My alarm goes off at 4 am and we’re up. We look at the Windy app though as I recall the channel was very windy overnight, calming later in the morning. Sure enough, it shows fairly high winds (20+ kts) until about 6 am. If we leave at 5 am, we will get to the end at 6 am so we decide to wait an extra half hour. I go back for a half hour snooze which is a bit of a mistake in the long run, should have done some neck traction.

Soon enough we’re up anchor and motoring out of the harbour in the dark. Still fairly bright with a near-full moon just setting too. Our biggest fear is actually running over one of the many fisherman’s pots which we probably won’t see. But by the time we are out in the clear and put up some sail, the sun is rising and visibility is decent.

We don’t have much sail up but the wind is so strong between the mainland and Ilet Kahouanne we’re heeling sharply and quickly reduce sail. It’s a massive wind funnel though here, blowing and gusting 30+ kts. As soon as we clear the island and start to leave Guadeloupe behind the wind stabilizes nicely and blows 21-23 kts steadily from the east. We make 6+ kts easily on a very comfortable close reach for the next 4 or 5 hours. Great sailing.

We take turns resting, I am always tweaking the sails as we go. We put out some more sail when the wind starts to ease off to 16-17 kts in the late morning. Have to average at least 5 kts to get to Falmouth in time to clear Customs.

With about 10 nms left to go there is a rain squall moving in. I saw it coming and should have reduced sail then but didn’t. I thought it was going to miss us but when it doesn’t the wind immediately goes to 30+ kts and gusting higher. We scramble to reduce sail, thankfully these things only last 5-10 minutes. Soon enough we are back to normal and sunny again.

But then we realize there is a disconnect between the navigator and the helmsman. I am steering to the waypoint we set, thinking it is our target. Apparently, that is NOT our target and we want to go significantly further east. That is the worst news. We can’t sail north east with any speed since that is more than a close haul. We sail close hauled for a few miles but eventually put the motor on because we need to make 5+ kts. Soon we drop all the sails and just motor in. Very disappointing, but my bad for not checking what our target is, Christy bad for not communicating that. She said sail to the middle of the island but I thought she just meant stay east of the target because there is always lee helm.

By about 2 pm we enter Falmouth harbour and find an anchoring spot near the shallows of Bishops Shoal. The spot we get is a little too close to our neighbours for my liking but it will do for now, we need to get into the Customs by 2:45 pm. Don’t even have time to dive on the anchor which is a no-no but we seem to be set well. Big, green-back turtles around.

Dinghy into the main harbour, miss the dinghy landing first, then go around to the correct location. The super yachts are HUGE, one is even called Leviathan.

Christy waits by the dinghy (can’t find a way to lock it) while I flip-flop jog up to English harbour to check in. Turns out they’re open until 4:30 pm so there was no big rush. Check in ok, we are in a National Park which I guess is their justification for charging us EC$300 for 3 nights. Turns out that gives us access to all the park sites though. Meet a nice US couple in Customs, Jeff and Angela, but likely won’t see them again as they are on their way to Nevis.

I walk back to Christy. It has been off/on raining since we got here, I’ve been ducking for shelter when it rains hard, didn’t realize I had the umbrella in the orange bag which she could have used.

We dinghy back to Milu and move her over 20 yards where our ex-neighbour was, this is much more comfortable from a proximity-to-other-boats standpoint. The bottom depth shows 2.5 m so Christy is concerned we’re going to ground out. I dive on the keel, we’ve got 4 feet beneath it and then I look at the anchor. It is NOT set well but luckily it’s only 3 m down so I dive and set it manually. All good.

Next task is to make up a new rear bridle for the dinghy davits. Somehow one side was chafing against the motor on the crossing and frankly, we’re lucky it didn’t break. It’s never chafed like that before so I’ll have to be careful next time we tie her up. The new bridle is a bit longer and not sure, but that may have contributed to the front section rubbing even more on the davits than usual. That and the pain in my shoulder wakes me up at 2 am and I go and lower the dinghy enough to stop it from squeaking. I will make a matching, longer bridle for the front in the morning.

Christy calls Audrey who is with Jordan and we have a nice chat as I move in and out of the salon. Audrey and Jordan are planning on living together next September so that is good for both of them.