Location: 16°59.14'N 061°54.03'W
Our first day underway to the British Virgin Isles started with a hardy breakfast of croissants, muffins, and melon. After breakfast and cleanup, we dove right into preparing for our departure, going over line handling, passage prep, and the boat checklist to make sure everything was secure and functional before our voyage. We then ate chickpea salad prepared by the infamous Tina before heading to the fuel dock. Leaving the dock was a process, having to pick up multiple anchors and make sure everything on the boat was secure and ready to sail. After several hours of instructions, checklists, and waiting, we were finally ready to leave the marina… and put up our sails. I had the job of keeping the boat into the wind while the rest of the crew worked together to raise the sails by using a “2-6” counting method. While we finished putting up the sails, Tina was down in the galley preparing beef soup and biscuits to strengthen our stomachs before our first night in the open ocean. After eating, we were split into two watch teams taking 4-hour shifts through the night and the rest of our time underway to steer, watch for traffic, and perform hourly boat checks to make sure everything was running smoothly. We have yet to encounter any rain squalls or rough seas, so wish us luck on the rest of our one and a half day crossing to the British Virgin Isles.