Normal weather at this time of the year is 15-20 knots from the east, the direction of St. Martin; making a trip to St. Martin a passage into wind and waves. We had been watching this weather window develop, possibly bringing wind from the north, for almost a week, considering a couple times a day all the factors for a safe crossing: wind strength and direction, sea state, potential for squalls, amount of light. It started to look good, and we made our decision to go for it while at Norman's Bight.
Tuesday morning, we spent hours tacking up the Sir Francis Drake Channel to Spanish Town, which had a Customs office. We were able to check out at 3:00, and continued sailing up to Gorda Sound. We anchored at dusk in Drake's Anchorage, checked the weather again on Wednesday morning, and started out at 7:30 a.m.
We were apprehensive, as, although the weather said wind from the NNE at 10-15 knots, the previous week's strong winds had reportedly left the seas in a bad state. We motorsailed behind the Anegada Reef, until 10:00, and the water was indeed rough - suggesting worse seas beyond the reef. However, once we got out from under the protection of the reef, we found large waves, but not much banging. Indeed, once we were able to turn 15 degrees further off the wind, Cat Tales picked up her skirts and
started skipping off to the ENE just fine. By mid-afternoon, the waves were seldom touching the underside of the salon, and we zipped up and down the large rollers at speeds between 6 and 8 knots. It was a beautiful weather window, and we simply lounged around, played with the sails, and watched the water go by. We had some fishing fun, but didn't land a thing.
We did encounter squally activity under the Anguilla - St. Martin grouping after dark, but nothing worse than 25 knots, and the rain washed off our salt - making it hard to be unhappy. We ghosted into Simpson Bay around some mega-yachts, and dropped the hook in 4-5 metres of water to a sandy bottom.
We're sitting here, watching the mega-yachts come and go from the bridge to the lagoon, and big cattle-marans head out to snorkelling adventures. We'll pick up the anchor and go around to Marigot to clear customs. We can't connect to WiFi here, so we may either post this with ham or wait until we get around the corner.
We hope all is just as fine with our friends and relatives at home.
