The Lazy Sailors Arrive in STT

June 5, 2020 - Day 7 We left Clarence Town, Long Island, Bahamas at 0800. This time we were taking a different tack. Instead of sailing down the Bahamas Chain, we headed Northeast towards Bermuda. This would allow us to sail with the motor off and make our way farther east before we made the turn south. Our goal was to get close to 65 W longitude and then make a right turn headed straight for St Thomas. It worked, as soon as we were offshore a mile or two, David and Joe put up the sails, turned off the motor and we made 8-10 knots in 6-8 foot seas for 36 hours; however, all this great sailing made it uncomfortable down below. During the first 24 hours, Ashton and I stayed on my bed (aft berth) and ate peanut butter crackers and drank ginger ale. We only saw the guys if they came down for bathroom breaks and happened to peek in on us. We stayed at a 15 - 20 degree heel (leaning that far over for 24 hours) and I ended up sleeping in the space between the bed and the drawers because I couldn’t stay on the bed. All of the sheets and covers made their way into the corner below where I was sleeping as I kept fighting to get back into the bed and stay there. 

June 6, 2020 - Day 8  It was literally a rough night for all of us. Ashton and I down below trying to sleep hanging on and David and Joe taking watch all night. As I heard tale from the guys, when it was one’s turn to sleep, he would take the safety tether and tie himself to a wench to keep relatively upright and not fall while sleeping. In the later afternoon, I was finally able to make it up on deck. Ashton was still down below, but I asked David if he could flatten out the boat some if they could so I could move around. Apparently, no-one had thought to do this earlier and to make the ride a little smoother - oops. Lesson learned for the next time. After getting back up on deck, I was able to let David and Joe both sleep for a bit and get back into the watch rotation. During this time we made it to a little past 66 W longitude and so we started making our turn south. By doing this we lost most of our wind, and by the next morning we were motor sailing again. It would be the last time of the trip that we had the motor off. 

June 7, 2020 - Day 9  As we headed south, the waves started laying down and the the winds became lighter and lighter. Although we were motor sailing, it was nice being able to move around the boat and eat something other than peanut butter crackers. The three of us still took turns (Ashton was still down for the count) with both day and night watch, but we were getting back into our passage rhythm. Of course we couldn’t just keep on with the smooth sailing … Towards the end of my night watch, the autopilot started alarming at me. I was able to get it going again two times, but the third time it just wouldn’t stop. Joe was next on watch and awake, so I had him come up to look at it. He said he would work in and I could head on down. 

June 8, 2020 - Day 10 When I arrived on deck for my sunrise shift, David told me that the autopilot was dead and we would have to hand steer the for the last 500 nm. Luckily, there was almost no wind and the seas were becoming like glass - it was almost eerie how flat it was in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Having planned for no wind at this time of year, we had plenty of diesel on board and we weren’t worried about running out, and as long as we kept the RPMs less than 2200 we would arrive in St Thomas with no worries. We didn’t break any speed record this way, but we figured we would get between 120-140 nm a day and arrive in St Thomas early morning on June 11. This was also the day I was able to coax Ashton back up on deck to enjoy the sunshine. A deck shower, brushing her teeth and eating some soup made her a whole new person. We continued to take our three hour shifts and with Ashton back in the mix we each only had to do one night shift. At this point, we all had our favorite shifts: Ashton was 8p -11p, Joe 11p- 2a, David 2a - 5a and I would take the sunrise shift 5a - whenever I was tired of watching the horizon.

June 9, 2020 - Day 11 It’s Ashton’s Birthday!! We were supposed to have already arrived in St Thomas by now, but our few extra days in the Bahamas put us behind. So we celebrated with no bake chocolate, peanut butter cookies and a bottle of bubbly in the middle of the Atlantic. This was also the day that we hit a major milestone, we were less than 200 nm miles from St Thomas. The end was “almost” in sight.

June 10, 2020 - Day 12 Same day, second verse. Today was just like yesterday. No wind, flat seas, no fish (except for flying fish - they were everywhere, including on our deck), and no dolphins. However, we did start seeing some birds that are native to the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico area. We also started hearing calls from the Coast Guard in Puerto Rico. That had everyone smiling. In addition, we crossed the mark of less than 100 nm miles to get to our destination. If everything went as planned we would be sailing into the Virgin Islands at sunrise the next morning!! It was so hard to sleep knowing we would finally be home in just a few hours.  

June 11, 2020 - Day 13 I woke up before my shift, thinking that David could probably use an extra hand. There had been a couple of squalls during the night and although it gave the decks a good wash down, he didn’t get much sleep. I took over the helm around 4a so he could catch a few zzzz’s before we got much closer. I could see the lights of St Thomas in the distance!! After about an hour, the radar alarm started going off. It was telling me that there were multiple targets directly in front of me … it was all of the little islands in Pilsbury Sound. Yee-freaking-haw!!!! We were almost there!! I slowed us down for a few minutes to allow the sun some time to rise before trying to navigate through this channel that we had never done in our own boat. The final sunrise was spectacular!! As we continued on into Red Hook and our slip at American Yacht Harbor, we called the marina to let them know we were coming in. They met us on the dock and helped us get tied up. First things first - we all jumped off the boat to stand on solid ground for the first time in nearly two weeks. After that - all the food that I didn’t have to cook: Latte’s in Paradise for breakfast, Tap and Still for lunch and ITP (Island Time Pub) Pizza for dinner. Eating out had never felt so good.  

Over the next few days we started re-exploring our new island home. I had to remember how to drive on the left, we needed to shop for fresh groceries, we got Joe back to the airport and on home (he’d been away for nearly a month) and finally took a trip to the beach before taking Ashton out to celebrate her birthday. It was a crazy, wild ride getting from Kemah Texas to St Thomas USVI, but we did it!! We were FINALLY HOME!!

Here is a video of all of the above events from Ashton’s perspective-on her YouTube channel. Give it a subscribe to see more of our lazy shenanigans.

Until Next Time,

Cindy, S/V Verano