Amaris Sails the World

St Kitts - Nevis

3/22/16

Joining the regatta!

Having enjoyed a couple of days at St Kitts (St Christopher) enjoying beaches and inadvertently crashing a party for superyachts, we needed to continue our journey to Antigua (as we have a schedule to keep right?)  It was blowing a honker, so we decided the sail to Nevis would suffice for the day.  Anchor up to Anchor down, I estimated the trip to be all of 10 miles.  As crazy as it  sounds, we had a debate of sailing vs motoring.  With the wind off the beam however, we decided in the end it was worth the effort to raise the main and sail - even if the winds would be flukey as we sailed in the lee of the islands.

The sail was delightful - of course.  The seas were small as we were protected from the Swell the majority of the trip.  Great tradewinds of 20 knots just forward of  the beam.  Perfect sailing conditions, which may have lead to the regatta of superyachts which decided to sail with us as well.  Five 100 to 150 foot boats raised their sails right behind us and chased us all the way to Nevis!  We were quickly joined by a helicopter and a small fleet of small RIB’s taking photos of the fleet (and the obstacle that we had become) proving that the event wasn’t entirely spontaneous.  

In the end, we had a joyous sail and stood our ground (sort of).  We were passed by all but one of the superyachts, but did regain some of the ground from the slowest of those that passed us.  It normally makes me a bit sad not to come in first, but on this day, getting a close up of these yachts under sail made the defeat tolerable.  We drowned any sorrows we may have had with “killer bee’s” from Sunshine’s bar.  :)