Wait… Who Said Downwind Sailing was a Breeze?

We’ve arrived! We three (boat included) are all safe, and Paul and I are feeling very excited to be once again embracing the cruiser lifestyle here in the British Virgin Islands. I’d like to say we had a pretty uneventful sail, but that wouldn’t entirely be

the truth of it. Funnily enough, you always hear sailors and cruisers praising the downwind sail – easy peezy, nothing to it. We’ve even heard sailors joke that there’s only one direction to sail your boat; downwind all the way, then sell it. When sailing downwind, there’s no heel (lean) to the boat, there’s less tension on your standing and loose rigging, and it’s overall an objectively more comfortable point of sail as far as walking about the cockpit and cabin areas. We’ve done plenty of downwind sails in the

past, but this trip was our first bonafide ‘run’ – meaning, the wind was coming directly on our stern with no slight angle either to port or starboard. Usually, we are on more of a broad reach, in which the wind is off our port or starboard stern at 120 degrees. A run presented some challenges!

First off, what we thought was an ideal weather window (calm winds and sea states) actually wasn’t the greatest for being on a run. Because we had so little wind, we didn’t really have enough breeze or gusts to keep the sails full. So, anytime waves or a swell would hit the boat on our beam (side), the sails would both slacken and then snap back. The experience was a lot of loud, snappy sails,

which couldn’t really be avoided unless we completely bared off course from our destination. However, if we did that (by intentionally jibing back and forth akin to tacking into the wind), we’d be adding tons of hours to our overall trip time. Since we had a deadline (thanks, COVID), we had to arrive to the BVIs no later than 48 hours after our initial COVID test from St. Maarten. Otherwise, we’d have to both pay for brand new – and pricey – COVID tests upon arrival.

This didn’t leave us with a whole lot of choices. We needed to stay on course, which meant a wing-on-wing style configuration of the headsail pushed out to

one side of the boat, and the mainsail out to the other. This way, any wind caught by the mainsail ‘spilled’ onto the headsail, giving it an extra lift. When the boat was properly balanced using this configuration, it was so nice! The problem with this was the complete lack of wind needed to propel our 15-ton baby for our 93 nautical mile journey! As much as we don’t enjoy using it while sailing, we did have to rely on our trusty Yanmar engine and ended up ‘motorsailing’ (using the engine and the sails simultaneously) for our entire journey.

We left St. Maarten through the 4:00 outbound bridge on Tuesday and got our bearings for the BVIs. Sailing into the west had some advantages, include a beautiful sunset featuring a wicked green flash (hush, you non-believers!) and the most gorgeous full moon I have ever seen. Paul was actually on the foredeck adjusting the sails, and I was on the helm. Something had caught my eye, and I almost thought it had to be a huge freighter or cruise ship on the horizon that had caught fire. What we saw was a humongous tangerine-orange colored full moon rising behind an intermittent gathering of fluffy clouds. It was a perfect Halloween-spooky moon, and hands down my favorite part of the whole night sail!

Onwards towards the BVIs, and our night sail was pretty calm (other than those slap-happy sails I mentioned). We didn’t end up needing to worry about our arrival time to the BVIs as we were making pretty good headway and ended up arriving to our anchorage – Road Town Harbour – around 9:15 AM. Customs and

immigration was a very paper-work heavy process, but everyone was so friendly and helpful. We’ve already met several Canadian cruiser boats and are looking forward to once again embracing the cruiser lifestyle!

While we’re here in the BVIs – about 30 days or so – we’re planning on doing a lot of sailing. Road Town Harbour is located on the southern part of Tortola, one of the larger islands in the BVIs. We plan on sailing along the southern coast of Tortola, exploring the smattering of islands to Tortola’s east, then jumping way up to Anegada, back down to Virgin Gorda, and then checking out Salt Island, Peter Island, and Norman Island before arriving back to the south-eastern shores of Tortola for check-out. We’re so excited to put some good cruising miles on Panta Rhei, and to see some beautiful sights and anchorages along the way. If interested, you’ll still be able to track our location in the BVIs either on Marine Traffic (at anytime) or on Nebo (while we're underway) as we sail from place to place.

Nebo: https://trackme.nebo.global/?link=HEWAAB1GIMMK91HU5XWW1DW1W1S

Marine Traffic: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:233142/mmsi:244620720/imo:0/vessel:PANTA_RHEI_III

For our next blog post, we’ll be sure to update you on all of the adventures (and, of course, the misadventures) we experience while in the BVIs. For now, we’re going to unplug and enjoy this rare experience we are really fortunate to be able to have.

Sending tongs of love and hugs your way!

-Two happy sailors