Part 5: More sailing, I MUST have JUST.. ONE... MORE..

This is the final post about the Caribbean adventure. And Monday, April 30, I will drive down to NC to get the masts repaired and installed on my boat, Transience... and perhaps go sailing. Well, back to the story:

Sunday April 8
Somewhat tired of sailing in general, high on success, and tired from the night on the water, I slept while the other three did who knows what ashore. Some time later they all returned, Tom having lost track and run over the departure time to catch the sole St Croix ferry.

We chatted: he wanted to take his boat out, but really wanted a competent person aboard for confidence and to show him some of the local knowledge... and one can always learn more. I kind of liked the idea of sailing a Tayana 37, one of the boat models I had contemplated. We considered the possibility that I could come over to St Croix on Tuesday afternoon, the day after him, sail to St John Wednesday, and then split up with me staying to fly out Thursday and him sailing back alone to fly out Friday. Further consideration, a little wine, and perusal of the ferry schedule led me to suggest the possibility of sailing back with him Wednesday night, sailing into Green Cay Marina at about 6am, catching the 8am ferry to St Thomas, and catching my 2:30 flight to Michigan.... leaving him to settle his boat down for his departure the following day. He liked that idea.... and it would give me another night sail.

The forecast grew a bit windier, with waves predicted in the 6' or 7' range... maybe a little much for a new night sailor? Without hesitation he nixed that idea and proclaimed himself entirely ready. SO... we did it; hanging out on his boat

Tuesday night and drinking wine, talking about life, metaphors for volts and amps, and how a boat can sail itself by balancing the sails... then waking at dawn Wednesday to sail across the chasm below (the ocean is two miles deep between the two islands)

and catching an empty mooring near Gigi II. He went ashore while I helped Larry salvage a marine toilet for his boat. At sunset we anchored in Johnson Bay and carefully fixed the two buoys and few boats in our minds for easier location and avoidance in the dark, set our alarms for 10pm, and sacked out. And at 10 we rose and, moving slowly and carefully in the darkness, raised sail, started the engine, pulled anchor, and slowly motored out of the bay... almost hitting a third buoy we had not seen in the light.

And the sailing? For the first half hour we had to keep an eye out for land and shoals, then we set the sails and wheel and let Pretender make a beeline south. The sparks in the water were some of the most brilliant I've seen, perhaps because our eyes were better adjusted, spreading across the surface like a wave of stars in the white foam from the bow. And I saw something I had never seen before: astern of us the turbulence of the rudder and keel glowed like a comet, a tail about three feet wide and ten yards long of misty glow filled with the brighter sparks we more commonly noticed. And we saw a meteor fall and break up into many fragments, shooting across the sky. Just wonderful.

We reached Green Cay Marina exactly as planned, a little before the sky gave enough light to sail in safely, so we furled the jib and dropped speed, dropped mainsail and motored in. I found berthing Pretender tricky: I've only done this sort of slip (a walkway ahead and halfway along one side and two posts at the stern) once before, but we did the job with minimal bumping and, I believe, no swearing, so I count it as a success. Before sunrise we had everything secure.

Then ferry, taxi, airplane, and Cynthia waiting for me at the airport at midnight. Home!

I started this trip as a man starving of hunger for sailing and, after these last two sails, felt as though I had spent an hour or two at the buffet, couldn't eat a bit more, and even might have hurt myself stuffing those last two desserts.

BUT will it last? How soon will it be before I must feed again?!

On the other hand, I love sharing this experience with others as I did with Tom and maybe I can do this often, possibly even making a little business with night sailing/ star-watching/ sunrises/sunsets/ bio-luminescence adventures...