By the morning of November 12 we were still managing to sail in light winds, and staying ahead of a giant calm patch forming behind us. This is most uncharacteristic for the Trade Winds! While running out of fuel was still a worry, it was beginning to feel as though we were going to make it. Boats behind us had much calmer conditions, and by this point we were ahead of almost all the boats who left with us. (Not that it’s a race!) (but if anyone cares we were the first monohull in). We caught another lovely mahi and had pan-fried fillets later for dinner. With easy sailing, it isn’t a lot of work to sail the boat, so the days were very relaxed. Our routine seemed to be that in the mornings while it was cooler, people tended to be in the cockpit waking up and chatting. Then after lunch when it gets hottest most people retreated down below, leaving whoever is on the 1300 – 1700 watch to seek out the shadiest spot on deck. We had a dog watch from 1700-1800 where we ate dinner together and planned for the night (Do we have the right sails up? What if there’s a squall? What shipping is around?). The nights on these last few days were hot down below and although there was plenty of off-watch time, none of us got much sleep. Despite the light conditions, the boat was well heeled over. I had to call for less sail in order to prepare dinner, and I later found our ice cubes had frozen into strange shapes!

On the morning of November 13 we were getting close, and it was harder to relax! I was on watch from 0300 to 0600, and saw a big squall line approaching us near dawn. We didn’t get rain, but the wind was all over the place, and when Tim came up to relieve me we spent quite a bit of time adjusting the sails – it was quite a work out!

By afternoon we could see St Barth. We were alongside Barbuda by about 2100, although quite far offshore due to the reefs there. We could see the glow of lights on at least 6 islands all night. I’d never noticed that before, but I suppose after seeing nothing much for days, the glow stood out. Around 0100 on the 14th we were off St John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda. We dropped the mainsail and motored round to Falmouth Harbour. The stretch along the southwest side of the island has a reputation for big seas and strong winds; however we had an easy ride. We dropped the anchor near the entrance to Falmouth Harbour at 0400 and all collapsed for a couple of hours of deep sleep.

Everyone was up on deck again by about 0630 so we cleared up the boat a bit and motored around to English Harbour, getting there soon after they opened at 8. We anchored and med-moored with minimal fuss, and Jeremy went off to clear customs and immigration. Bill’s wife Susan arrived with coffee and pastries, then Jeremy came back with cold beer and let us know that we were officially in Antigua!

Since then there has been plenty to do! The Salty Dawgs have held Happy Hour or other events every evening. We walked over to nearby Pigeon Beach one day for a much needed swim. Bill, Susan and I attended a Harvest Festival celebration at a church where the minister is a connection of theirs. Every day more Salty Dawgs have arrived and it’s been fun to greet them all and hear everyone’s stories of storms, calms, breakages and creative repairs! We can now really relax and start to enjoy our 6 months in the Caribbean!

All in all, we had a good passage. Although there was 18 hours of gale and near-gale force winds on night two into day three, we had no serious breakages and everything went fairly smoothly. Luckily, we were able to maintain reasonable speeds during the second part of the passage. Our strategy was fairly simple: sail VMG (or a comfortable heading) when we could sail, and point the bow at Antigua when we couldn’t. This aligned well with our routing from PredictWind and LuckGrib. Two lessons that we are gradually assimilating into our planning are 1) a fast boat provides more options; and 2) only deviate from the rhumb line if the forecast is high-confidence.

This trip was 1,625 miles from Hampton to Antigua, and took us just under 10 days. We’ve done 2,362 miles since we left Marblehead on September 23. Thanks to everyone for your support so far!