A Sign?

This guy was in line ahead of me at the airport.

It made me think of how to finish the sentence... ...but then again, some are. I'm just sayin'...until their iPhone stops working (this is dedicated to Carlos)...but I'm not going to ask for directions, I'm sure I'm getting close(r). 

Raft

As we were sailing midway across the atlantic, we saw a raft similar to this (minus all the seaweed):

or this:

Unfortunately we caught a fish at the exact same time and we were too busy trying to land the fish to stop and investigate. Fifteen minutes later we had the fish on board (a mahi-mahi) and I decided we would not be likely to find the raft if we turned around as we were sailing over 8knots at the time and in pretty sizeable waves.
I've been kicking myself ever since that I didn't turn around as I'm very curious what it was; it also would have been a great man overboard drill in a somewhat real situation.
So now that I'm home with a bit of time on my hands I decided to try to google an answer. After a serious bit of "googling" I believe I've found the answer. It's a fish attracting device.

Fish Attracting Devices (FADs)

The additional (non)coincidence that we caught a fish at the same time we passed the raft was no fluke (pun intended). I had never heard of these devices before nor had I heard of the threat they are for ocean fish stocks.
You learn something new every day!

Where next?

The boat is now tucked away safely in a berth in Road Harbor, BVI's and I'm back in Dallas for a few weeks. Next up is heading toward Florida via the Turks & Caicos and Bahamas. I've never sailed or even researched this area before so I'll be trying to educate myself before heading out. The distance is about 1200 nautical miles. I also need to find a berth in the Ft. Lauderdale area.

Code zero

Going upwind flying the code zero sail.

Cooper

Sunset at Cooper Island Beach Club

Tangled...

Our code zero sail ended up in a snarl so I had to go up to resolve it:

BVI's sailing

Preparing to hoist the main by unfastening the sailcover.

I "heart" BVI's

Sunset

Stand Up Paddleboarders (SUPpers) at sunset on Cane Garden Bay:

Soggy

Sal chillin' at the Soggy Dollar:

Representin' at Foxy's

Paige found a TCU sticker at Foxy's

Rise-up-lights

We saw this on the ceiling at Foxy's. Paige had to explain this one to me. (Supposedly) saying rise-up-lights quickly is how an Aussie pronounces razor blades :-)

Jost Van Dyke

A cool little dive shop on the beach at JVD:

Pouplier II

A picture of the boat, a Catana 431 named Pouplier II, proudly displaying the French colors while in the BVI's. The BVI flag can be seen flying below the starboard spreader as is the custom once you clear into a country via customs and immigration. Prior to getting the clearance papers certified, the solid yellow quarantine flag (aka "Q flag") is flown below the starboard spreader to declare the intent to come ashore and clear in.

Sunrise

Sunrise over Virgin Gorda. Necker Island, owned by Sir Richard Branson, of Virgin Atlantic fame, is on the far left:

Departing

We departed Norman Island at first light (5:45am) to get the boat tied up in its berth in Road Harbour for the next few weeks while we head home. We'll be back in Dallas (and Paige in NYC) this evening.

Clearing out and in

Went back to Soper's this morning to clear out of the BVI's. Fortunately there was a mooring available which I caught in my first attempt. Took about 20 minutes to handle the paperwork and I was back on my way to Redhook via Cruz Bay (US Customs). Had a nice downwind sail under the gennaker down to Cruz Bay. There were. I moorings available so I had to anchor in a rather tight spot but it worked just fine. US Customs was a breeze. They also informed me that I don't need to check out as long as I check in with the BVis when I go back. BYW: I didn't have to pay any fees for US Customs and Immigration. Everywhere else has required fees to be paid.
Then I weighed anchor and scooted over to Redhook where I found a mooring. Now I'm heading to the St Thomas airport to meet up with Paige.

Norman

Since there were no moorings in Soper's Hole and I didn't want to sit on my anchor there overnight I moved over to Norman Island for the night. I had a fantastic Mahi sandwich on the infamous Willie T.

So long Carlos

Well I just said goodbye to Carlos, my compadre for the last few weeks of sailing and hiking. He's moving on in his round-the-world quest. Hopefully our paths cross again sometime soon.

Rejected!

We couldn't get Carlos in through US Customs as the first time a foreign national enters the US they must arrive via commercial carrier. So we're headed to the BVI's so he can catch a ferry back to the place that he was just standing.
What a PITA!

Clearing in

We made it to St Thomas yesterday to clear in (Carlos is leaving from here and Sallie & Paige arrive tomorrow ) but didn't get to US Customs until 4:35. They close at 4:30.

Roughing it...

We hiked Norman island this morning

Norman Island

We made it to Norman Island at 10PM last night. It was a bit tricky looking for a mooring ball in the midst of all the boats in the dark but we managed to pull it off without hitting anyone. It's not something I would choose to do again though. We dinghied over to the Willy T for a quick drink then came back to the boat for a shower and sleep. There is quite a bit of wind even here in the Bight. I awoke this morning to the wind whistling (louder than that though but what's the next word - thrumming? not quite to the level of howling though ) through the rigging. But at least we're here in a protected spot and there is limited fetch, so no waves can build.

getting close

We can now see the lights of Tortola; we're 7NM out from Norman. The wind has increased to 25 knots with gusts up to 30 about a half hour ago. With a double-reefed main our speed was surging to over 11 knots so I reefed down. We are still frequently seeing speeds of over 9.5 knots. It'll be good to get into calm waters.
How can you tell it's rough out? Carlos goes to his "happy place". See the attached pic.

wave heights

So some people may be asking how wave heights are measured. Officially, when weather reports indicate heights they are reporting the average height of the highest third of the waves (as I recall). When onboard to estimate wave heights it's done by knowing the height of your eyes above the waterline of the boat. When I'm standing at the helm, my eyes are 9 ft above the water (in flat water). So if I'm at the helm and look to the horizon and it is obscured by waves frequently then I know the wave height is about 3 meters or greater. Heights greater than that become increasingly difficult to estimate the larger they get. I could stand on top of the salon roof to get an accurate measurement of a 5 meter wave but it's not fun to be up there in heavy waves.
Smaller waves are estimated in the same way. When sitting at the salon table inside (with good posture), my eyes are 5 ft above the water for example.
All that said, human estimates are often overstated as the highest waves can be quite remarkable when you look up at them so it makes one more prone to reporting the most massive ones instead of an average.

40 miles to go...

Still out here playing in the big swells. It's 4:45PM and we are over halfway to Norman Island, BVI's. That's the island that Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island is based on. I've been there many times. It will be a welcome sight to enter the big protected bay there called "The Bight" as we will quickly go from this washing machine ride to almost flat water.

Departing EUX

When I woke up this morning I checked the weather forecast. The forecast has changed slightly since 24 hours ago; it looks like we have a window today where the winds we be 20-25 knots and after this evening will be 25-30 for the next day and a half. So we decided to make a run for Norman Island in the BVI's. It'll take about 14 hours so we will end up getting there after dark but at least I'm familiar with it. We left Statia at about 9am and are getting all of 20+ knots of wind and 3 meter waves on our beam. Not a great ride but way better than pounding into the waves. Looks like the deck will be getting a good saltwater wash down today:-)
Statia was a pretty cool place; quiet but hardworking from the looks of it. It's kind of hard to believe that more people aren't there. We were the only sailboat there for our entire visit. Just off of Saba now. Making 8 knots under triple-reefed main and single-reefed genny.

Quill

We hiked to the top of the volcano today. The crater is known as "Quill" which is a bastardization of the original Dutch word of "kuil" which means "pit". We didn't climb to the bottom of the crater though as it's over a thousand feet down and extremely steep. We may go back tomorrow with the drone to try to get some video footage of the crater.

Statia

Saint Eustatius (known as Statia here locally), is an amazing place. It has a very rich history for a place that most people have never heard of. It was a center of commerce for the Caribbean back in the days of the American Revolutionary War and played a pivotal role in supplying arms to General Washington and the American military supplying almost half of all the military supplies used in the war. The Dutch controlled the island at the time and were the first country to recognize the American 13 colonies' sovereignty by firing a salute to an American fleet in November of 1776. The British subsequently declared war on St Eustatius and sent 15 ships of the line and 3000 men to stop this trade. This effort was led by British Admiral George Rodney. Unfortunately for the British, due to the standard at the time of the crown sharing war spoils with the conquering Admiral, Rodney was so busy looting the wealth of Statia and persecuting the Jews that resided here that he neglected requests to send his ships and troops to support Cornwallis which contributed to the naval defeat of the British fleet in the Chesapeake and the end of the war.

The island is quite nice with lots of stone structures being restored and very friendly people probably due to so few tourists that visit. On the unpopulated northwest portion of the island are a bunch of massive fuel storage tanks and are used as a central fuel bunker for fuel deliveries throughout the Caribbean. A constant flow of massive tanker ships and tugs operate in that area to facilitate that commerce.

Repost: Hitching a ride down the pier

My favorite picture of the day. From Grand Case Beach. I dig that hair.

Statia

On the way to St Kitts I took a chance that St Eustatia would have enough protection from the weather and , lo and behold, it does. We arrived before the sun went down and are anchored in the lee of a shallow bay. There's a bit of a swell but not bad at all (so far).
There's even a volcano here to hike :-)

Saba

We made it to Saba but the weather is deteriorating and there are no safe anchorages here so we need to move on to take shelter from rough weather approaching. I knew this weather was coming but assumed (incorrectly) that Saba had sufficient protection on its SW corner.
So we are headed to St Kitts to take shelter. Currently the wind is blowing 20-25 knots and the swells are 3 meters. We are beating into the wind so it's a bit of a lumpy-bumpy ride. ETA to Basseterre St Kitts is 8pm. I don't like coming in to an unfamiliar port but it doesn't look like I'll have a lot of choice in the matter this time as the winds are supposed to increase to 30 knots for the next few days.

Saba

Next destination, Saba. We are checking out shortly. The weather forecast show 30 knots of wind overtaking us soon after we leave. Ought to be exciting!

UB40

We saw UB40 perform at the final show of the 37th Heineken Regatta. We had purchased tickets ($20) when we arrived in St Maarten as I had read about the concert previously. The tickets showed a start time of 5PM. We assumed they would have a warmup band or two so we showed up at 5:30 at the stage set up on Kimsha Beach. Fortunately there was a dinghy dock within 100 ft of the entrance which made it really easy to get there.
Turns out they had a DJ as an (initial) warm up, then a regatta awards ceremony for two hours, then three warmup bands. It ended up being a few minutes before midnight before UB40 was ready to take the stage. At that moment the skies opened up and it started pouring. Fortunately the rain was short lived and didn't dampen (pun intended) the crowds excitement.
They came on about 12:10 and put on a fantastic show other than a power outage that shut the show down for 15 minutes about 20 minutes into it. Ali Campbell has returned as the lead singer after a separation for a number of years. The songs sounded as great as ever and the band was really tight; no sloppiness at all. The UB40 portion of the concert finished at 2AM at which time we departed but we could hear the DJ going at it long after we got back to the boat.

free belt

I'm not winning any style points but my new belt I found on (actually buried in) the beach yesterday works well. With a little help from whipping twine (recycled from the last of Antony's twisted fishing line snarl) it works great.

Saba in sight

The steep profile of Saba is in sight. Should be there in about 1.5 hours. Saba is pronounced "say-ba".
FYI: I learned the pronunciation of Nevis that I saw on the Internet and regurgitated here in this blog was incorrect. The proper pronunciation according to multiple Nevisians (?) is "knee-vis"

Iguana on the fort wall

From the top

Fort Louis

Belt

Hitching a ride down the pier

Regatta

The boat next to us headed out to race this morning. It's pink for breast cancer awareness; name? Touch2play.
'nuf said

Pano

Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten panorama:

St. Maarten

Made it to Sint Maarten in time to sail through the Heineken Regatta as they jockeyed for position prior to the start.

morning

What a beautiful morning for a sail. At first daylight, before the sun crept up over the hill overlooking the port of Gustavia where we were anchored, I weighed anchor and headed out. Next stop St. Maarten.

Anse des Flamands

This is quite an amazing place, beautiful beaches, stunning yachts and super yachts, really clean. I highly recommend it. Although I find it a bit odd that every restaurant has poison on the menu :-)
(Attempted humor - Poisson is French for fish)
I'm already planning to come back here with Sal for a land-based vacation.

Beach art

It would be more impressive if you were there. The wind was 20 knots strong while we built this.

Tomorrow

Headed to St Maarten tomorrow. Here's a view of it from a lookout we ran across today:

Hiking

We climbed to the highest point on St. Barthelemy yesterday. I think that's the fourth summit so far. Today we rented scooters and covered the whole island; it's a great place to scooter around as you can find parking anywhere.
Found a rattan couch on a deserted beach at one point. Perfect for a little R&R.