Jeff Wilcox

Absolutely stunning sailing until we tore the screecher. Averaging 9 knots and regularly hitting 10-12kt in 15-20kt breeze on the beam. Easy sea state, maybe 4’ at 6 sec. Things went south when we had a bad furl of the screecher which let it flog itself to death. Some crew lessons followed. Just Livnat and I.

Tight to the wind sail with a decent wind angle for Les Saintes which was the plan. Winds out of 70 degT. Rough sail with wind 17-20kt gusts to 28kts and seas at 8’ seas (much more in places). Made slow progress since we needed to stay reefed up for gusts but slow progress otherwise. Bailed and turned to Desahies since it was going to be a late arrival into the Saintes. Took a left turn and motored about 35nm

With Chris and Brad who haven’t sailed but learned enough to take a couple of hours of night watch. Left at the 4pm bridge. Sweet night. Blowing 15kts with the screecher and full main and humming along. Wind built to 20kts and I switched to the jib and kept good speed. Stopped and dropped the sails before VG to make Round Rock pass in the dark and the puttered into town to clear in. Pretty damn nice night.

Epic shakedown sail :)

Launch time

Lovely day on the bay. Out past the lighthouse then flew back in.

Nice sail, light winds 10-12 kts most of the way. Had the typical wind shadow plus catabatic blasts along the coats of Grenada. Last sail with Vic, Emma and Brent this trip and last real sail for Aeoli (H54) until the fall.

Another great night sail. Started slow but then settled into the usual patterns of wind shadow in StL and StV but otherwise 15-25kts. We remove the failing rudder sensor on the way to StL and autopilot was working ok but found that it needed some dynamism to really steer; in flat waters it was lost. Had a lovely run from StV to Canouan hitting 9+ kts. Clear skies, beautiful sailing. Also, learned I could heave the boat to using only the “2 number” reef in the main and no headsail, as we killed time in Charleston waiting for the marina to open up. Cool.

Beautiful clear night with good sailing. Typical wind shadows behind Dominica and Martinique but otherwise very nice. Winds were a little more out of the south than I expected until we got into the south end of Martinique. The channel between there and St Lucia was a blast and we held 8+ kts in 18-25kts pretty much to Marigot Bay (barnacles and all!).