107: Death Defying or DEAD CALM? Blown Away's FIRST PASSAGE: St. Lucia to Antigua

We had talked about and planned this moment for months…our FIRST PASSAGE. Yet, somehow, it is a strange feeling when a plan comes together and actually happens. As the sage philosopher, George Peppard always said on the TV Show, the A-Team, “I love it when a plan comes together.” After 7 days of sailing lessons, we were ready for the passage to Antigua so we provisioned, got Covid tested, charted our course, cleared out, and untied to lines! And, to witness this historic passage, we were thrilled for the brave extra crew member on board, our dear friend, Tracie! Here’s the dilemma: Do you wish for an easy first passage or a rough, things go wrong, passage because you have an official captain on board to learn how to trouble shoot and fix a problem? Well, much to everyone’s relief, Mother Nature kindly handed us the first-one. No trouble-shooting or discussion took place other than when to turn on the generator to make another Nespresso! It was an EASY passage with flat seas and little wind. Thankfully, the wind did pick up in the channels, and we were able to spend a few hours sailing, with just the sound of the wind; but, most of the time we had to motor sail to ensure our day time arrival in English Harbor. While we anticipated seeing a variety of sea life, we were only inundated with flying fish! A few misjudged their capabilities and sadly, their lives ended on our deck. But, we did enjoy an outstanding sunset and equally beautiful sunrise. We pulled into Freeman’s Bay/English Harbor just before sunset. We made it in the nick of time, with enough daylight to drop anchor and observe the boat before dark. The bay was full of boats and we were a little concerned that with no wind, we might drift into our neighbor’s yacht. We raised the quarantine flag, celebrated our arrival and historic accomplishment, and settled in for the evening. #sailing #sailboat #sailingprojects #firstpassage #stlucia #antigua NEW TO OUR CHANNEL? We are Eileen and Brown Councill. Welcome to our channel and a glimpse into our life adventure! 2020 was a year of uncertainty and change (for all of us, right?), but we overcame the challenges and decided it was time to chase our dream, to sail around the world! Did I mention that we had very NO sailing experience? Before leaving Qingdao, China, our home of 4 years, we sold almost all of our earthly possessions and started our international search to find the right sailboat that we would call "home." After 5 months of unanticipated twists and turns, we found what we were looking for, a used Leopard 44' Catamaran located in St. Lucia. So, here begins our journey, filled with unmatched excitement and honestly, a bit of trepidation as well. We have much to learn as we travel the world on our floating home and we intend to document that journey and share it with you. We are so glad you have decided to join us, and we hope that you will find our story so compelling that it will inspire you to chase your dreams too! As a viewer, we consider you to be part of our family and look forward to getting to know you. Don't hesitate to comment on our videos and ask questions. We will do our best to answer every correspondence! All we ask is that you have patience with us as we work really hard to improve our camera/video techniques and ability to tell a story. Hopefully, you will be as BLOWN AWAY from watching, as we are in experiencing and producing our adventures! HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT US? If you wish to support our video efforts, all we ask is that you SUBSCRIBE, give a THUMBS UP, SHARE our videos with your friends, AND COMMENT! WOULD YOU LIKE TO GET TO KNOW US MORE DEEPLY? It would be an honor and pleasure to deepen our relationship with you as a Patron. Please click on the following link to see how: https://www.patreon.com/sailingblownaway WOULD YOU LIKE TO FOLLOW OUR JOURNEY? https://www.noforeignland.com/boat/6040796987916288 WHERE CAN YOU FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIA? Instagram - @sailingblownaway Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SailingBlownAway Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/eileen.dietrich/ YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/sailingblownaway