On the 7th we left Antigua for the USVI in preparation for our trip back to the US. We will post some observations on the trip versus a narrative.
The forecast – if you were to draw an imaginary line from Antigua to the USVI, that would be the foretasted wind direction, SE. PredictWind advised going up to St. Barts, jibing, then sailing strait on to the USVI with mid teen knot winds.
What did we get? – We had great wind up to St. Barts averaging 7 to 8 knots boat speed. After we jibed, the wind direction shifted more east, so we could not make an angle to USVI. The seas were pretty rolly so we had the preventer on the boom since it was extended fully and we did not want that monster swinging back on us. Seeing many jibes overnight in our future, we took down the main at nightfall so we did not have to go on the rolly deck in the dark attaching/un-attaching the preventer. Around 4:30 AM the wind shut down and backed more to the east. We then turned on the engine for what we thought was a brief lull. The lull and dead downwind angle lasted for the rest of the trip so we powered all the way to our destination (10 hours).
Passage from the Twilight Zone – We did not see one other boat on the entire trip! This includes yachts or ships between our start and end ports. That was pretty crazy. We had a bright moon making it seem almost like daylight.
The USVI seems normal – Antigua was the land of 24 hour curfews, unable to move the boat without permission, social distancing, and masks. So far our landfall anchorage has people socializing with other boats, exercising on paddle boards, and no masks. It is like a strange new world. Tomorrow we need to go to Charlotte Amalie to get fuel so we will see what is going on in the big city.
