with lots and lots of safety scope (more like 8:1 instead of the recommend 3:1 or 4:1) and slept quite well indeed.
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