Soon after Dana and Walter left, we began our search for a weather window for a hop to the north, following something that was supposed to open up on Friday. To us, a weather window is anything that promises less than 20 knots. An excellent window for this trip would also be an east wind with some south in it, as St. Lucia, although north, is actually a bit to the east. Normal winds down here have a fair bit of north in it, making the trip significantly tougher, with the captain and crew pinching, fussing, and swearing as changes demand both helm and sail modifications. Truly, we can always sail conservatively off the wind, and then expect to tack upwind to the desired island - what else do we have to do down here? Well, the hell never ends.
Often a weather window disappears as its time arrives, or we chase it into the future. Surprisingly, the temporal patch of relative calmness grew towards us, and we scrambled to be ready to leave on Thursday morning. Engine checks, topping up on whatever isn't available further north, a last check on the mango trees (bare), and we were ready.
We set our clock for 4 am Thursday, but when I woke up at 3 and decided I couldn't sleep, I got up, checked the engines, taped up a leaking window, went through our checks, and waited for Dawn. It helped that the window I taped up was providing her with a cool breeze; and soon, the noise and the stuffiness had her up (notice I didn't say "cheerfully", although she wasn't really grumpy either).
Our sail was just great. We expected it to be a 14 hour affair, but we finished in 12, arriving at Rodney Bay close to 4 pm. We shipped some salt, and we had some engine time behind the big volcano of St. Vincent and again in the shadow of the giant Pitons of St. Lucia, but we didn't have to tack. Well, that isn't totally true either, as just beyond the Pitons, a sudden shift of wind had a beautiful but surprising breeze coming from the west. It switched quickly to the east after two hours; no harm, no foul.
Since we've been here, we've cleared customs, made contact with and had drinks with John Fallon and his company (more on them next post), rejoiced at the choices in the grocery store, spent $700-800 in the chandlery for boat repairs, and have started some of them. We have also received many emails from home, telling us what is going on. Thanks so much. Dawn is still reeling from reading in a week-old tabloid that Oprah is quitting, and is trying hard to stay current.
All for now.
