Sunday, March 2 — Tonight was a rare astronomical event — a seven planet alignment, with several of the plants visible to the naked eye. But sadly, the seas were too uncomfortable for us to even consider sitting outside to see it.
By midnight, we could see lights from southern Jamaica in the distance. By dawn, we were close enough to be in the shelter of the island and the waves became a little smaller. We could also smell smoke – not an unpleasant smoke, like a fire, but like smoking food.
Shortly after dawn, we rounded the western corner of the island. Our change in direction meant we went from head seas to beam seas. Eric’s seasickness instantly vanished. As we trekked north, we ran close to shore. From what we could see, Jamaica was mountainous and lush.
It only took a couple of hours to go from the southern side of the island to Port Antonio, located on the north-eastern side of the island. We turned into a bay named East Harbor, then immediately turned into a channel between the tip of the mainland peninsula and Navy Island that led into a bay called West Harbor.
