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American Spirit II - Day 452; We Leave St. Vincent and Make It To St. Lucia; Friday, April 3, 2015



One Year Ago Today:

"Day 90; Mike Flies Home After 5 1/2 Weeks, and Cats and Chickens Chow Down Together; Thursday, April 3, 2014. Rain squall 2:25 AM. Closed hatches. Up at 6:45 AM. At 7:23 AM Joel and I left to have breakfast with Mike at his hotel. We told the waitress, who spoke no English, that we wanted to order breakfast. Breakfast came, and it consisted of grapefruit slices, French bread with butter and jelly, and coffee. A European breakfast, says Mike. Mike departed in a taxi with another person at 9:40 AM."

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Up at 2:59 AM; stuck my head up in the cockpit and looked around. A little rock and roll in the anchorage. I then went back to bed.

At 6:00 AM my alarm went off. Time to get up; it's moving day (to St. Lucia). I feel like I didn't get much sleep. A light rain is upon us.

Coffee is followed by breakfast: bacon, 3 eggs, potato and chilled mandarin oranges.

Another catamaran is anchoring as we're eating breakfast. Its flying a French flag. Vertical colors blue, white and red. Another boat nearby is French and 1 is from the Netherlands. Its flag is horizontal colors: red, white and blue. There is a rain shower to the north and east over the mountain bordering our anchorage.

Between 7:33 AM and 7:41 AM we weigh anchor. At 7:34 AM I see rainbow to the south. Its colors from left to right are red, yellow, green and purple.

At 7:42 AM we're underway motoring at 2,000 RPM's. At 7:58 AM the wind is 1-2 knots and we're motoring at 6.8 knots thru the water and 6.8 knots over the land. We have 45 miles to the Marigot Bay Marina. By 8:00 AM the wind is 19 knots on the nose.

At 8:30 AM we put a little mainsail out to stabilize the boat. Waves hitting the starboard bow are sending water horizontally into and over our dodger. Its not going to be a pleasant motor sail to St. Lucia. By 9:00 AM the wind is 21 knots and we're sailing at 6.5 knots thru the water and 6.1 knots over the land. Its very wet.

At 10:01 AM the wind is 19 knots and we're motor sailing at 6.1 knots thru the water and 7.0 knots over the land. When I go to stand behind the port helm to read the wind speed a Ninja Wave enters the starboard side and I'm completely drenched. A 'Ninja Wave' is a wave that hits the boat at an acute angle, making no noise like a Slapper Wave to alert you to its presence, and then travels down the side of the boat and nails you without you're being aware that its coming. A minute later a wave hits the boat and a ton of water is shot towards the dodger and the cockpit. So much water that we can't see thru the clear plastic dodger window for 5-10 seconds until the water runs off. Isn't this fun?!

At 11:00 AM the wind is 18 knots and we're motor sailing at 6.8 knots thru the water and 7.3 knots over the land.

At 12:30 PM we have lunch. Peanut butter and bread for Joel and peanut butter and jelly for me. Plus some honey roasted peanuts. At this time we hear Folie a Deux on the VHF radio so Joel called and talked to them. He then talked to Nexus. They were both anchored in Soufriere Bay.

At 12:59 PM the wind is 15 knots and we're motor sailing at 6.1 knots thru the water and 5.3 knots over the land. We're in the lee of St. Lucia and the waves have died down a lot. A minute later I stop the boat and back up, as I'm thinking that seaweed may be wrapped around our keel or propeller because we're going slower than we should be. After proceeding forward again we pick up 1.1 knots in speed.

I call the Marigot Bay Marina on VHF channel 12 when we're 2 miles out;and by 2:15 PM we're med-moored in the marina. The marina uses a tender (dingy) to tie a line from our bow to a buoy. Then I back the boat back to the dock and toss 2 stern lines, which are secured from our transom to the dock. Finally, we add one starboard springer line. Voila! Another problem free med-moor.

I clear into Customs and Immigration, whose office is on the marina dock 50 yards from our boat, from 2:45 PM to 3:15 PM. A large screen TV is playing a movie in the office as I'm clearing in. Some would call this 'multitasking.' I pay 100 EC to clear in. When I get back to the dock I see that we not only have power, we have American power! We're using a 50 amp splitter plugged into the shore power. The fittings are like those at home. First time since Panama over a year ago that we've had American power. As a result we can not only charge our batteries, we can run the air conditioners, also.

Joel and I nap from 4:15 PM to 5:45 PM; then shower. I use 2 shower stalls. One has a broken control, so the water is too hot; and the other is lacking a shower head. The marina may be impressive, but the showers are not.

The sun sets at 6:15 PM but we can't see it because a spit of land is in the way. Too bad. Probably a green flash night.

At 6:20 PM we go to dinner with Charlie and Cathy from Celebrate. Its a very good dinner at a very good restaurant in the marina. We're back on the boat at 9:55 PM. Joel and I then both call home.

Joel is in bed by 11:00 PM and I follow at 12:20 AM.

Brian Fox




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