4 am and LILIA is riding easy in The Bight. A breeze has freshened in the early hours and chased away the overcast allowing us to clearly see stars of which there are many. Well, myself anyway. The rest of the crew is still sleeping. Already the sky is beginning to lighten. I can distinguish the outline of the island hillsides. The birds are beginning to sing too. The wind is causing the boat to swing on her mooring and wavelets are lapping at the hull and dinghy making little popping sounds. And, luckily she remains securely attached to our stern. Jeff was wise to suggest we pay the $25 overnight charge for the mooring ball we are on, as opposed to dropping an anchor in the sand. Someone would have had to awake every few hours in the night to verify that we weren’t dragging or about to foul or be fouled by another vessel. Cheap insurance for a good nights rest was the
argument.

The masthead light has been burning nightlong so one order of business must be to run our auxiliary and recharge batteries.

I can see lights from Tortolla across the channel. In between lies Peters Island which we plan to visit after breakfast for a snorkel and our next overnight end of day. We are in direct line of sight with St John (USVI) which allows cellular data connection on account of an AT&T tower on that island. As St. John drops on the horizon later in the week these logs will become more reliant on sporadic WiFi availability.

East of Peter is Ginger, Cooper, and Salt Islands which will be our afternoon sail.

Wow. The weather changes as the sky lightens. Low clouds form and I just felt a drop or two. Might have to stand ready to batten down hatches since I’m shirtless man on deck. The breeze is providing cooling air for the boys below as I await sunrise.