Colombier,
St. Barthelemy
17.55.351N
62.52.241W

As planned, we rose somewhat early and hoisted our anchor by 8 am so that we could meander through the anchorage to the channel leading to the bridge on the French side of the lagoon. It is a fairly long, narrow channel with one 30 degree turn and another 90 degree turn. Drifting to either side of the channel meant going aground. The only time things got a little interesting was when the boat behind me decided that I was going too slow and passed me in the channel. Dale, riding point, suggested we speed up a little but not too much. We were using the buoy markers, since our chart plotter wasn’t even close to being right. We stayed in the channel, avoided the shallow spots and made it to the bridge seconds before it was due to open. We were about the 8th boat in line. As Gerry & Nicky made their way through the bridge, Nicky crawled out of the cockpit, turned around and snapped a photo of us.

We exited the bridge channel, turned immediately right to avoid the sand bar directly in front of the channel (nothing is ever easy) and then made our way to Rainbow Rider. We had been trying to hail them on the radio with no luck. Ever since we had dinner together the other night, I’ve been trying to give Linda a book I have that she hadn’t read. So we did the next best thing; a fly by. We maneuvered upwind of them, turned to pass them port to port, got as close as we could, then tossed the book into their cockpit. Gary came out looking like he was going to rip us a new one. Then confused when he recognized who it was and saw us circle behind them. Dale yelled over that we had just completed an underway book replenishment exercise. Looking around they found the book. We waved our good bys, continued around the front of them, then caught up with Orpailleur who were just unfurling their jib.

We had made the conscious decision to go out the French side bridge and around the northern side of St. Martin instead of the Dutch side which was actually closer to our destination but would require pinching hard to get to our destination on St. Barts. The northern route was longer but had a better angle on the wind. Of course this was all calculated on the forecasted wind direction/speed and wave height/interval. We unfurled our jib and motor sailed with Orpailleur along the northern coast, turned along the eastern coast and right into a band of rain showers. In came the sails and we continued our motoring.

Once the rain showers passed, Dale asked me what I wanted to do since the winds were coming from much further south than we had expected and meant that we weren’t going to there from here. I prefer to sail, even if it means tacking a few times. Orpailleur continued motoring, we took off for Puerto Rico. Once we had passed the rocks we needed to dodge, we tacked back until we came close to the backside of same rocks we had dodged the first time. We tacked back out again and then back in.

Normally, I really enjoy sailing up wind. Today, it just seemed frustrating. Dale and I usually work pretty good together. Today when I was handling the lines, Dale said to ease the main; I eased the jib. When Dale was handling the sheets through a tack, twice they tangled on cleats; never have they tangled on cleats before. We got within a few miles, furled the sails and turned on the engine.

As we entered the anchorage on St. Barts, we didn’t see Orpailleur at first but did see Take Time. We haven’t seen Wayne and Carol since Trini. As soon as we had secured to a mooring, we gave them a hail and invited them over. What a wonderful afternoon. They even gave us some new places to see in Antigua.

Dale changed the zinks on the propeller shaft after they left and I paddled around the boat a few times to cool off and look at all of the star fish on the bottom. Gerry swam over to discuss options for tomorrow. Except for the wind speed/direction and wave height, the forecast was ‘spot on’ today. Maybe we should have a Plan B in case the same happens tomorrow when we leave at 3 am. We decided that St. Kitts was an easy alternative and possibly Nevis, since none of us have ever been there. Montserrat was discussed but I’m a little nervous about anchoring anywhere near an active volcano. So now I’m off to bed. Three am comes early these days.

Photo: Of us coming through French side bridge from the camera of Orpailleur.