The Caribbean Crossing Continues

 Since my last post, Steve and I have covered many miles (we've now logged a total 678 nautical miles) and completed several more overnight sails - including one 48 hour sail.


Laura & Steve's Journey to Date

We left St. Lucia on Tuesday at around noon and set sail for Guadeloupe. The sail was more like we had envisioned and was really pleasant. We each were able to sleep several hours, the weather was perfect and the stars were absolutely amazing...the sky looked like a star map out of a book. We arrived at 1 pm on Wednesday, right on schedule according to our plan.





View of Guadeloupe from Starry Night


Unfortunately, the anchorage options in Guadeloupe weren't good, due to the fact that the depth of the water drops drastically very close to shore and the optimal anchorages were already taken. We've also had relatively poor luck in getting a response from marina dock masters, and although we might have been able to get a berth or a mooring ball, we once again got no response. We opted to anchor for the night but decided to depart the next day - Thursday - for St. Christopher or Nevus.


Once again the sailing conditions were wonderful, and Steve and I both slept at least 6 hours! I felt very comfortable at the helm, even for long stretches at a time. Yesterday's special event was a dolphin show! It was nearing dusk and we were in the process of setting the sails appropriately for the overnight portion of the journey when, all of a sudden, a dolphin catapulted out of the ocean into the air in a Sea World-esque display of power. It was as if the dolphin was introducing the upcoming show, since for the next five or ten minutes afterwards we were entertained by 8-10 dolphins surfing our wake and performing what appeared to be a synchronized swimming display. Our guess is that the pod was actually taking advantage of the churned up bait fish, much like the birds did during our first overnight sail.







Sunset in the Caribbean



We knew we would be unable to spend time in St. Christopher since the time since our COVID test in St. Lucia exceeded the St. Christopher 72 hour time limit for the test results, but we planned a "quarantine stop" - where one can anchor but does not leave the boat - to sleep.

 

We arrived fairly early in the day but had slept so well on the previous night's passage that we decided to press on to the USVI.



View of the island of Saba, a 5 square mile island en route from St. Christopher to USVI


We arrived at St. John's today in the USVI today, have cleared in, and are looking forward to spending some time in the USVI National Park snorkeling, relaxing and checking out St. Thomas.


Until next time my friends, all the best!








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