SeaSea sits on the deck of SeaSea overlooking the CYOA dock with Frenchtown and St Thomas in the background. It is super nice to arrive a day before setting sail, visit a local grocery to provision, have nice meal at a Frenchtown restaurant , then enjoy a beautiful evening at the dock. It doesn’t get much better than this and the adventure hasn’t even begun . Picture yourself here and imagine what tomorrow will bring.
SeaSea motored into St. Thomas for the first time just a bit over 1 year ago , propelled by a pair of 50 horsepower Volvo Penta diesels quietly humming away . Her sails had yet to be rigged, but it was with great anticipation that she arrived. Reflecting back I honestly can’t say what turned the farfetched idea of owning a boat in the Islands , 1600 miles away, into a reality . We had not done any serious boating in a long time , our 18 foot Wahoo had been sitting on a trailer at my brothers house for nearly 7 years. Sure there are the little steps that occurred in the years prior to our purchase, trips to the islands and day charters were great fun but most people who enjoy their island vacations don’t make such commitments.
Back in 2019 something compelled me to research cruising catamarans . At first it was just a casual “look see” that I would do intermittently when the urge would strike. Eventually I was spending hours scouring the internet , reading everything I could find, addicted to the idea. The Atlantic Cruising Yachts website had a lot of useful catamaran information and their Annapolis branch is practically in my backyard. I really liked the lines of the boats they offer and I had learned to sail only 3 blocks from their docks. It seemed the stars were lining up. An Email and a few phone calls later and we were meeting Captain James Fachtmann , one of their Florida associates and a Southwest airline pilot , at BWI airport. We were on our way to Annapolis for a private tour of 2 Fountaine Pajot catamarans . James has since left Atlantic cruising Yachts to start is own business selling giant yachts and ships. The guy is an over achiever.
After many meetings with a multitude of super supportive people at Atlantic Cruising Yachts ( Lauren should get a raise) all systems were go and a plan was in place to start a new charter business. SeaSea arrived and her maiden voyage was a tremendous success. But then, screech , bang the world came to an abrupt halt. No-one had predicted anything quite like our current pandemic, understandably bookings were cancelled or postponed. Still we count our blessings, as a few fortunate sailors were able to travel and enjoy the U.S. waters aboard SeaSea. We were not among them. Our plans to return in 2020 were dashed. The bigger dream and its driving force , however, remains intact. Owning a yacht in the islands is something a little special , a little daring , and a lot exciting. We do not want let time pass us by. You can’t get it back. We now have significant skin in the game and are focused on being better sailors and better people. This is living and a very meaningful way to spend time . We are so looking forward to the next leg in our island journey.
The above photograph is of the salt pond in St John USVI, strait ahead is Drunk Bay to the right is Ram head.
To understand the hidden secret of the modern industrial world in which I find myself, I have to return to another world. That world is at once wartime Nice and the plantation – the sugar isles on which Europe’s prosperity was built.
J. M. G. Le Clezio
When sailing the pristine waters of the Caribbean, surrounded by lush green islands, it is easy to forget this place had a difficult past. The sugar plantations that made their owners rich, and Europe prosperous required the arduous labor of slaves. Pictured here is the Annaberg Sugar Plantation that was establish in 1731. By the 1800 it was the largest of 21 sugar plantations on St John .
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
The best way to get here by boat is to moor in Leinster Bay , take the dinghy to shore and walk west along the beach until you reach the road and parking lot. There will be signage from there.
I’ve always thought it’d be nice to be seaweed, kind of just floating about.
Devendra Banhart
Christopher Columbus, on his way to the Caribbean, sailed through the Sargasso Sea, which is named for the sargassum seaweed that collects in the North Atlantic as the result of circular sea currents. The name is from the Portuguese word sargaça which means small grapes . These miniature air pods are responsible to for the buoyancy of the massive fields of vegetation that can span thousands of miles. The plants have no roots and they never touch the sea bottom. Nevertheless these fields of vegetation are the habitat for numerous sea creatures. Ever wonder where the baby sea turtles go after their mad dash to the sea ? They seek shelter and food in the floating seaweed.
Sea creature in the sargassum
Alas, there can be too much of a good thing. Between 2011 and 2018 massive amounts of sargassum made it to the beaches of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico , often piled unattractively by tides and wave action in to mounds that are many feet high . The rotting vegetation releases a bit of a stench that by the account of one jewelry store owner in Belize is corrosive enough to blacken silver and to damage gold plating.
The scientist are debating the cause of the recent massive blooms which remain controversial. Maybe increased nutrient runoff from the Mississippi and Amazon rivers, maybe increased sea temperatures or even increased atmospheric CO2. Nobody is willing to say for sure. Whatever the reason there has been relatively little of the weed this year which is perhaps the one saving grace of 2020… unless of course you are a juvenile loggerhead turtle.
Good new for the sailor is that protected harbors we seek are typically on the lee side of islands which are generally free of flotsam. So we can view sargassum as mostly a good thing .
This is Rendezvous Bay on the South side of St John. The North Side get all the attention because of the white sand beaches but as you can see the this is a spectacular harbor. Yes the beach is mostly cobble stones but there are some sandy spots and the snorkeling is quite nice. Don’t be too surprised to see a reef shark as I’ve heard rumor there is a shark nursery in Fish Bay which is just around Ditleff Point to the East . This Bay was a haven for US sailors who were denied ,because of Covid !9, entry to almost everywhere in the Caribbean, during the spring of 2020,. In normal times it is rare to see a boat anchored here. There are no public moorings but since this is outside the National Park an anchor can be put to use.
As for rain, there’s just a little patch of it and it’s far off in the distance making someone else wet.
“The world is wrong side up. It needs to be turned upside down in order to be right side up.”
Billy Sunday
12/14/2020. We are past hurricane season and SeaSea is back afloat after spending a couple month on the hard in Puerto Rico. But it’s still 2020 and that quote of Billy Sunday pretty much sums up this year. As of this writing travel in the islands remains restricted . Entry into the British Virgin Islands is permitted only through the T B Lettsome International Airport. You will need a negative Covid 19 test before entry and again 4 days after entry . God forbid one tests positive after entry. Can you say 14 day quarantine … while on vacation ? Ferry ports for vessels from outside of the Territory are due to re-open on January 21, 2021.
But , no worries, the US Virgin Islands, can be entered with a negative test without need to retest ( unless you get sick) and they have plenty to offer: Quiet coves, spectacular beaches , crystal clear water, snorkeling, diving, good eats , history , culture, hiking , a pizza boat, and yes, sailing. Aside from that little jaunt on the airplane (wear an N95) , a bareboat charter in the Virgin Islands allows for some really great social distancing.
The above entry requirements were obtained form official sources but please double check . Requirements change rapidly .
For anyone needing outboard motor parts . Contact us for the location of image above. It might still be there.
I my youth summer evening were often spent catching crabs on the South River at the point between Church and Crab creek. Brother Bob and I would meet our friend Mike in our respective outboards , raft up, toss out the anchors and some stinky old chicken necks attached to cotton cord with steel shower curtain hooks . In the course of a sunset we’d typically we’d catch a half a dozen blue crabs. Not many and hardly worth it form the standpoint of crab catching but the real value of the was watching the sun set in the company friends.
These days when cruising the Virgins, we like to take George, the dinghy, for a spin in the evening poking in an out of all the little nooks and crannies . You never know what you might find. We haven’t caught any crabs yet but we have caught quite a few sunsets … in the company of friends.
You’d think there would be a simple formula to calculate the power that a set of sails can generate in a a given amount of wind . But then you would be wrong. I did find the following after doing a little web search:
Wind of 7- 10 knots
HP = 0.015 x sail area in square feet
SeaSea has 18 HP
Wind of 11-16 knots
HP = 0.020 x sail area in square feet
SeaSea has 24HP
Wind of 17-21 knots
HP = 0.040 x sail area in square feet
SeaSea has 48 HP
Wind of 22-27 knots
HP= 0.070 x sail area in square feet
SeaSea has 84 HP
I also discovered that 10 knots of wind exerts 396 pounds-force on a stationary wall that has an area equal to that of SeaSea’s sails. I thought it would have been more. Yes pounds-force sounds weird but that’s to distinguish it from pounds, the weight and for that matter pounds, the currency . Imperial units can be super confusing when entering the world of physics. For those so inclined the above force amounts to 1760 Newtons. Sir Isaac, who sorted out the math, has the same birthdate as Jimmy Buffett making it all the more relevant to the island sailor.
If there was no friction to slow things down, applying those 1760 Newtons to SeaSea, or anything else with the same mass, would accelerate her at a rate of a little less than half of a foot per second per second. That translates to a 0 to 60 mph time of about 3 minutes and 11 seconds. Let the clock run, in the same frictionless world, and SeaSea will eventually reach the speed of light, where Einstein takes over for Newton . Albert’s birthday is, incidentally , the same as that of Billy Crystal, who has a great first name, and who probably knows someone who has been sailing.
Of course the above is over simplified and silly . There are too many variables. Friction exist, airfoils are not the same as flat walls , waves go up and down, fish fart, and seagulls squawk. Accurately calculating the horsepower generated from a set of sails is quite the challenge and probably futile, but if you really want to give it a go you might give this a look. Even here they are talking about force not power . Good Luck .
Update 7/9/2022 I found this online calculator : Sailpowercalc
So my brother Bob is a realist. It fits, he’s an engineer and has been adjusting sails of one sort of another his whole life. Our parents somehow predicted his lifelong passion before he was born. Hence his name BOB , Butt On Boat.
Whether or not you are a sail trim fanatic SeaSea sails great.
The channel is known only to the natives; so that if any stranger should enter into the bay without one of their pilots he would run great danger of shipwreck.
Thomas was not really speaking of Cruz Bay, nevertheless , it’s probably not a great idea for a visitor to cruise by yacht into Cruz Bay . All those moorings are private, there is a fair amount of traffic, including that of the ferries and there really is not any dockage for transients. No worries. This lovely harbor with the best shopping, grocery getting and restaurants on St John has an ample dinghy dock . Moor around the corner at Lind Point or Honeymoon Beach and it’s just a short put-put to the bay . Bring a flashlight as you will want to enjoy the nightlife and will need it for the ride back .
Sailing Sea Sea 