Log 45C - St Kitts and St Croix

Written at: Rio Camuyasa, Dominican Republic

Jan. 23, 2008

Hi Folks,

We are comfortably at anchor two miles up this river on the south coast of the Dominican Republic, and I have had time to do another log. This Log #45c gets us from Antigua to St. Croix a few days after Christmas. We are enjoying the south coast of the DR and will stay in the DR for another week or more before heading back to Puerto Rico.

All the best,

Aubrey

 

Log #45c To St. Kitts and St. Croix

Rio Camuyasa, Dominican Republic

Jan. 22, 2008

At 0515 Dec. 26, we hoisted a double reefed main and motored out of Freeman Bay in the dark for a 60 mile passage to St. Kitts, the first leg of our 450 mile passage to the Dominican Republic. There was no problem navigating out of English Harbour, but we were surprised to see a boat rolling at anchor outside the entrance between English Harbour and Falmouth Harbour. I guess he made a night-time landfall and didn't want to try a night entrance. We had a light force three east wind allowing us to hoist our genoa to motor sail WNW around the southern coast of Antigua, There was a pale full moon high in the misty sky with scattered clouds about. Shortly after 0600 we noticed an interesting phenomenon, a moonbow! The moon was so full and the sky so moisture-laden that the glow from the moon created the equivalent of a rainbow around the moon, the pallid spectrum of colours visible in the ashen night sky. It dissipated before the stark pewter-grey dawn at 0634.

As we continued motor sailing on a course of 290 (M), the wind shifted "east by south" (just a little bit south of east or less than halfway between east and east south east), slightly off out starboard quarter, causing us to make several sail changes, trying to take advantage of the light stern winds by gybing both the main and genoa and trying wing on wing configurations. We finally set the genoa out to starboard, held out by our damaged whisker pole, and the main to port, secured by a preventer. However the bit of flogging the genoa did collapsed the whisker pole. This is residual damage from when we crossed from the Cape Verdes to Antigua two years ago. Two feet of the inner extension pole sheered off and the collar was fractured, loosening the button which holds the extension out. We are unable to fix the collar, and so duct-taped the pole at its maximum extension, but it still collapsed. We ran for a few hours with a shortened pole and partially furled genoa, until I was too frustrated in the light winds and removed the pole, put a metal plug in the maximum extension hole and duct-taped it in place. This worked, even though we can't shorten the pole now.

We arrived off the coast of Nevis by 1430, considering an anchorage there for the night, There were a couple of cruise liners, one at the town dock and the other, a magnificent five masted sailing cruise liner at anchor, testifying to the popularity of Nevis as a cruise ship destination, making use of the nice new docks that were in process of completion when we were there last year. However as we had time, we elected to continue motor sailing on to adjacent St. Kitts ten miles further along. As we went up the Nevis coast we noticed many more mooring buoys than when we were there last. The derelict ship that I explored last time there is still there, a rusty hulk canted over at a cockeyed angle in shoal water southeast off the town fishing dock.

As we motored over towards St. Kitts we had a classic panoramic view of the dormant volcano on Nevis, its summit shrouded in cloud. The channel between the islands had stronger winds funneling through it, allowing us an energetic sail across to St. Kitts, where we went around the first headland and anchored in Ballast Bay, a wide protected bay we anchored in last year on our way down the island chain. We didn't bother to go ashore, but had a quiet night's rest after the 60 mile, 11 ½ hour, passage from Antigua, leaving our "Q" flag flying in case any local coastguard came by wondering why we had not checked in.

With both Nevis and St. Kitts it was a matter of "been there, done that". We liked St. Kitts better than Nevis, and toured the island, including the dramatic fort on Brimstone Hill, when we were there last time. On Nevis, the only thing we would like to see if we returned would be the Nelson Museum (Nelson married Fanny Nesbit on Nevis) , which was closed when we were there last. My fondest memory of Nevis was exploring the rusted hulk off the fishing docks.

Next morning the wind was up, blowing a strong force five (15 to 20 knots), so we put in a third reef in the mainsail before weighing anchor at 0930. We had a very energetic sail, covering 130 miles in 24 hours on a broad reach, until we were off the southwest coast of St. Croix by 0920 Dec. 28. The previous evening the winds had increased to force six (22 to 27 knots), gusting over 30, and just before dark we got slapped with an unusually large wave which inundated the cockpit, soaking us, the cushions and swamping the cockpit with six inches of water. Our four cockpit drains allowed the water to run out rapidly so the stability of the boat was not in any danger. No water got into the main cabin, but we put the lower hatch board in place just in case we were hit again (which we weren't).

The last time we were cruising off St. Croix was last January when we had to make a night entry into Christiansted because of a medical emergency. No emergency this time, but we were tired from the heavy winds, known as Christmas winds, and so decided to anchor off Fredericksted (17 43.07N, 064 53.22W) late morning after covering 140 miles in the past 25 hours, for a much needed rest. We kept up our "Q" flag rather than catching a taxi all the way out to the airport to check in for a 24 hour period. It was relatively calm in the lee of the island, but noisy as we were off an amusement park. The anchorage off Fredericksted is on a sandy shore with good holding, but was described in the pilot book as an open roadstead with poor holding. In retrospect, last year we would have been better to have headed for Fredericksted with our emergency and for a nighttime entry; but we thought the hospital was in Christiansted, and Christiansted was the only port of entry. However, we could have anchored at Fredericksted much more easily, arranged for our entry there, and, as it happens, the hospital is actually closer to Fredericksted than to Christiansted. Oh well, at least this time we were able to check it out in daylight. We also appreciated the help we got last year from the Homeland Security customs and immigration officers on St. Croix in stark contrast to the threatening and officious ones we were to encounter this time in Ponce on Puerto Rico

[Ed. note: there is a gap in log sequence here due to miscomunication, and we are jumping ahead. We will retrieve the missing logs and post them ASAP.]

Next log in new series