Sunday, February 13, 2011
Today’s passage to St. Barths was FAST! I motor sailed the first part until Brimstone Hill and then put a bit over 3 reefs in the mainsail and 1 reef in the genoa and almost never went below 8 knots for the whole trip. The waves were still high and I was sailing into both wind and waves, but the spray that I was taking didn’t bother as the ride was exhilarating. When I finally made it Gustavia I saw that even the anchored catamarans were rocking and rolling in the swell so I continued on to Colombier and grabbed a mooring (the ball was broken, but someone came by and help me hook it – I had tried from the boat and couldn’t grab it with my boat hook with 2 attempts. It took me a long time to get the dinghy in the water, I tried a new method using the windlass and it wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. But after over an hour and exhausted I got the dinghy into the water and the outboard installed and running – tomorrow morning I’m going to use the dinghy to go into Gustavia and clear into St. Barths instead of motoring there with the mother ship.