Another Overnighter

It's 0124 on a mild night and we are motorsailing SE towards Saba, St Kitts and Nevis. A couple of interesting close encounters, both on my watch. First a large sailing yacht came towards us fine on the port bow. Very poor lighting with an anchor light, steaming light and then a feint red below as it got very close. Turned to starboard to let it go down our port side and it was right in top of us, not showing any starboard light at all. Gilly called them up and they were blissfully unaware of any problem. Anyway we missed them and they went on their way still just showing white lights. It shows how much you rely on the standard light patterns to work out what is happening. Then a while later I was watching a large cruise liner, Adventurer of the Seas, pass 5 miles to starboard when it's lights were briefly blotted out as a small craft passed close by me. It was gone in a second but again it was mighty close. No lights at all and I only saw its outline because it passed in front of the cruise ship.

Off to my left now I can see the loom of lights from St Maarten where we first arrived in the Caribbean 6 weeks ago and 25 miles ahead is the first land for 80 miles, the small island of Saba.

We've spent the last month in the British Virgin Islands, or BVIs. Originally British they are now full of Americans vacationing in big catamaran plus a smattering of Canadians and just a few European boats. It's like the Ionian of the Caribbean except it's been windy, windy every day til today. Mostly 25 knots and not that much fun really though we had two excellent days with Dave and Vera from Gleaston and a great 2 weeks with Emma when we did all the things you are supposed to do here. Bars (Willy Ts and Foxy's), pirate concerts, painkillers (rum cocktail) and beautiful beaches. We went out to the coral island of Anegarda for a bouncy night in 1.5m of water and circled Tortola island. The locals were friendly and you can't really fault it but it's a bit sanitised, American and Disneylike. So we are pleased to be moving on "down island" to some of the quieter islands. This leg is a tricky one as we are going against the normal winds and the current. Luckily today has been OK with only about 15 knots of wind from the ENE rather than the east which is good as we had to leave the BVIs by today anyhow as our visas expire.

A couple of days ago we met up briefly with Matelot who we first came across in Gibraltar. We had one of their sails to return to them. They had lent it to Blue Heeler for the crossing. It was great to see Richard and Puppy again even if our smoked mackerel did give Richard sickness and diahorrea! They are keeping moving and transiting the Panama Canal shortly before returning home to New Zealand across the Pacific.

We still have loads of pictures to post but internet connections never seem to be fast enough here. Add to the fact that unless we rely on internet cafes we need to buy a new SIM in almost every island we reach and you can see we do have some sort of excuse.

White Bay, Emma's favourite BVI beach. Just right for early morning runs.

So what's it like here? It's tropical, so the beaches look like they are out of a brochure. Coconut trees grow on the beach but so do the poisonous manchineal trees. Pelicans and gannets dive for fish and frigate birds wheel around the sky in twos and threes. Lizards big and small skitter around and everyone says "you're welcome". Days are hot but not as hot as Turkey was as there is usually the Trade wind to cool things down.

Crazy Pelican

As I write this at 2am I have a sailing jacket on, shorts and no shoes. I am just about warm enough. To my right I can see the Southern Cross and I can also see Orion, the Plough and our favourite "Big Dog" or Canis Major. There's a small boat closing on my starboard quarter that needs watching and the lights of another larger, ship have just appeared behind me. He's the overtaking boat though so whatever he is he has to steer clear of me.

OK, 30 minutes of my watch left now and I'll leave you til another day.