Day three in the US Virgin Islands. The storm has long gone. Let’s do a 360 of this beautiful mooring field in the Caneel bay. Wind certainly picked up and was blowing 20 to 25 knot northeasterly. Our plan today was to go to Buck island, South of St. Thomas. It’s perfect condition to do some sailing. Katie was putting on her favorite hat. We are ready to go. Bring the bridle lines onboard. Raise the sail, unfurl the jib. Something is not right about stack pack, so I did some quick fix. It had a pretty nice view up here. Sea was pretty smooth in this area. We were on broad reach. Gybe with the self tacking jib. There was only one other sailboat out nearby, it’s a racing boat that likely was doing the practice run for tomorrow’s St. Thomas International Regatta. The upwind heeling made us appreciate more the catamaran staying upright. I counted there were 9 crew members hiking out on the starboard edge. We’ll see how well this Bali 4.2 sail upwind tomorrow. To be honest, I am not optimistic with its shallow keel of only 3.67 feet. The smooth sailing didn’t last long. The sea became choppy when we started to sail out of the shallow area. By looking at the boat in front of us. It’s not hard to tell we will encounter the roughest patch of waves. Let’s see how well this Bali 4.2 handles the choppy waves with its hard foredeck . This is similar situation as in SF bay when flood current pouring into the gate from Pacific. We were sailing over 9 knots SOG right now. I have to warn you that the videos definitely look scarier than the situation actually was, especially with the camera pointing down all the way from the top of flybridge. It’s jumpy for sure, but by holding on tight, neither of us felt unsafe at any moment. Overall, we think the hard foredeck handled the choppy waves pretty well. Waves slamming the deck from below was not that bad. Katie held on tight, with low center of gravity, she felt very safe where she stayed. Hind sight, we will definitely wear life jackets and possibly tether to the boat too. On the other hand, I have my reservation on the helm station so high on the flybridge. It’s nice when the sea is quiet and it has a good vantage point. But the motions were certainly compounded from up here too. After we reached open ocean and gybed towards the west, the wave motions became much smoother in the second half of trip. Katie took the helm. We had a great time sailing and enjoyed it very much. With the Buck island in sight, we’ll see you in the next video.
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Sailboat - 2022 Bali 4.2
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Videos were shot by GoPRO HERO 9
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Background music is licensed from Artlist
Collecting Memories by Invisible World created by Aija Alsina
Rise created by Clemens Ruh
Looking for by Light created by Angel Salazar
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11 сен 2024
