Navigating to Nevis
Location: Nevis
We got going today with a more leisurely 7 am start, giving us plenty of time for a relaxed breakfast with a lot of chatting. Once we were done with cleanup, there was a brief break before everyone was summoned to customs so that they could make sure we were all who we said we were for our exit from Statia.
After some queuing and some brief Caribbean rain showers, most of the crew took a power nap while we waited for the bureaucracy to release us. As soon as it did, we raised our anchor, unfurled our jib, and set our course away from the beautiful shores of the Quill towards the distant island of Nevis.
Unfortunately, after an hour of our passage, the wind turned against us and watch team 3 (Julia, Tess, and Sam) re-furled the jib and set the engines to steadily take us down the stunning coastline of St Kitts. We steadily rotated our watch teams in hour intervals while reviewing some points of seamanship in preparation for the looming final exam. After 5 hours, we were neatly piloted into Charlestown by watch team 2 (Nat, Francesca, Megan, Sofia). Throughout the sail, watch team 1 (Zoe, Katie, Lusi, Emi) was responsible for vibes and music, and they really kept us all motivated.
Once we were secured to a mooring, we transitioned from points of practical seamanship to points of theoretical seamanship by sitting down for our final VHF exam. Everyone passed with flying colors, everyone’s skill at the phonetic alphabet having been honed by finishing up by making a new story to help remember each of the letters.
After a wonderful pesto pasta dinner, prepared by Tessa and Sofia, all the divers knuckled down to reviewing navigational techniques while Nat and Tom got busy with some boat maintenance. Finally, we wrapped up the day chilling inside the salon, chatting about everything as we sheltered from an enormous cloud burst that had settled over the bay.