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.
