A Sailing Passage

Just as predicted (for once) the winds came round from the east at about 15 knots which made for a fabulous day of sailing from St. Croix to St. John. We upped anchor 8:45am and by 3:30pm dropped it in Hansen Bay in Hurricane Hole at the east end of St. John.

Excitement for the passage was minimal although we got caught in one squall that dumped an incredible amount of water on us and had us wishing there was some way we could funnel it into our water tanks – for a free fillup! We also kept an eye on one freighter that appeared to constantly be on a collision path with us and as we got closer we could see that he was really just drifting westward with the current, obviously awaiting the appropriate time to head into port. Unfortunately as we came up to the point where we needed to deviate our course to avoid him, there was a particularly nasty squall – what do you call it when it is bigger than just a little squall? - running down onto him. We decided to divert considerably behind both him and the rain/wind and managed to avoid both very nicely.

Our other excitement was an escort of 5 dolphins running ahead of our bows.

As we approached the east end of St. John, we were particularly happy with our destination since the rest of the island and all of St. Thomas were almost invisible in rainfall and clouds. Hansen Bay made a peaceful anchorage for the night with only a few other boats around. By late afternoon we were sitting contemplating the state of our stomachs when the folks from the boat in front of us popped over. Karl and Gail who have been making their way down from Maryland since early in the year made our acquaintance and then returned after an exploration of the bay to enjoy a couple of bottles of wine and snacks into the evening. This is definitely a fun component of being out here – you never know who your neighbours will be and the fun and interesting stories they will tell.

Exhausted Hitch-hiker Under a Full Moon

We departed Saba at 6:30pm just as the full moon rose behind us and we anticipated our overnight run to St. Croix with a forecast of fair winds for sailing.

Unfortunately the winds never showed up and the moon tracked it's way across the sky to beat us to St. Croix in the morning. What a difference from our overnight from the BVIs to Anguilla just two weeks ago. This time, we had one encounter with a fishing boat crossing our bow and could see one other boat far in the distance behind us running up towards St. Thomas. Other than that, we seemed to be alone out there. With the full moon and almost cloudless sky, it was never really dark and unlike the previous trip, there were few stars to be seen.

The only real excitement of the crossing was at about the mid-point when there was suddenly a light fluttering shadow past the foresail and into the rigging of the stowed mainsail. As I watched, an exhausted king bird landed on one of the lazy jacks and all he could manage was to grasp the line and then hang upside-down for about a minute. I thought he was completely gone and was contemplating how we would get the poor little thing out of the rigging when he revived enough to pull himself back upright. He rested on the boat for about half an hour when he finally decided that we were going the wrong way and he headed off to the south east across the ocean. I have no idea what the stamina is for this little land-bird and whether flying a hundred miles across open water is even possible for him but I sure hope he made it.

The sun rose, the moon set and we arrived at our way-point off the eastern end of St. Croix at perfect time to allow us to take the inside passage between Buck Island and the big island and make our way past the reefs and into Christiansted Harbour. We even had an escort for a brief moment by three dolphins.

Another overnight passage under our belts but unfortunately not one accomplished without motoring. We actually met the folks from the boat that had passed behind us in the night – they had opted to sail in the light winds and didn't make it into Christiansted until late afternoon when they had the misfortune to also miss being able to clear in with customs and immigration. We are not sure whether they were able to clear in later or had to wait out in quarantine until Monday. The cost to us for being able to get cleared was that we needed to refuel the boat.

Arrived in Saba - a little more detail

Despite all the festivities and late-night return to Mowzer last night, we were still up and on our way early this morning. One stop on the way put us in at Marigot for more dinghy fuel and one last stop at the Sarafina's for those incredible pain chocolates. Winds are still incredibly light and the seas pretty much flat so we motored to Saba although the winds did pick up to about 10 knots once we cleared away from St. Martin so we were able to give a little lift to our fuel-efficiency with some wind-power. As I said to Henry at one point, at least we look like a sail-boat!

Saba is the tip of an ancient volcano that rises from the ocean south-west of St. Martin. We could also see St. Eustacia a bit further south and as we progressed, also St. Kitts, with St. Bart's ever-present to the east. In the lee of the island we lost the winds but coming around to Fort Bay on the south side was quite windy and rolly. Even though the wind hadn't seemed that high, there was probabaly some acceleration of the wind around the steep sides of the island. There are no beaches, no palm-trees, no beach-bars and definitely no resorts. What Saba offers is an unspoiled beauty, amazing hiking with panoramic views and quaint little villages that look like the houses were dropped in place a hundred years ago (which many of them probably were.) We checked in at customs, immigration and the marine park services, paid $12.00 to stay on a mooring ball for the next few nights and then moved Mowzer back round to the west side of the island in Wells Bay to escape some of the wind and wave action.

West Coast of Saba - Wells Bay and Ladder Bay (tiny little indents on the coast)

Fort Bay and the only loading dock on the island.

Tomorrow we plan to do some hiking, visit The Bottom and Windwardside and then depending on the weather and what we want to do on the island, we can choose to stay into the weekend if we wish.

Haul-outs and Coincidences

Let's see, it seems like so much has happened in the few days but I will try to summarize and not make this post too long.

Monday night at Leinster Bay was completely calm and uneventful, and I when I say calm, it was rather like early morning up on the Ottawa River - we've never seen the conditions like this before down here.

Tuesday morning we checked in at Soper's Hole and then headed up to Nanny Cay to have Mowzer hauled out for a measurement to complete our Transport Canada registration.  All went according to plan and schedule, the yard was extremely efficient and the measurements were all taken over the lunch period so we were back in the water and on our way by 1:30.

During our haul-out we also had the bottom pressure washed so she is all clean and in 'go-fast' shape.  We did find a few blisters appeared immediately once Mowzer was out of the water and they quickly disappeared once she dried so this is a little concerning but we'll have to see what can be done.

The yard was super hot so it was great to get back out on the water and so we headed over to Cooper Island where we hooked up to a mooring for a bit of R&R and the preparation for making the big jump.  We had food and drinks for the night ready, we rigged up jack-lines to attach ourselves to the boat and made sure we had all our charts, navigation and time calculations completed.

We departed from Cooper Island at 5:30pm and after buzzing the backside of Ginger Island, headed east across the Anegada Passage towards Anguilla. The sun slowly set behind us and it wasn't long before darkness encapsulated us aboard the boat. On one hand the world really shrinks to just the space you can see – the boat, but on the other your focus is so external trying to assess the lights around you and with the most amazing star-show going on, you feel infinitely small. We had our first freighter cross in front of us fairly early on and after that it was a parade of cruise ships heading for St. Martin (all behind us). The sliver of a moon set around 9:30pm but even so we could still pick out the horizon as a different darkness between sea and sky. At no point were we ever without being able to see four or five other sailboats heading for Anguilla or St. Martin – you can tell by their lights whether they are under power or sail. Given the conditions which were extremely flat seas and winds of only 6 – 10 knots, I'm assuming most were motor sailing as were we.

Auto helm was doing his stuff while Henry kept a lookout behind?

By 5:30am and a number of 2-hour exchanged shifts, the sky was brightening and we made the decision to slow down just a bit to be able to enter the area north of Anguilla under daylight conditions. From our time here before we knew we would encounter many floats from the lobster posts in the passage and sure enough it was a game of dodge-em all the way up to Road Bay.

This is what we were hunting for so we wouldn't get a line wrapped on our prop:

This all felt like such an accomplishment to us and we're very happy to have our first overnight passage under our belts. Of course, the wind and seas were very kind to us but at least we now know what it is like to be out there in the darkness, that is really not that dark.

Wednesday in Road Bay: we checked in at customs and immigration and made plans for the next day to do some cruising in the Anguilla marine park. Back at the boat today we rested up and napped through a mid-day rain shower before heading out for a walk. As we wandered along we came across a couple of folks studying a map so of course we struck up a conversation. To make a long story short, they are also sailing a Mahe 36 and crossed over from the BVI last night as well. We trekked up the hill together into The Valley (funny topography on Anguilla what?) where they were looking to pick up a car rental. We wandered on for a bit and then heard the distant call of an old-fashioned ice cream truck. As we carried on Ted and Louise came by in their new-found car and gave us a lift over to Crocus Bay where we hoped to pick up the Heritage Trail to walk back to Road Bay. We found the Heritage Trail alright, but I think Anguilla is just a bit bigger than we really expected and after about 3 miles and an impromptu stop for more water, we were back at the anchorage. What a neat clean island, and as we have found so often people are so friendly if only you say “Good Afternoon”. The island is definitely making it's living off high-end tourism so we won't be staying too long, but will take this as an opportunity to enjoy it while we can.

Landfall in Anguilla

After a fabulous (and uneventful), and our first overnight passage we arrived in Anguilla this morning at 9am.  It took us 15 hours from the time we departed the BVIs with light winds and a flat, calm sea.  Given the weather conditions we decided to head to the northern-most island of our chosen destinations and we now have about a week and a half to play in the islands before we head back west.

We've checked in at Road Bay and are going to spend the day enjoying the beautiful anchorage (and maybe catching a nap or two) and given that we have been able to pick up this wifi signal on the boat, I will post more a bit later.  Just wanted to let you know we'd made it very happily.