Daybreak, just off Martinique.
Written January 20, 2016
We made it to Martinique in one shot! It doesn’t seem real that we left Bequia yesterday at 10:30 a.m. and dropped anchor in Cul-de-sac Marin today at 8 a.m. What a sail, 22 hours, our longest yet; and this up the windward side of both St. Vincent and St. Lucia.
I’ve been waiting for this day for weeks, and am so happy to be here. It’s all first-world France here — cheese, wine, coffee, duck pâté and baguettes. Oui Madame!
The sail was long. I doubt we will do another windward passage again; it is just rougher. It might have saved us some time, but at what cost? We felt sick and the boat was beaten up.
Another through-hull broke; this time in the port side forward head (to match the one in the starboard side forward head, I suppose). Moss put a soft wood plug in it, and we checked it hourly along with the regularly scheduled bilge pump outs. (Yes, we are still taking on water despite the fix on the anchor locker. Go figure.)
Aside from this, Niamh was sick, I was sick and Moss felt ill. It’s a rough haul, 22 hours to windward — I can’t imagine what 3 days would be like. Sailors are tough people. I think we’re cruisers. Cruisers aren’t that tough.