First Sail

Monday morning we dropped the mooring in Marigot Bay and motored out the pass to open water where we raised the main and set the genoa.  

Tom is unhappy with the cut of the new jib acquired 6000+ miles ago in South Africa, and we could see the issue when the full jib was out. 

 Fortunately, the winds were gusting from 20-30 knots so we were able to leave both sails reefed.  Even then Quantum Leap was easily making 9 knots.  That' s almost twice what Tackless II would have made.

Of course, we were in the lee of the island so the seas were not high.  We'll see how things feel tomorrow when we are out in the open between islands!

Now we are in a slip at Rodney Bay Marina, a yachting center that has exploded probably ten-fold since we were last here in 1999 and more since my first visit in 1989 (that time on the dive ship Aquanaut Holiday! ). Our ship was leased to some Canadians who were aiming to run gambling charters between St Lucia and Martinique and they were actively wooing government officials with sunset cruises and the like.  All in all it was a rlative disaster, and it surely didn't help when the very slow, open tender on which I was ferrying the dignitaries from the marina out to the ship in the outer bay got caught in a torrential downpour!