With a sixty plus mile day ahead of us the plan was to have the anchor up at 5am. All was going smoothly, everyone was ready, in position, and the chain was nicely falling into the locker. With about 20 meters to go there was a clunk, clunk, and the chain stopped. We were snagged on something. I should mention it was pitch black at the time. Ugh. We tried driving up over it. No success. We tried spinning over the snag. No success. Next we made a somewhat wide clockwise circle around. With a few start and stops, each time jerking the boat, we managed to get free. The remaining chain in the locker and a deep sigh we were on our way. Still flashing in our minds was the real possibility that we would have to wait until the sun was high in the sky and free dive down 25 feet to attempt to manually free the chain. Fuck am I glad it didn’t come to that.
Once the sun was up, the raised the main to reef 1 and out came the jib. Not setting any speed records, we did maintain an acceptable clip in comfortable seas. Mid-morning we unfurled the screecher for the first time this season. Our speed picked right up and for the next forty-five minutes we cruised along. Time for another sail change as the wind increased. We cycled jib for screecher a few times during the day (with occasional squalls) and reaching the island of Epi the speed dropped to 4ish knots. There were valleys where we would pick up speed but eventually with about five miles to go we gave up and motored the remaining bit. All told it was 64nm in twelve hours (5.3nm/hour).
The anchorage was a beautiful bay with four boats. We found a great spot to anchor, with close access to the beach. The highlight was a couple and their son who paddled over and gifted us a large bag of Dorado (Mahi mahi) that they had caught on there way to the anchorage. How nice and cool was that. Tomorrow’s dinner plans just changed!
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