And Now, A Word From Daniel

I just want to throw in a couple of words here for those who might be interested in the "Rest of the Story".  First, please notice that on the Google Maps showing our progress there is now a Page 2 (scroll down to the bottom of the list of Placemarks and then click on the Page 2 button).

In Carla's post yesterday she talked about how close the planes come to the road, but she failed to mention the really awesome part.  The main road that the planes fly over is on a ridge about 200 feet above the runway.  A normal approach would have the plane at about 100 feet above the runway at that distance, so the pilot must come in as close to the road and ridge as possible at the slowest speed possible, then drop out of the sky and set the plane on the runway before running into the bay.  The plane in this picture didn't touch the wheels down until about two thirds down the length of the runway.  If you don't believe me, zoom in and you can see that he still hasn't touched down yet.  This plane is LANDING, not taking off.  To land at this airport solo, a pilot must receive special training from an instructor specifically at this airport.


No doubt Carla will mention the trip from St. Barts to St. Kitts today, but the facts may get in the way of her writing style.  We sailed out of the anchorage and had a great 5-hour close-reach sail with 15 knots of wind and 3-4 foot seas.  When we drew near St. Kitts, the high mountains funneled the winds along the north side of the island and the winds quickly rose to 20-23 knots.  We reefed both sails twice and were still making nearly 8 knots with the toerail occasionally in the water.  When we reached the shadow of the island, the wind dropped to less than 10 knots in just a couple minutes.  We furled both sails and motored the rest of the way along the south coast for about 2 hours with 14 knots on the nose.  Needless to say it was an interesting sail.