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Trip Summary Caribbean to Chesapeake Bay

Our wonderful winter cruising adventure concluded when we sailed into Rock Hall, Maryland, our home port since 1991. We both agree the sail home from the Caribbean took much longer than first expected. We departed USVI on April 2, 2022, and we arrived at our home dock on May 31, 2022. A total trip of 3,319 nautical miles was traveled this season, including Puerto Rico to Antigua.  The total NM sailed from St. Thomas USVI to Rock Hall, MD was 2,410! We both agree the sailing was fantastic departing the Caribbean. With an approximate course of 300 degrees and with the Tradewinds blowing from 090, that makes the wind 150 degrees off our starboard bow for a broad reach all the way home. Well, at least it is a reach from the Virgin Islands to The Exumas in the Bahamas!

Once we sailed north of the Bahamas, we began to get into the coastal frontal winds coming off the USA east coast.  These frontal winds pull the trades south or southwest and then the front blows in with northwest and north and northeast winds making for a challenge to plan passages north. We easily sailed 3 days out of Puerto Rico to reach the Bahamas, and then we sailed easily northwest thru the Exumas, but once we reached the Nassau, Bahamas area, we were firmly controlled by these coastal weather patterns. These delayed us a month on our way from Florida north to the Chesapeake Bay. Many cruisers ahead of us were “stuck” for weeks waiting for weather windows to simply move a day or two up the coast or even in the ICW, Intracoastal Waterway. 

This is the overview of our entire sailing season. 3,319 nm traveled.

Highlights of the Season

As I reflect back on the season past, I have many fond memories and images in my mind: the Southern Cross constellation rising over Antigua as seen from the blackness of Barbuda at 3 am. Code zero sailing and reaching downwind for many, many miles under autopilot vane steering. Coffee shops of French St, Martin. Sunsets over St. Thomas as seen from St. John. Happy hours at the rebuilt Saba Rock. Watching the sunset while anchored off St. Barts. Day after day of beam reaching for the Bahamas at hull speed 7.0 knots+ and discovering the beauty of Conception Island with great buddy boat IP370 SEA LYON. This winter and spring were pure joy and a wonderful escape from the hibernation of Covid. We really enjoyed this sailing season!

Island Spirit reefed down sailing hull speed into the sunset
We set these sailing and cruising goals to paper in 1996, they came true in 2011, and now, in 2022 they are still leading us onward.

Here are the 63 legs we ran this season

My interactive map where you can zoom in to see these legs is archived here:
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/029c-222ed31e-ae72/view

Leg From To Nautical Miles
1 PR St. Thomas USVI 47
2 USVI St James 8
3 St James St. Martin 117
4 STX SMX 12
5 SMX St. Barts 25
6 St. Barts Antigua 90
7 Jolly Falmouth 7
8 Falmouth Jolly 7
9 Jolly Sailing 13
10 Jolly Sailing 20
11 Jolly Sailing 15
12 Jolly North Sound 25
13 North Sound Barbuda 37
14 Barbuda St. Barts 82
15 St. Barts St. Martin 16
16 St. Martin Sailing 10
17 St. Martin Marigot 4
18 Marigot Grand Case 5
19 Marigot BVI 110
20 Sopers Bitter End, BVI 29
21 Bitter End Anegada, BVI 17
22 Anegada Bitter End. BVI 17
23 BVI St. John, USVI 13
24 St. John St. James, USVI 4
25 BVI Willy T, Normans, BVI 15
26 Willy T Jost 13
27 Jost Sopers 6
28 Sopers USVI 6
29 Red Hook St. James 4
30 St. Thomas St. Croix 43
31 St. Croix St. Thomas 43
32 Red Hook St. James 4
33 St. James Red Hook 4
34 Red Hook St. James 4
35 St James Red Hook 4
36 Red Hook St. John 4
37 Red Hook St. Thomas 10
38 St Thomas Crown Bay 4
39 St Thomas Culebra, PR 30
40 Culebra Patillas, PR 58
41 Patillas Salinas, PR 25
42 Salinas Guanica, PR 42
43 Guanica Puerto Real, PR 38
44 Puerto Real Sailing 4
45 Puerto Real Mayaguana. BS 520
46 Mayaguana Conception, BS 178
47 Conception Georgetown, BS 48
48 George Town Black Point, BS 60
49 Black Point Highbourne, BS 56
50 Highbourne  Palm Cay – West Bay 64
51 West Bay Stuart FL 231
52 Stuart FL Ft. Pierce, FL 30
53 Ft. Pierce St. Augustine, FL 188
54 St. Augustine Charleston, SC 224
55 Charleston Cape Lookout, NC 257
56 Adams Cr. Belhaven, NC 51
57 Belhaven Coinjock, NC 87
58 Coinjock Great Bridge, VA 37
59 Great Bridge Portsmouth, VA 11
60 Portsmouth Deltaville. VA 55
61 Deltaville, VA Solomons, MD 64
62 Solomons, MD Annapolis MD 50
63 Annapolis, MD Rock Hall, MD 17
    TOTAL Nautical Miles 3319
    Total Statute Miles 3819
    Total Kilometers 6146

Again: Our interactive archive map is here:
https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/029c-222ed31e-ae72/view

The Decision to Sail Back

This photo says it all. As we set sail out of St. Martin with the sun setting on the French harbor of Marigot, Radeen and I decided that it is all simply too beautiful to sail out and head home with the thoughts of never coming back. So this photo was taken the moment we both agreed to sail back next season because this is just too beautiful not to. We have fallen in LOVE with the Caribbean Islands of USVI, St. Martin, St. Maarten, Antigua and Barbuda, and Martinique. We must return, so that is our plan. The boat is in our home port, where we will refit all systems for maintenance and upgrades. We will sail right back to the Caribbean Sea ASAP in the late fall of 2022. This is why we have the boat we have, she is meant to sail, and Island Spirit loves to sail the ocean. She will take us there!

The moment we decided to sail back, as we sailed out of St. Martin for the BVIs. That is the sunset on Marigot over our stern.

Cheers to all, and thanks for sailing along.

Celebration bubbly, Annapolis, MD May 2022
Island Spirit with her country flags flying