July 18. Basseterre, Saint Kitts, Leeward Islands

We are definitely not marina people but we really enjoyed our stay at the Moorings and have to admit that we would stay at any Moorings Marina again. It's like checking into a hotel, actually easier, they didn't even want a credit card info when we checked in. There is 24 hour staff on hand and whenever we placed a bag of garbage on the dock, a minute later the staff took it. On the weekend the dock were swamped with people, some leaving, new ones coming and the working crew getting boats ready for the newcomers. We met some nice people and all squeezed everything out of us about cruising, of course we love to talk about our life. One group was 8 American Airline pilots, chartering a catamaran, the other 16 neighbors from Atlanta, GA chartering two cats (I would move into their neighborhood, they were like a big family). We were busy talking that's for sure and just had a blast.
When Chris told us that we had a two day weather window we jumped right on it, provisioned, checked out and couldn't head faster out of there. Unfortunately Welsh Rover decided it was not time yet to leave and we parted. We had such a great time with them over the last two months but the good side is, they are heading south too and so our paths will cross again, the latest in Venezuela. We sure will miss them. We left Sunday at 11 am, the wind was blowing 12 knots and increased to 15. We did have to tack our way across the Sir Francis Bay to Round Rock where we finally headed into the open sea. We were really anxious to see what awaited us out there. We had a fairly strong current out the cut but then it was easy motor sailing. The seas were 5 to 6 feet and the wind blew mostly 12 to 15 knots, a comfortable ride. Later on at night the wind increased a few times to 18 but that was about it. Our plan was to sail the 80 miles to St. Martin, but the wind and waves came out of that direction and we had such a good motor sail SE that we decided to head for Guadalupe instead. The trip was a piece of cake, although a pound cake that is, as the night crawled along it got a bit bumpier but still comfortable enough. Considering what we've endured the last months this was just a walk in the park. We actually had to slow down as we started to jump the waves and came crashing down a couple of times, slowing the boat down a half knot made the difference. And of course a crossing is not perfect unless something or two things break. We had two glitches, the Autopilot refused to work again, so we had to manually steer the boat the entire 126 miles to Basseterre, Saint Kitts. Then the wind gen. came loose from the base and started swinging around madly, Sid grabbed it and the solar panel bracket that also came loose woke me up out of a dead sleep, plus some &(%#@! words out of Sid. I grabbed the wheel as Sid was fighting the darn thing for 45 minutes before it was securely tied down again, while the seas were at it's worst. Luckily Sid caught it before it destroyed itself and the solar panels. Poor Sid was sore the next day and had know clue why, until I brought up the fact that he was wrestling a wind gen. during high seas. Due to that we decided to head for St. Kitts instead for repairs. Good thing too, because the two day window we had closed after a day. And wouldn't you know right after the gen. was tide down again, the sea got calmer again too. As daylight approached the water got a bit more churned up again but it still was very tolerable. As a matter of fact whenever the seas got churned up Sid would check on the depth finder to find some sea shelf that disturbed the surface. By sunrise we closed in on Isla Saba and were just flabbergasted by the humongous rock formation of an island. The huge island shoots out of the ocean with steep walls, a huge mountain in the deep blue water with no beaches anywhere, just a rugged coastline around the island. On the SW side is something like an anchorage but I bet the water stays deep until it hits the rocky shore, as all the boats were sitting on a mooring. Then there was this steep, steep road heading 3/4 up the mountain and all the way up there are villages to see. House were built way up the mountain and right next to the most horrifying cliffs, with probably the most spectacular view over the other islands. It's a very bizarre looking island, but pretty neat at the same time. Two islands further south was Saint Kitts, what a beautiful island to approach.
You have no idea how good we feel to finally be in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean, from here on the weather will be easier to travel than what we had to deal with so far. The tropical wave that is underway now, has the potential to build into something stronger, which is good and bad, the good thing is, it will give us a bigger weather window to head further south. We were some 25 hours underway and of course as tired as we were we had to check in with the authorities first. Then it was relaxing time and that we did. Our plan to sail another 10 miles to a very pretty anchorage but Sid noticed the cap to our water tank on deck was open, he forgot to close it when we left. Result, our drinking water was all salty. Since he still had to fix the wind gen. and autopilot we decided to head into the marina here where it is calm to do the repairs. It's not the most modern marina, but water was included and we paid only 50 cents a foot. Sid fixed the gen. and the autopilot and we filled up with fresh water which is just as good as the water maker as a result of daily rain here in the mountains. This morning we also found out that the weather is going to cooperate and we can leave sooner than we thought so we checked out today and will leave early tomorrow and have plotted a 225 mile sail to Saint Lucia, hope the weather window will stay open for the 48 hours it takes to get there. If not we can stop at any other island before that. Keep your fingers crossed.
Probome checking in!!!!