We’re up early, me at 5:30, Christy a bit later. We’re off anchor and following 2 other boats towards Martinique by 6:45 am.

We resolve to follow the boat in front of us the whole way, assuming they are going where we are going, to see what they do. When they stop motoring, we stop motoring, when they raise their genoa, we raise ours.

We’re right on their tail motor sailing with main only (we raised it at anchor in Mero, just like them) and sailing well. In fact, as we pass Scott’s Head we’re going quite fast, 6+ kts and I’m thinking we’ll pass them. This quickly turns to my usual disillusionment as they sail a tighter line to the wind than we can, and faster than us too. Grrrr.

While we can easily sail 5+ kts, that angle is taking us well west of Martinique so that if we stay on this course, we’ll have 5+ nms to make back into St. Pierre. That is all according to the Nav system which shows us pointed at our target but drifting with the wind and current well west. Sure enough as we move along, we can the rear of the boat point further and further west of Dominica which means we are sailing in an arc, adding distance to our journey. We fiddle with the sails (on my watch I let out some more foresail) and eventually make a steady 4.5 kts towards Martinique. It’s a fairly uneventful afternoon and we both take turns resting.

As we near Martinique the wind becomes very fickle and of course, since we have moved so far west, our target is directly into the wind which is now coming head on. We bring in the Genoa and about an hour later the main as they are doing nothing. Motor the last 2 hours again. Grrrr.

We’re anchored at 5:30 pm, only about 3 hours behind schedule. But it’s a very nice anchorage we find a good spot though make slight adjustments twice before settling down. There is some guy on a megaphone in town that is super annoying. He will continue until about 11 pm.

My left shoulder is killing me. Several advils in the afternoon helped but needs 1/2 aspirin and two more advils for me to sleep. I go out in the cockpit for a change. Nice to enjoy the cool air and a bit of the stars. It starts to rain as soon as I get comfortable but I curse at it and it stops right away. Eventually sleep til about 2 am when it becomes not soft enough and I move to the salon couch.