JUST ANOTHER DAY ON INDIGO
It’s zero-dark-thirty in Simpson Bay, St. Martin, and my wife, Debbie, and I are trying hard not to run into our friends on Why Knot IV as we fight to get our anchor up in 40-knots of wind. We finally get away, raise the double-reefed main, turn downwind and head for the British Virgin Islands, 90 miles west. The wind is right on our tail, and the autopilot struggles to keep Indigo, our 46ft Leopard cat, under control.
Of course all our cruising friends, hunkered down in the bay as the wind continues to howl, tell us we are nuts to head out when there is nothing but more wind and bigger waves in the forecast. But embarking on “ill-advised” passages is
