After exploring and enjoying Antigua for two months it was time to move on. We sailed the 120 Nm to Saint Martin with very nice conditions and no incidents to write about,..until my new piece of hardware attaching the main halyard to the main sail failed.

Fortunately this happened about 2 in the afternoon rather than 2 in the morning. The sail came down fast, but no damage done. Well,…my pride took a slight hit. I could see the hardware was on top of the mast, still attached to the halyard so I new my stainless steel hook with a gate had failed, which is easier to repair then a broken halyard. The halyard wouldn’t be too hard to retrieve, if we got smooth water in a well protected anchorage.

Any roll or pitch movement on the mast down low is amplified at the top. The speed goes up, the distance per swing goes up, the changes in direction happen quickly, and the “this is fun vs dangerous” index really slides in the wrong direction.

Well it blew 4 days straight in the 20 knot bracket. Our anchor held well, but it was a little lumpy on Catnip. During the 4 days, it was even tricky getting into the tender, not to mention the ride to shore. After the four days, the wind dropped and Cathie hoisted me up the mast to retrieved the halyard. I’m back to shackling the halyard to the sail now.

Saint Martin is French on one side and Dutch on the other. The two sides get along well. We spent most our time on the French side, as I kind of have a weak spot for French pastries. Mmmm.

We did a little excursion with “little nipper”, our dingy, to the Dutch side. That was a fun day.

We checked out of Saint Martin on Valentine’s Day with a forecast of light winds and smooth seas.

We were making great time, sailing about 6 knots in 8 knots of wind, must have been getting a push with the current as well.

Unfortunately after a few hours the wind stopped.

It was a great passage to Isla de Culebra in Puerto Rico, even though we had to motor through the calms.

This island like the rest of Puerto Rico is Spanish speaking. My basic Spanish came back much quicker than my five French words.

It was nice exploring the main town on Culebra. They have a few street cats and dogs, and many free range chickens.

We stayed a couple nights at the main anchorage “Endsenada Honda” before heading around to Tamarindo Grande for some snorkeling and beach time.

It didn’t take Sequoia long to get her sand digging and stick chasing skills back up to snuff.

We’re not sure where we will go next, but plan on hanging out here for a few more days.

We may go to Isla de Vieques to see the bioluminescence. It’s suppose to be pretty spectacular. Also we plan to get a few supplies in Puerto Rico before moving on. We have heard great things about Samana on the north side of Dominican Republic, so it’s also on the list. Great waterfalls and jungle hikes and nature reserves. This will be a bit of a detour as we plan to sail across Dominican Republic on its south side. We’d like to make Jamaica by the last half of March, to get a smooth (relatively speaking) crossing to Belize.

This is our plan that we wrote in the sand, at low tide. 🤔.

Thanks for reading.😊