Days 16-17

It was quite early in the morning, the sun was just below the
horizon right behind us. We had quite a slow night sailing as the
wind decided to take a break. Out forward in the early morning haze,
there it was this strange shape out on the horizon.

LAND AHOY!!!! a little off the port bow was the Island of St Barts.
LAND!!! we were both excited. St Barts sits 15 miles Sth East of
Sint Maarten so it would be the first thing we see, we had 40 miles
to go before we would stop, drop the anchor, crack open a beer and
sit still!!!

Lets go back to Day 16, what a cracker of a day, the wind was up,
and coming from a little off dead down wind, we had both head sails
up. Reverie was loving it, we were sitting at 9 knots for most of
the day, hitting a Max speed of 13.5knots. A great day sailing,
surfing down waves. What a hoot!.

Around 6pm the wind dropped off and we were back to a slower pace.
But that was ok as it's nice to have a less intense night!

Around midnight we were served up with the usual bunch of squalls.
We use the radar to see them and predict their path, and to see
which way the wind shift would come from. It was a busy night for
the radar and both of us as we shifted Reverie back and forth
between the squalls. On the radio net in the morning we heard that
most of the other boats were in the same situation, lumpy seas and
lots of squalls.

The next day was close to perfect, light breeze, blue sky, fish,
nice even swell and the prospect of making land fall in the next 24
hours.

The light wind we had through the day really took a break through
the night, so we were forced to turn on the motor as we did not want
to delay our arrival the next day and also our rule is : unless it's
dead flat if your doing 4 knots or less, turn the motor on. So we
did. The last 12 hours of our Atlantic crossing we motored!

Closing in on Sint Maarten we hooked three fish, one really small
and he was lucky to jump off the hook just as Jo got him in, the
other was a tuny ( a very bloody dark red meat tuna type of thing -
he was lucky and went back in) the third was a nice Yellow Fin Tuna
about 2ft long - thank you!.

Coming back into Sint Maarten was awesome, it was almost like we had
never left. The last time we were here was April 2004 on the last
Reverie. It was like the Pacific was all a dream!. A few things have
changed but it's still the same place, LOTS of big boats many over
140ft! Sailing and motor.

Plans are to have Christmas here and we may then move over to St
Barts for New years eve.

Ok so off out now for dinner ashore! Yay, no more passage cooking!

So over all for the crossing.
We:

Sailed 2900 nautical miles, 5370 kms.
Crossed 4 time zones
Max speed of 13.5 knots.
Highest wind speed 43.5 knots
Best 24 hr run 1300 utc to 1300 tuck was 174nm
Consumed no alcohol
Motored for 12 hours.
Broke nothing on the boat except three plates.
Total weight loss between the two of us kegs!. ( were not starting
with much)
5 flying fish, 1 Squid, 3 Maui Maui, 1 Tuna, 1 Wahoo, 1 Mackerel (
we think)
Total trip time was 17 days and 3 hours

Til next time,

J&J