Habibis run to St.Lucia

a pleasant sail...

We left Martinique a couple of days ago towards St.Lucia. We knew there would be 20kts or more of wind, seas as high as 7' to 8' and the possibility of squalls. But we also knew the weather wasn't going to get any better and we didn't want to spend too much time in Martinique. So off we went, had a fabulous sail in the first half of the passage and for the first time we even had all three sails out! Then two squalls hit us but weren't too bad. It was by then when we turned off the Autopilot and started to steer ourselves - it just seemed to be difficult for it to keep a steady course with the big seas and gusty wind (another point to add to our check-list).

In the last third of the trip we were hit by a real nasty double squall with gusts up to 40kts and even bigger seas and it got really hard to hold the steering wheel, while splashed with saltwater. I would lie if I'd say it was a pleasant trip. But there have been a lot of lessons learned again: we usually reefed the sails early enough, my intuition of if and when we would be hit by a squall was mostly right and Habibi with her long keel cut smoothly through the waves all the time. We felt safe and were again convinced that she will hold out against any conditions (No, we're - or I'm - not fancy to push her to the limit!).

the other sailboat almost disappeared behind the waves

With love from paradise
Rahel