A simple 2 hour sail up north I told the crew as we departed (narrowly avoiding the world’s biggest sting ray). 

The first hour was perfect upwind gusty sailing, until we saw a squall on the horizon! I was very excited for my first experience of a Caribbean squall as skipper (we had a great one during round Barbados race when I was on helm).

We already had 2 reefs in at this point, so felt prepared.

When it hit, the wind increased from 21kts to 36kts! We depowered at first and then attempted to heave too. This didn’t really work as the backed headsail was depowered and didn’t offer enough to counter the main sail. Good lesson.

We all got completed soaked through and then continued on. The wind totally dropped off and we headed off on a different tack. The wind then shifted around a lot. We tried another heave too but didn’t quite nail it, didn’t head into the wind enough and ended up on a weird beam reach.

Eventually we gave up and put the engine on as our destination was into the wind and our ETA was another two hours away. 

Now anchored in Rameau bay and it’s raining on our lunch!

Our first squall! 🌊 ☔️

Crew

Crew Logs

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