In St. Martin

March 26, 2008

After a very fast couple of days sailing we arrived in St. Martin on Monday afternoon. Kristen's parents are flying in on Thursday, so we have a couple of days to get familiar with the area and get Whisper cleaned up a little bit.

Whisper at anchor in the St. Martin lagoon. The lagoon is huge with hundreds of boats anchored everywhere.

The sail here from Antigua was very different from our slog to windward last month when we were going in the opposite direction. We left on Sunday morning for St. Barth's at 6.30 AM and averaged 5.8 knots over ground with the wind about 15-20 on the starboard quarter. We never got a single drop of water in the cockpit, and sailed with our sun awning up, reading, doing crosswords and just relaxing. Quite the contrast from the battle simulation of last month.

The next day we sailed from St. Barth's to St. Martin, 25 miles or so, which took us (gasp!) 4 hours! We were on a beam reach the whole way, with winds around 25 knots and 6 foot seas. Whisper was surfing down the waves, regularly hitting 8.5 and even 9 knots. The highest speed we saw was 10.3 knots over ground. Granted, these figures come from the GPS so they might be a little bit off, but we were definitely flying. Very exciting.

Helen and Rod, Kristen's parents, arrive tomorrow. Can't wait!