17:28.89N  62:59.37W

 

Saturday 7 February 2015

 

Distance Run 26 nm

 

We intended moving on quickly but it poured with rain yesterday morning so we stayed put.  Having not cleared in to St Kitts we could not step ashore so we remained at anchor flying the yellow flag (which indicates we haven’t cleared).

 

Today’s wind is forecast to be only 6-8 knots (we need 10-12 to sail) but we felt we shouldn’t stay another day without clearing in (there is a grace period of about 24 hrs which we were going to exceed) which would take a lot of time and expense and would have to be followed by a similar clearing out process the following day.  So we opted to change our route and motor north to the small island of Statia (St Eustatius) rather than northeast and rather father upwind to St Barth’s.  As the wind is due to be light and the sea calm this should make the normally rolly anchorage in Statia more viable and would knock off another few miles towards St Martin.

 

About 2 hrs after leaving at 10am we had reached the north end of St Kitts and the wind was still calm but as we cleared the land it started to fill.  And boy did it fill.  Winds started to blast up to 25 kts so we hoisted sails and romped along to Statia.  We should have had some reefs in but hadn’t prepared for that as the winds were to be so light.  The sea was kicking up a bit now which made us a little concerned about our upcoming ‘calm’ anchorage but as we were now more than half way we didn’t want to turn back.

 

Once in the shelter of Statia the wind did settle down a lot and we anchored close inshore off the village of Oranjestad (the island is a Dutch territory).  There were lots of ships anchored off and there was a slightly industrial feel to the place.  We were the only yacht in the anchorage and agin flew the yellow flag.

 

 

A couple of shots of the shoreline:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can’t see this from the pictures but unfortunately the swell did manage to work it’s way around the island and it was pretty uncomfortable overnight.