07/04/2026
⚓️Today on Wind Waker’s Song
We made it from Vieques, Puerto Rico to Norman Island, British Virgin Islands. About 60 nautical miles over 2 days, with an overnight stop in St. Thomas. This is a long one, so buckle up.
Day 1: Vieques → St. Thomas
About a 6 hour run. We did it in half the time by leaving with a sailable wind angle day. Fast, clean, and honestly…fun.
Nothing broke. We caught some fish. And for the first time in a while, the boat felt right.
With a clean bottom and no holes in the sails, we’re moving like a completely different boat. Before, we basically needed 18 knots of wind just to get going. Now? We were doing 8 knots in 13 knots of wind. That’s a game changer.
We got in, hit the beach with our friends Chris and Elise, kids played with their daughter, and we hung out till after sunset. Then got ready for Day 2.
Day 2: St. Thomas → Norman Island (with a pit stop in Tortola to check into the UK)
It started great.
15 minutes in…starboard engine overheats and shuts down.
And just like that, the day changes.
If you remember Fajardo, when we drug, catamarans don’t like running on one engine at low speed. You lose control and start spinning. We were doing about 4 knots when it happened, so we still had steering…barely.
But we were heading straight into 20–25 knot winds and waves. Every time we were beat back and slowed to 2 knots, the boat would start turning off course toward open water. I’d sit there with the wheel hard to port (left), waiting for it to bite again.
The goal: just make it to the tip of St. Thomas so we could turn and sail.
We finally get there, go to turn, let out the sail…and chaos.
Charter boats everywhere. One doing circles with sails flogging. Another cutting across. Then another behind us doing the same thing. Three boats, all spinning, sails snapping, no one really in control. Didn’t have time to question the multiple motor vessels and ferries running by at the same time.
We were fighting the engine, trying to not hit the people spinning and stalling, our sail starts flogging, we start spinning. Now we all look like idiots. 😆
We roll up the sail, regroup, and try again.
This time we wait, pick our moment, turn clean, and get the headsail loaded. Now we’re moving.
Next challenge: (pictured) a tight cut between two islands. About 50–60 feet wide. Reefs. Shallow water. With an island in the middle. Choose left or right. Left is shallow, right is deeper and narrower but chart says…“Heavy current, single file.”
Perfect. We choose left.
We’re moving at 7 knots, one engine, sail pulling, and I decide to keep the bad engine in neutral…ready in case we need it. It’s been off for hours so it’s cool again.
We get close and realize how tight it really is. Reef everywhere. Water doing weird things. Doesn’t feel right.
Last second decision, I slam the bad engine into reverse at 3500 RPM, push the good one forward, and spin us out of the gap. 😂 got scared…but the ripples didn’t look like a current it read 2’ deep reef and if we hit that at 7 knots we are done for good. So I decide not to trust the charts.
Sails flogging, boat sideways, probably looked like idiots.
We reset and take to the other side.
Halfway through, some guy in a powerboat decides he’s going to beat us through the cut. While everyone else on the other side is patiently waiting for us to come through.
He comes flying in, full speed, while we’re already committed. Nowhere to go. We’re 30 feet wide in a maybe 50 foot gap.
Brandi’s watching him and I scream (I can’t see him he’s behind my sail) is he cutting us off going beside us??? She says, “I think he’s just going to hit us.” 😆
Great…I just get to sit here blind waiting to see if a boat rams us.
He misses…barely. Trims up and jumps the shallows to get around us.
Unreal.
We clear the pass, thank the boats that waited, and finally get a stretch of actual sailing.
And it was worth it.
Crystal water, cliffs, beaches…one of the best runs we’ve had. Probably some of the best scenery we’ve seen. Sailing through all these tiny islands, thinking about all the people before us who have, pirates, the wind blowing in our face and nothing but the wind moving us. Magical!
Then…customs.
I thought we were stopping for the night in this bay. I was done. The last hour into the bay customs was in I had to drop my sail and fight the engine again. My day was almost over.
We arrive…
Packed anchorage. 25–30 knot winds funneling down the hills. 70 feet deep. Chris tells me “no we’re just stopping to check in, just anchor don’t be a wuss”.
I like to anchor with 7’ of chain for every 1’ of depth. That will hold in pretty strong winds. 5:1 is the standard for moderate winds. This is insane. 😆
We drop 300 feet of chain. About 2.5:1. Not ideal. Engines running, just in case. I leave Brandi and Owen in charge and Chris stays (they got there 1.5 hours before, due to our engine debacle) to help keep an eye out.
Cleared into the UK in under 20 minutes and got out of there.
Final leg: 6 miles to Norman Island.
Wind on the nose. One engine. Autopilot fighting everything.
Then suddenly, we hard turn toward land. I stand up to take control from the autopilot. Hit the standby button (self steer) and…the rudder is jammed.
No steering.
At this point we’ve got:
• 1 engine down
• no rudder control (or so I thought)
• 25 knot winds
• heading toward land
I call Brandi up, we start checking everything. Nothing’s jammed.
So I make the call, bring the bad engine back online at low RPM and “zero turn” the boat like a mower.
Throttle one up, one down, sometimes reverse, just walking the boat in the direction we need to go.
Slow. Ugly. But it worked. I unlocked that skill in a catastrophe. Just like docking or anchoring, I can crab walk this boat all the way for 3 hours to the next anchorage until I can dive and see what’s wrong with the rudders.
Then it hits me…😆
Turn the autopilot off.
We do, and instantly, full steering.
User error. I had basically overloaded the autopilot correcting constantly on one engine. I was straight up spamming it for a few minutes like a moron.
We continue the run hand steering, then I got the courage to turn it back on…I was worried it wouldn’t work and I was not ready to financially stomach that. Turns out it works perfectly. 😆
That’s the thing about this life.
90% of it is dealing with small catastrophes before they become real ones.
And every time you work through one, you gain something. The know how to replicate whatever you did to regain control of the catastrophe and safely make it to the next place. Like muscle memory.
Today we ran a boat with:
• one engine
• temporary loss of steering
• heavy wind and traffic
…and made it safely.
And in the end?
It’s probably just an impeller or a clogged strainer on the engine. Easy fix…
That’s a massive win.
We’re now anchored in crystal clear water, caves to explore, reefs to snorkel…
…and one more notch in the belt.
Now we can relax with our friends and family for a week while we wait on a weather window to cross the ocean to St Marten. We’re going to cram in everything we can. Caves, baths, waterfall, sea life, stern to shore anchoring on the beach, and lots of swimming. This is why we’re out here.
