Sailboats! (Day 2)

Now that spring has sprung (unless you're in the Mid-Atlantic under a blanket of snow), take yourselves for a moment back to the sunny Caribbean to continue your vicarious adventures!

Day 2 -- St. Thomas to St. John; Our New Boat

I awoke on my first morning in the Caribbean to a lovely view off our little balcony, but unfortunately barely a trickle of water coming out of the shower head.  (I later learned that apparently there was an issue with the water main down at the main road, which was preventing water from reaching us up all those steps.)

We didn't have time for breakfast at the hotel, but did have time to grab a damn good cup of coffee before decamping for the ferry terminal.  Our ferry ran to Tortola, and we passed by a couple of cruise ships on our way out of port.  They truly are floating cities -- probably 20 stories tall or more, plus the bridge on top of that.  They're huge!  We arrived at the West End port, got fairly quickly through customs, and then we were in the United Kingdom!

Our bus/cab delivered us to Nanny Cay, the home of our charter company.  We got some breakfast and awaited J and R, the remainder of our crew for the week, but it turns out that they had missed the ferry.  (Damn, I could have had that second cup of delicious coffee after all!)  Their delay gave us a bit of time to explore the harbor; there is a little restaurant there, a pretty well-stocked grocery store, a one-woman laundromat, an overpriced ice cream shop, and the last full-size bathrooms you'll see for several days.

Our boat was a Fountaine Pajot Lipari Evolution 41' catamaran named Precious Time.  Eventually J and R arrived, we were fully provisioned, the very British harbor manager drove us out of port and sent us on our way. 

T, protecting himself from that Caribbean sunshine!

With our bow pointed generally in the direction of Norman Island, I learned some of the basics.  Running up the mainsail and maneuvering the jib are the two biggest tasks in a sailing day, provided nothing goes wrong.  Once the sail is up and the jib is out, all you need is an occasional tack to get where you're going.  Figuring out when and where to make those adjustments depends a lot on the wind and gets easier with experience.

Most of the time when you're under sail, though, is pretty easy.

We arrived at Norman Island safe and sound, ate a ridiculous amount of cheese and crackers, chips and salsa, and then started in on our dinner.  By the time we were finished, every was so tired and stuffed that we went straight to bed below decks.