Our First Overnight Sail

The first leg of our journey ‘down island’ is to sail from British Virgin Islands to Sint Maarten/Saint Martin (the dual name is because half of the island belongs to the Netherlands and the other half to France). This is a distance of approximately 75 nautical miles. Since our speed at best is 5 knots (nautical miles per hour) that is a trip of approximately 14 hours – that is if the wind and seas are with you. Unfortunately the winds and seas in that area are normally from the east and since that is the direction in which we had to go we were looking at 16 – 18 hours for the trip.

We left the north end of Virgin Gorda at 4:30 pm and started sailing. Our last site of the lights of Virgin Gorda came sometime between 7 and 8 pm. About 10 o’clock Griff checked our course and realized that the wind and waves were pushing us south of our projected course and we weren’t making much way over ground. The wind was such that the only way to correct this was to begin a series of tacks and since this would likely add enough time to our trip to being us to our destination at night rather than day and mean a 24-30 hour trip, we started to motor/sail. That is we had the motor on and the main sail up with one reef (3/4 of the sail raised) and the foresail out. The combination would not necessarily give us better speed but it enabled us to keep to a course that would more directly take us where we wanted to go.

Throughout the night the winds were from the north/north-east at 16-24 knots and the swells were about 8 -10 feet. The waves were breaking over the port bow and would rush back along the deck, sometimes splashing into the cockpit. Every 1 ½ to 2 hours we rotated at the helm. When not at the helm we would try to get some rest. This was difficult for both of us. We were quite nauseated by the motion of the waves (Griff says he was okay until he ate a banana – go figure!) and going below decks where it was noisy and hot was out of the question so we ‘cat-napped’ on deck. At one point Griff asked me what I thought of night sailing and all I could say was that at least I didn’t have to worry about running into land.

Essentially we were alone in our boat somewhere in the Anegada Passage between the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. During the first half of the trip we could see a cruise ship on the horizon, about 2 miles away. Later on we could see two more and then they all disappeared. Two sailboats took their places for a while, but they too were soon lost from sight. We passed another sailboat going in the opposite direction once and that was it for other boats we saw. (Griff here for a moment) – It really is a strange sensation, or at least it was for us, to be in an environment that was at the same time so exciting, scary and isolating. We could look out into the blackness and see only the white spray and foam from the wave crests as well as where our bow was thrusting through the swells. Yet at the same time we could look up and see a gazillion stars, none of which seemed to help in lighting our way. And we had no headlights to see by or streetlights to guide us! I must say also there was no time between say 10 PM and 5 AM when we would have used the word fun to describe this part of our journey.

Finally, about 5:30 AM the sky to the east started to lighten and by 6:30 AM I could say to Griff - “LAND HO”. With the rising sun we could now see what the waves were really like. I’m not sure if that was better or not. As the sun rose higher the seas did settle down somewhat and some of the rocking and rolling subsided, but not the nausea.

We motored the last hour so that we could arrive in Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten (the Dutch side) in time for the bridge to lift (11:30). There is a very large Lagoon that has access from Simpson Bay on the Dutch side and Marigot on the French side. Entry is through a channel that has a lift bridge which only allows inbound or outbound at certain times. We decided that we wanted seas as smooth as possible to anchor in after our trip so we opted for the Lagoon. We anchored, went to check into customs, picked up some takeout food for lunch and then back to the boat to rest. We’re always amazed at how rocky the land is when we get off the boat. This time the sensation was unusually severe and I was actually glad to get back on the boat because the motion didn’t seem as bad.

One thing that happened on the trip that we hadn’t planned was WE CAUGHT OUR FIRST FISH!. When Griff got into the dinghy to go to customs, there was a flying fish lying in the bottom of the dinghy. Not quite the catch we had envisioned, but a fish none the less. Griff says he is not really as scared of the fish as it looks like in the picture – he just wanted to show the whole thing to the camera lens – riiiiight!