March 25, 2010.

There was a bit of a get together on the beach last night for the dozen or so boats anchored in the lee of Conception Island. During the evening the 3 other boats we’ve been traveling with decided that we should all leave this morning at “oh dark thirty”. They were also throwing numbers out like 0730 and 0800. All I know is that I heard oh dark thirty.

So this morning I was up at 0600. I secured the generator, raised the flag, opened the sail bag, opened up the enclosure and attached the halyard. It was about then that I realized that nobody else was stirring. It was at that time that I hatched my diabolical plot. I sat quietly in the cockpit until 0630 when I knew that everyone else would be paying attention below to their SSB’s and tuning in the weather guru, Chris Parker. I figured that since they’ve been motorsailing over the horizon on us everyday, that we would get a bit of a head start today and stand a good chance of arriving about when they do.

So while their attention was elsewhere we quietly raised the mainsail and then the hook and ghosted out of the anchorage in the predawn grayness. About 40 minutes later I heard a faint call on the VHF, Veranda, you bastard…..lol. By then we were romping along at better than 6 knots and they were dots behind us in the distance. Christy went back to bed I cranked up the IPOD and enjoyed a perfect morning of sailing.

They all spent various amounts of time motorsailing and we all arrived at Cat Island within 500 yards of each other after a 42 mile day. The Savage Sons caught their first Mahi Mahi of the year on the way over. It really was a splendid day.