There are many positives to the sailing
life (and a few negatives as far as I’m concerned), one of the main positives
are the wonderful people you meet. The different nationalities all keen to
impart any information and advice they can give – one just needs to ask.
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| Leaving Deshaies |
When we were at the Peake Boatyard,
Trinidad, I was on the shopping bus to do some food shopping. There were 4 -5
ladies on the bus as well who had all sailed quite extensively. Most had done
Trans-Atlantic voyages. I knew that this part of our sailing adventure would
require longer passages – not day stops like we have been doing in the East
Caribbean. I asked these ladies what advice they could give me for longer
passages, what should I prepare in advance, etc.
Most said that having a warm meal in the
evenings before the start of the “night watch routine” is a good thing to have
and to prepare lots of snacks. They also mentioned that when you are in the
middle of nowhere, it’s just you and the ocean, it’s as if there are voices and
people talking. Spooky, I know. They gave me some useful tips about a boats
refrigeration…. That is a whole other topic. The fridge on Passages, drives me
crazy at times as it’s difficult to organise and to find things especially
while sailing and the boat is heeling over.
Mel and I left Deshaies, Guadeloupe on
Saturday, 7 April, at about 5.00pm. We estimated that it would take us
approximately 40 hours sailing on average 5 knots per hour to reach St Croix.
We wanted to enter St Croix when there was good visibility as St Croix is
surrounded by reefs and even though the harbour entrance is marked, it is
beneficial and easier to enter in good light, so you can ‘eyeball’ your way in
as well as using the charts and chart plotter.
I had prepared a warm meal for us which
we enjoyed as the sun was setting in front of us, as we
were sailing north
west. We were sailing down wind – this is when the wind is behind you and its
quite comfortable sailing except for the swell which was coming from the side
of the boat, therefore we were cork screwing along. When sailing down wind, you
don’t notice the wind speed as much as when sailing close hauled (wind comes
from the front half of the boat) or reaching (from the side). The wind was
between 16 – 23knots.
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| The first night - sunset. |
We settled down for the night’s sail,
each taking 2/3 hourly turns to be on watch or to sleep. In the main
salon/living area of the boat, the seats can be turned into a double bed, which
we did for the voyage. We are preparing for longer voyages so are trying things
out to make the whole experience as enjoyable as possible. Normally, in the
past, when we have done overnight voyages, we have both slept in the cockpit,
which is fine for one night.
While I was on watch, I was convinced I
heard voices! I thought I was going
crazy until Mel mentioned the same thing and I remembered what the ‘shopping’
bus ladies had said. It’s just the actions of the boat moving through the
water.
The first night was a cloudy night so we
would see the moon once and awhile. The second night it was cloudy, and we
hardly saw the moon or the stars. The one aspect I marvel at every time we sail
at night are the stars! In the city, we hardly see any, compared to what you
can see out in the middle of the ocean. It’s quite incredible!
During the day, we are a little less
formal with who is on watch, as we are both aware of what is going on around
us. We usually take it in turns to snooze, read, work below on the computer or
prepare food.
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We saw a rainbow the
first morning of our sail
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While on the trip to St Croix, we only
saw one cruise ship and container ship. Both were 3-4 nmiles away from us. We
commented on feeling that we were the only people left on this earth! It felt
quite isolating! I think this will be a bit different as we head further west
towards the D. Republic, Jamaica and Guatemala. We have had no luck with the
fishing rod either as there is so much seagrass and the rod is always catching
lots of it so we are forever reeling the line in, taking the grass off, then
casting again. We will keep trying though.
The rest of the journey was relatively
uneventful as we headed
We were hoping to anchor near the island
called Protestant Island which is in Christiansted harbour but unfortunately
there was not much space as many of the locals had taken up the space so once
again (to my liking) we had to anchor quite a distance from the dinghy docks. Protestant
Island received its name because at one time, it was the only area in St Croix
where Protestants could be buried.
St Croix once belonged to the Danish and
together with St Thomas and St Johns, formed the Danish West Indies. There were
a few invasions but primarily for 200 years, Denmark owned these three islands.
In 1916, the US bought St Thomas, St Johns and St Croix for $25 million in
gold, formalising the purchase under the Treaty of Danish West Indies. This
purchase was primarily for their strategic position relative to the Panama Canal.
St Croix is the biggest of the three
islands, but St Thomas – Charlotte Amalie is the territories capital. St Croix
is often referred to as the ‘Twin Cities’ as its two main cities, Christiansted
and Frederiksted are on opposite ends of the island. Christiansted is on the
east and Frederiksted on the west.
In 2014, we could not enter the U.S.
Virgin Islands by boat, as we didn’t have a B1B2 visa, so we skipped the USVI’s
and sailed to the British VI’s instead. While we were still in Perth, we
obtained our B1B2 visas in preparation for the USVI’s, however entering US
territories is never as simple as it seems but I’ll leave that until next time
I write about our stay in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Bye for now. Keep well and safe.
Mel and Caryn
sv Passages
If you want to see where we are – go to:
top right corner – search for Passages
with the Australian flag – that’s us!
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| Sun rise - the second morning of our sail as we were approaching St Croix. |
