A great trip! Some pics below… Well, sadly we were forced to motor sail the entire 20 hour trip, but it could have been much worse. We left North Sound in Virgin Gorda at 11:30, clearing the tip of Virgin Gorda around 1:00. The weather models were a bit inconsistent in wind speed and direction. We were hoping for the best with a close reach to St Kitts with the breeze around 18 kts. The good news is we say 15 – 25 kts of breeze the entire trip, the bad news is it was farther E-SE than we hoped, and we ended up motor sailing the entire trip with the main and jib. The seas were fairly large (like a Dishwasher as Liz described it) and the only way to keep the boat moving was to use the motor a bit in combination with the sails. Our course took us from Virgin Gorda, to the North of Saba Island to avoid Saba Bank (an area that goes from over a thousand feet deep down to 50 ft deep causing crazy seas) and then to the South of Eustatius and finally to Basseterre on St Kitts.

We were all excited for our sail, and the kids helped get Salmagal ready for our sail making sure everything was secure, and that our late night snacks were close at hand. Liz, thinking ahead as always, had our dinner prepped and ready to go prior to departure.  The picture of above is saying good bay to Virgin Gorda and the Virgin Islands.

We slowly fell behind Nemetoma on the trip across and ended up at St Kitts about an hour behind them. We were never far from land with Islands relatively near (with the lights of St Martin glowing from far away) but the stars when you are away from land are amazing, and never cease to impress me. It was a wonderful night, and a great sail. Nothing like a little sail (motor sail) and the stars!

Nemetona beat us in by and hour and pulled in to Port Zante Marina – at only $0.75 a foot for dockage and unlimited water for another $15 it seemed worth it. We quickly got to washing down the boat from our sail and getting all the salt off and doing some laundry in the sink, gotta take advantage of unlimited water! Customs was right on sight and it the kids enjoyed sharing their stories with the Nemetona kids on their crossing.

Once we arrived, we toured Brimmstone Hill Fortress which was an impressive and huge fort, packed up and moved away from town to drop the hook in White House Bay for a fun night, and finally today, sailed to Nevis Island – but these adventures will be captured by Mira and Peter and their coming posts…

Cheers,

Andy