After a good night’s rest in wind still conditions in the lee of Prickly Pear, I woke up at dawn and soon thereafter I was underway. The main sail, with it’s new outhaul, was soon out and with full Genoa and the light wind behind me I was out of the channel and heading towards the Sir Francis Drake channel for the 20 NM downwind run to the USVI. The seas were dead still and at first it was a pleasure to glide along at 5 knots with hardly a sensation of movement. I had the two sails out on opposite sides, wing-on-wing, to make the most of the light wind. Then the winds slowed down even more and when I was doing less than 3 knots I opted to turn on the engine and furl the Genoa, keeping the mainsail up. After about 40 minutes of this the winds seemed to freshen again and I reverted back to being a sailboat, but my speed remained slow at 4 knots or so averaged. For a while I had a pleasant stretch doing 6 knots but then the winds died down again and I turned on the engine for the last stretch down to Cruz Bay in the USVI.
I took a mooring outside of Cruz Bay and got the engine onto the dinghy, showered, put on a fresh shirt and then proceeded to the U.S. customs and immigration building. Once there I filled out the form and presented my passport, my old passport (with the U.S. Visa, which is required when entering by boat), clearance papers from France, my fingers to the fingerprint scanner and my eyes to the retina scanner and soon I was allowed into the U.S.
The reason I detoured via the USVI was to pick up a package of electronic components which I’d ordered, and I checked at the store to discover that my package had just arrived! I then walked to the distant supermarket to stock up on some fine steaks and on the way back stopped at the Virgin Island Brewing Company to get some of their fine micro brewed ale. Back aboard Zanshin I stowed my purchases and then motored to the sheltered anchorage at Maho Bay.
After a cooling swim and dinghying over to pay my mooring fees at the floating payment station I started marinating my steak and could barely let myself wait until dinner time. I had baked potatoes to accompany the steak and it was perfect!
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