Some Sailing Tales - At Last

Well, no boat details today. It is Sunday and I just had to look at both of our watches because we had no idea what day it was!! Isn’t that great? We went to an internet café yesterday because we don’t have our boat email set up yet and there is limited connectivity right now on WiFi and while we were doing some business stuff that popped up for Cheryl that had to be done in a hurry, Julie came on line to chat. Sorry Julie, if we had known it was Saturday and you were off, we would have gotten back to you right away. Not sure if that makes sense or not but there it is and on to sailing.

So, we last left you at Little Harbour, Jost Van Dyke Island, BVI. We spent a really nice night with lots of quiet (except for boat sounds but that is another blog) after having a great meal at Abe’s in late evening. On Friday morning we set out for Great Harbour to check out of BVI. It was just around the corner so we decided to motor and wouldn’t you know it, the alternator belt broke. We shut down to take a quick look and were adrift just offshore. No problem. The alternator belt connects to the water pump that cools the upper part of the motor but with all the engine doors open and keeping the revs down, it would be okay. Went to start the motor to get to Great Harbour and replace the belt and “no go”. We handled it well. Put up the staysail to give us way and stay off the shore and just as I went down to check on the starter it occurred to me – did we take it out of gear before stopping.

Long story short, put it in neutral, motor to Great Harbour, put our Alberta License plate up in Foxy’s, clear customs and we were off again.

Because of the time taken we decided to only go to Caneel Bay on St John’s Island, USVI to check into customs at Cruz Bay around the corner. That way we wouldn’t be getting to St. Thomas after dark.

Now for the good stuff. We had a 12-17 knot wind on our port side, almost beam (directly from the side) but a bit aft. Up goes the mainsail, up goes the forestay and we were sailing at between 6 and 8 knots. And we still had a sail we could have used!! There are no words to describe how that feels with the wind up, the sky clear, the water sparkling and the waves 3-5 feet. We were watching other boats on about the same course as us and some of them were off the perpendicular as much as what appeared to be 30 degrees – really. Mystic Journey was probably 8 degrees at the max. What a difference in handling from the previous boats we have been on, particularly the one that we chartered with Julie and Graham in Antigua. The main difference of course is the full keel as opposed to the fin keel that most coastal boats have. Julie and Graham, you will love it!! Of course there is also the configuration of the nose and transom as well as other characteristics but whatever it is, it is lovely!

Short part of we did this, we did that – we got a mooring ball in Caneel Bay, took the dinghy into Cruz Bay, cleared customs and toured the town. Neat little place with lots of tourists and too many catamaran drivers. That is just a personal thing. There are really an inordinate number of catamarans chartered down here and it seems to us up to this point that the people who charter them don’t consider them boats but rather cars on the freeway. In some ways they are worse than some of the power boat operators in that they completely ignore the “rules of the road”. This is carried over to land. There are usually 8-10 people on a cat and they travel in herds (I am speaking of customs right now). But enough of my personal preferences!! There are no sins in paradise!!

Saturday morning dawned with the sea as smooth as we had seen it and the wind only about 5 knots. There had been a short shower and afterwards the rainbow - so off to St Thomas.
We put up the mainsail and began but it wasn’t long before the waves began and the wind picked up and the next thing we were sailing in a 20 knot “breeze” and the swells were between 8 and 10 feet. Great sailing IF the course you want to take is not directly downwind and directly in the trough of the waves. The condition is a bit unusual because usually the swells will be in the same direction – somewhat – as the wind, but if the swells are generated somewhere else, (as happened here) or the wind changes direction suddenly, there you are.
Add to this scenario the fact that the channel we had to go through was quite narrow – about 300 meters – and there was a pile of rocks right in the middle and the only viable passage was to keep those rocks to our starboard side. I am not sure what the nautical term is for “hairy” but it was at times “hairy”.

We decided to drop the mainsail so we wouldn’t have to worry about an accidental gybe. We hadn’t put a prevent up because the seas came up too quickly and besides, that is usually something that is done when you intend to run downwind for a longer period of time with no need of tacking. Long story made short – we left the forestay up and sailed the rest of the way to St Thomas that way. After we went through the narrow passage, the seas calmed to perhaps 6 feet and the wind dropped to about 12-14 knots so it was a walk in the park. Just an aside, there was a boat behind us that had come from another direction under a single reef on their mainsail. They followed us through the passage and to St Thomas and although they kept moving out as if to pass, they were never able to do so. Good old Mystic Journey.

Sorry there are no pictures of the ten foot swells as neither of us had a free hand to use a camera!!!!!

One other thing. At this time I (Griff) usually do the sail and line/halyard work while Cheryl takes the helm because of the “grunt” work involved and that was the case during our mini-adventure. I am here to tell you all that Cheryl handled her part beautifully and I wore a life jacket. When the bow starts to rise so all you can see was sky and then the next second a 10’ swell is breaking over the bow as you cleave through another 10 footer, caution seems to make a bit more sense – even to me, Mr. Carefree (remember kids aren’t careless, they’re carefree!!).
Enough for now. All is well in St Thomas and we are off to do some “stuff”.