St. Maartin.

Very expensive snap shackle

Back at the yacht club ....

Sint Maarten

Dana says the starboard prop has been damaged.

We have arrived in Sint Maarten and are safely moored.

Wind in our faces right up to the last moment, St. Maartin looms ahead. About an hour more and we'll be entering the harbor. 1400 nautical miles, the longest ocean passage I've done was also the easiest. I hope the cantankerous immigration and customs officers clear us today. I'd really like to go ashore for meal and some island drinks

It's getting serious. Dana is removing the jack lines. No more clipping in on this trip.

Wayne Busch, master of squeaks.

I just saw the first Sint Maarten birds ...

It's pretty choppy out here today.
We hit one huge wave causing the boat to crsh down hard. I feared for the coffee maker but all is good.

The little bird has left.

Woke promptly at 09:00 to us still crashing in the waves.

Dama relieved me early. I peered out at the stars one last time and bid my farewell to Orion.

We should be arriving in Sint Maarten around 10:15 so I've aet my alarm for 9.

Even more shooting stars. It seems like all tou have to do is look up for just a few minutes and another one will appear.

The weird red green white ahimmering star we mistook for a boat the other night is clearly visible. Maybe it's a planet? No other star in the sky exhibits these kind of colors.
Very weird.

<interrupted by a very loud crash>

The block that the mainsheet runs through at the traveler let go with a very loud crash. I lit it up with a spot light but did
not understand what I was looking at so I woke Dana. Over the course of about 45 minutes Dana installed a temporary block. This involved pulling in the headsail, dropping the main, installing the preventer, pulling the main sheet all the way out, installing the new block, and then rerunning everything. I asked him to reef it but during that there was some problem with the red reefing line. I'm not sure what it wasnbut it took a while to resolve.

I'm sweaty and beat.

Little bird just chillin'

It hasn't touched the cracker bits or water. As a matter of fact it's jut sat there for hours now. It moves from time to time so it's still alive. Storm behavior?

I guess I managed to fall asleep deaite all the crashing and banging. Fortunately, I set an alarm. I said hello to the little bird and then started my watch.

Good wind. We're moving at a good clip.

This should be my last midnight watch on this trip.

It's my last night watch. We should be off St. Maartin tomorrow morning. The British Virgin Islands are about 30 miles west, Anguilla 75 miles ahead, St. Maartin another 10. The wind finally picked up to 15 - 20 kn and shifted east. These are the tradewinds and we're making 8 kn close hauled. I'm looking forward to seeing land again.

Little bird.

We have a. passenger on the boat

Taking a shower while the boat is clipping along at 8+ knots through waves can prove to be a bit challenging.