We left Deep Bay around 6am for our last long sail. We tried to avoid using the starboard engine too much but it still overheated and we had to shut it off. David diagnosed the problem as a broken fan belt. Fortunately the course was a nice broad reach so we didn't really need engines. As we were leaving Antigua we crossed paths with a huge cruise ship coming into St. Johns. It towered many stories above the water – we got some nice pictures of them while they were taking pictures of us. We had to temporarily alter our course by about 20 degrees to safely miss it.
Our speed was fairly low at first due to the wind shadow of Antigua – 5 knots average for the first hour. Then it picked up and we got up to the 8-9 knots range.
We made it up to St. Barts earlier than we had expected and Patti wanted a good beach to walk on. So instead of stopping in Gustavia we anchored in Anse de Columbia (which slightly annoyed some of the girls since they liked the showers in Gustavia). We picked up a mooring within swimming distance of shore. Tracy and Jimi went snorkeling and the others went to walk on the beach. David replaced the fan belt on the engine while everyone was getting ready (fortunately there was a spare and he was able to improvise the tools he needed). Snorkeling was nice and it was an easy swim to the rocks and then into shore. Tracy and Jimi saw a large manta ray gliding above the sand.
The anchorage was fairly crowded by sunset with mostly French boats. After dinner David played guitar and we all sang – no doubt amusing the French.
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