Mother nature and hangovers don’t go well together. When we made plans for New Years Eve, we knew what we were getting into, or we thought we did. WindGuru, said the winds and waves picked up late on the 1/1/2015, since we stayed out LATE to bring in the new years we encountered the wind/waves. Yup we found the weather today.

Started out early, up at sunrise. Set the Jib, cornered around the bottom of St. Vincent, nice down wind sail, with the waves. We turned the corner in the Lee of the Island, we had tossed out the fishing lines, zing, no sooner than the starboard, unpainted cedar plug was in the water with a new hook it took off. Before I got there, it quit. Oh well. Its a long day, lots more opportunities.

Busy morning on the water, lots of boats got up early and are going the same direction. We all hugged the coast, some had main’s up and others had none, no sails like us. No sails, we go faster, we passed another cat whose main had 1 reef in, we were set for 2 when we raised, but we had a long island to pass before needing to use the sail.

Made some omelettes, the first one, Christine’s was perfect, mine the pan was too hot and couldn’t get it to flip. Ahh.. it all tastes the same, just not as pretty with the cheese seeping out.

We get near the end of the island, wind is busting a move, something like always 20knots. We are into the wind, we raise to the 2 reef point, yellow. Still hugging the coast, the skys darken over the top of the hill, 30knots, I swear I see 58knots on the gauge, followed by a solid 60knots, but never really felt that at the helm, just the gauge showed it. Quick check of our manual, yes we do read them occasionally, says 2 reefs in the main 2 reefs in the jib and we should be good for 40 knots. Good, its blowing 30 something in the shadow of the island.

Then holy waves batman, where did these things come from. Checked back at the boats around us, the Mono, dropped all sails, the Cat took another reef, we were hugging the coast to get a better angle at St Lucia, the waves were knocking us around. Screw it, lets take another reef, now we are good to 50knots of wind. Still trying to make the angle, the waves got bigger, we were running the engines round 2000 RPMs and bashing into the big waves. Boat, me and everything is covered in Salt. Its water, then it dries, then its salt, then repeat.

Give up on making the best angle and start going for a smoother ride, and still beating the wind with 38 degrees off the starboard side. The mono, never raises sails, the catamaran turns before we did, the pulled a little jib. I had a beer. After that was done, we too pulled a little jib, found a bit of rhythm, still splashing the boat with salt. Hours go by… We are going the right direction and making point. Triple reefed, in the goove, not comfortable, but its got to be done.

Good thing for big breakfast this morning, as everything is flying about inside, and the beers are running low. We make it close to St Lucia, the wind dies down to 25knots, I think about shaking out a reef, from Red to Yellow, and then its back to 30knots, so that never happens. We have grown used to the motion by now, and can see our destination. We see others coming too, and we know there are a limited set of mooring balls between the Piton mountains, I kick up the RPMS to 2400, we pull in the jib, and eventually drop the main.

YES, one ball is available, B-line for it, the 2nd boat boy is there to help. Yippie. Ask him if he’ll run me to customs, as his boat is WAY faster than our dingy. Sure, and I shower (rinse one layer of salt off) and go clear customs.

Customs / Immigration done, find bank, go to grocery.. ARGH! it closed at 1pm today, its a holiday of sorts. Find a bar, order 2 beers to go, and find my boat boy and back to find Christine had cleaned up our mess from bashing across the water today.

Had the beers, made some pizza for dinner, found some good internet, watched the sunset, skyped, chatted, pondered the trip, and whats left as we are now on the down hill slide back to reality. At least one more day before the cleaning and stowing truely starts. Course it will start tomorrow, at least slowly.

Between the Piton’s.

Old glory didn’t like the wind today either.

Sunsets are awesome here

Even the star clippers pose for sunsets. Pulled the sails back down before really heading out.

Get up, make a big breakfast and go back to sleep.

So much for getting on the road/ocean today. We had plans to make a long day, we had backup plans incase that didn’t happen. Well after last nights binge episodes, there was no way we were getting an early start. Actually by the time I started moving, 3/4 of the moorings were available. The worst part was the cat that Anchored right in front of us was still there. It was about 1/2 a boat length away. So the bay was empty, minus this one boat on top of us.

Took the morning nap, got back up round noon. Damn cat still there, little of internet, skype, etc and by 1pm we finally got motivated to get on our way. Destination now changed to St Vincent, Young Island, near blue lagoon. Knock off a few miles.

Set sail, double reefed, wind was blowing 25+knots all day, waves were pretty big when we cleared the islands that were blocking the atlantic from us. Had the engines running about 1500, just to make a bit of electricity, the port starting battery didn’t want to start so it needed some juice.

Christine at the helm, we were heading 38 degrees off the wind most of the way, in no real hurry. 3 hr sail to SVG, grabbed a ball, called Charlie Tango to tell him we grabbed his mooring, and he came out to collect.

A quick mozzarella and tomato snack and time to try an adult beverage again. Lovely place, hooked on a ball meant for super yachts.

Pasta for dinner and we must be climatizing, its almost cold here at night now, listening to some Robert Earl King, and Pat Green – keeping the country rocking in the new years.

Tomorrow, we should make St. Lucia.

First sunset of the new year.

This place is nuts, money can buy just about everything. 4 of the richest folks who skip the Forbes list on purpose have homes here, but there isn’t a Ferrari one on the island, everyone has mules, or electric cars. Perfect roads, beautiful beaches, beautiful people. Well at least the arm candy that is.

Some year we’ll learn. NEVER BE ON TIME, our you’ll be early. Its island time. We got our wrist bands, and made dinner on the boat, and quickly hit the sack. Its new years eve, so we went to bed, well before midnight, cause the party didn’t start till 10pm. Of course, ever punctual, we showed up at 10pm for our ride, and were the FIRST, the absolute first people to arrive. We had credentials, but stuck out like a sore thumb as the first to arrive.

The theme was Modstique, London in the 60s. The whole place was done to the 11s, no 9s or 10s, they cranked it up to ELEVEN. Complete with english phone booths, abby road, dance floor, and even a Pie Shop that served food. And had a couple of bars and the Cotton House was awesome.

We chilled out, watched and watched the people. More Austin Powers references than you can immagine. Bar opened and we started our celebration, folks started arriving 11ish. Thats an hour after we got there. Over achievers we are. Multiple tents setup with art from the 60s, and various ‘stores’ representing times in london, complete with the “mind the gap” tube signs. Awesome.

Lots of eye candy, tall ones, short ones, all dressed like fluffers. As I don’t keep up with my “people magazine” subscription, didn’t recognize a soul. One dude, I called Carl Lagerfield, was had a nice demeanor and entourage, but might have been Tommy Hilfiger for all I know. Christine the social butterfly, talked to more than I did.

We spotted our sponsors, Richard and Val, just before midnight as we were going to the bar to get champagne glasses as they kept refilling those all night. Chatted with them for a bit, they introduced us to a few folks, pointed out a few folks. Everyone was very polite, but we got along most with the bartenders and servers. Wished them Happy New Year, we said thank you, and treated everyone like people. Caught most of them off guard, we even got a few hugs, and “thanks” for talking to them.

Fireworks, OMG, yes, I just used that trite phrase. 15mins of spectacular low flying BOOM, Bah, BANGs going on. Not since that Chinese New Year I spent in Beijing, have I seen so many fireworks. The last time I saw the city of Austin fireworks grand finale, would be like the intro to this shindig.

Its a breezy night, wind blowing off shore, the fireworks barely cleared the nice plastic tents that were set up. I kept thinking we’d be on some TV show, when fireworks go bad, but they kept going and going and going, basically 15 mins of grand finales, and when it finally finished they found some more. AWESOME.

I must have had a few adult beverages, cause I tried to shake my money maker. Ended up broke, but at least I tried, or so I was told. Met a girl who had been on island for 3 days, and had a 6 figure salary and was appalled as to how little that was compared to everyone else who makes that in an hour.

Time to leave, we decide to ‘walk’ back down the hill to Basil’s where our dingy was parked, got picked up by flat bed truck driven by a local Ken and his lady friend. We jumped in the back flatbed, went to FireFly to look for someone’s shoe, not sure what that was about, then finally made it back to Basils, but our new friends said lets go to the ‘real’ party. And we loaded up, off to a house party. And by house, I mean, HOUSE. DJ was rocking, house over looked the bay, all open, and PACKED. But on the way there, we stopped by the police station, and they gave us some beers. I love the police now. The house party was rockin, to say we were the outsiders would be an understatement, but we all had a great time.

Little fuzzy on how we got home, but we took the same path we found on the way back from clearing out of customs. And managed to find the dingy, and get it started and found the mother ship. Probably wasn’t the most direct route to the boat, but Christine said I left her hanging on the davits when trying to get aboard, but we all made it.

Closed out the Old Year, and brought in the New Year in with a touch of the flue, aka Hangover.

Happy 2015 Ya’ll .

Richard Schaffer, Val and Matt & I