Monkey Sail: Fast Track North

Sliding down ten foot waves sure beats heading into light five foot seas. My stern is about six to eight feet above the water, but every seven seconds the waves behind me are about the same distance above my stern rail. Next I am high above the wave, surfing down and accelerating. The wind is always seventeen to twenty five knots. No need to use the engine. As long as I don’t have to fix broken gear on deck the only difficulty is changing pants standing on one leg. But there is a way. Sometimes crawling, sometimes hanging like a monkey. Even sailing alone through the night is possible and cooking a tasty meal at midnight is outright enjoyable.
There are essentially three routes to sail from the Eastern Caribbean to a northern US port:
The outside direct ocean passage on the eastern, the ocean side of the Windward and Leeward Islands and then north of the Virgin Islands has the advantage of steady trade winds undisturbed by confused island swells with the option to turn to an island anywhere until leaving the Virgin Islands to the north. From there the only island that can be visited is Bermuda, but most sailors bypass Bermuda in order to reach the north eastern USA within a week.
The most popular passage is island hopping along the lee side of the islands, anchoring every night, waiting for good weather windows, occasionally visiting an island for a good meal or buying provisions and meeting with fellow sailors. This route can take two to three months.
I was sailing alone and wanted the option to be not too far from islands but also sail the most direct route, always able to adapt to the most favorable winds and weather conditions.
This interesting alternative can get you home in two weeks in relative comfort and is worth reporting in this short 25-page book for the benefit of migrating sailing folks as well as armchair sailors.
I had sailed my Endeavour 43 ketch, SeaLife, to Grenada in 2004. The trip took three months. Hurricane Ivan destroyed the boat in 2004 and it took five years to rebuild her. This book describes my return trip to the Chesapeake Bay. But I have also written about the other option, sailing in the lee of the islands, however, with rather dramatic consequences, in another book: The Tunnel, Knappensuhl’s Underworld. Caves, Coins, and Crooks, which has received much praise although not entirely non-fiction.