The day before yesterday we beat back against the trades from Culebra to St Thomas. The winds were ENE about 10-12 kts. We beat out the narrow coral fringed channel that protects Ensenada Honda. The winds held to about 15 knots for the first hour or so. Then, a series of squalls rolled down on us from the east. We kept the working jib pulling along with a double reefed main but dropped the staysail. The squall lasted about an hour with winds in the 30 to 35 kt range. Normally, I would have dropped the working jib and relied on the stays’l with the double reefed main but, with reefs to leeward of us we needed to keep driving upwind. The Far Reach was wonderfully behaved and knifed up wind with a perfectly balanced helm in a rising chop and 5-6’ swell. She maintained a steady 6 to 6.5 kts steered by our ever reliable Cape Horn windvane. It’s a wonderful experience to get one of Carl Alberg’s boats dialed in and see what she can do under sail when other boats are compelled to motor.
We reefed and shook out reefs many times over the next four hours. We would have 15-18 kts of wind then get blasted with 25-30 and a big wind shift. Then the squall would pass and suck all the air out with it and we would wallow for 20-30 min and the cycle would start over. We matched the sail combinations to the conditions to give the Far Reach the best horse power we could.
As we closed on the West Gregerie Channel I foolishly though I could slip between Water Island and Porpoise Rock on a close reach then beat up channel in protected waters to our mooring. But as we closed on the gap the wind just flat died from 15 kts to about 3 kts in less than a minute. We were left wallowing in a sloppy swell and drifting towards Porpoise Rocks. I got the Far Reach turned around and we drift-sailed back out into the Caribbean. While I would not characterize it as a “close call” it was a valuable reminder that engineless sailing (our 9.9 Honda would have been instantly swamped had we tried to employ it) requires constant vigilance and sound decision making. We worked our way east and sure enough the squall cycles continued for another round or two. Eventually, we entered the East Gregerie Channel reaching NW behind Hassle Island. We gybed, and ran downwind. We entered the mooring field where Gayle snagged the pendant on the first attempt.
It was a great week. Culebra was fun and interesting. Easily worthy of more visits. Gayle, ever the wonderful companion, showed her sailing skills and metal in a wide variety of conditions. We are cleaning up the Far Reach, taking on water, and reprovisioning for the next adventure.
For a more detailed version of this post to include additional photos as well as highlights of our trip to the El Yunque Rain Forest please visit our website by clicking on the below link.
https://farreachvoyages.wordpress.com/2 ... st-thomas/
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