Drifting & Dragging by the Super Bowl

February 4, Sunday

Don did wake up about 4 a.m. And we left at 4:30.  By that time the moon was up which made it much easier to pick our way through the moored boats.

We sailed by Montserrat but decided not to stop because of the East winds. We had to avoid a freighter that was stopping for fuel at the huge wharf there. We went by Rodonda again and got to Nevis around 17:00.  There were open mooring balls but we decided we could get to St. Kitts before dark.  We'd had good winds all day.  They were East, 15-20 K and seas were 6-10 feet 

We anchored in Ballast Bay, where the entrance to Christophe Harbor is, just before it was totally dark.  Winds were 20K when we anchored but the anchor held.  After dinner, when we both were so tired we just wanted to go to sleep, Don put the snubber out and then we didn't seem to be holding.  He thought the wind was funneling through a valley and wanted to move.  We moved very slowly over to White House Bay.  It was really dark and very difficult to see.  We got out the spotlight but it didn't help much.  It also didn't help that one of the anchored boats had no light on.  We dropped anchor near a huge motor yacht.  It was filled with Americans watching the super bowl on a small theater size screen on the top deck.  We realized we were not holding so went further into the bay and anchored again.  This time we held.  By the time we did all this it was about 23:00 and we were exhausted.

Deb (via email)

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