Location: Saint Lucia
The hearty crew of Argo, after completing the normal evening squeeze/clean-up ritual, once again prepared to face high seas on what was to be a thrilling, however short, crossing up the windward side of St. Vincent across and into the wind shadow of the Piton mountains of St. Lucia. At around 21:00, the crew slipped Argo’s mooring lines (with some difficulty) and prepared to set our canvas. Our chief mate and notable “galley worker”, Kackie, had a surprise in store for the crew; there was to be a sail raising race.
The race was structured so that all hands would begin a Mainsl raise. After two minutes, two watch teams would be called, at random, to move on to the smaller Main Staysl. After another two minutes, one team would be called to Argo’s smallest sail, the Forward Staysl. The time handicaps were to compensate for the difficulty in raising each respective sail. To ensure no teams slacked on a sail raise that was not to be their final objective, random staff were selected to lead each sail and would not necessarily lead their own watch team. I, for example, was selected to lead the Mainsl raise and became an honorary member of watch team three when they were randomly left under my charge. Watch team three, and I went on to dominate the competition and won a stellar, landslide victory against teams one and two. Once sails were set, the crew fell into a normal watch rotation for the evening, beginning with watch team three.
Watch team two, Meg’s and my team, had the 0400-0800 watch and took over command during a hectic squall with gale force winds sustaining 35-40 knots. Though the squall passed quickly, the sea state and wind force remained lively throughout the rest of our passage. I had a particularly proud dad moment when I sent a contingent of my team lead by Kiki and comprised of Zac, Maddy, and special guest Dave (Kara was on a boat check) with orders to simply trim our sails for maximum speed. With no further instruction, the trimming squad headed up to the bow. As they trimmed sails one at a time, I watched our speed slowly climb from a respectable 7 knots to a brilliant 9.5-10 knots. It’s absolutely lovely to see the students really get the hang of making Argo perform at her best.
Dawn crept in, and the outline of St Lucia slowly took shape. As we sailed into the lee of the island, a beautiful sunrise showed us the Piton mountains for the first time. We arrived at the “Wakcal” waypoint, and the captain called all hands to strike sail and bring us into a mooring field directly under Gros Piton.
The rest of the day consisted of boat to bed, continuation of Emergency First Responder training, and a dive led by a St Lucia marine ranger. The contrast between an exciting night and a super chill day gave some crew the feeling that the previous night was either a fever dream or a distant memory.
After a lovely dinner, the crew is enjoying some chill time and is excited to get a nice full night of rest.