Exploring St. Maarten

March 28, 2011

We explored by dinghy today. We went from Marigot Bay through a small canal under a bridge into Simpson Bay Lagoon. First we explored the area near Marigot Bay and then went over to the Dutch side via Dinghy. Many boats were moored and/ or anchored in the Lagoon. Many BIG yachts were there. We went by the bridge they have to access to get inside

and it is not that wide! It must be a very tight fit for some of these huge boats.

They have many apartments or condos on the Simpson side with docks for boats in front of them. Only smaller boats will fit in these, but it is convenient. We did not see many dinghy docks to use but there did seem to be many different marinas, some with regular docks and some with just moorings.

We went to the largest Budget Marine on the island at Simpson Bay for some supplies. Then we went to eat at Skip Jacks which did have a dinghy dock. It

is a very nice seafood restaurant very nicely decorated inside. They had Caribbean as well as Maine lobsters. See the pictures of the very spiny Caribbean lobsters. I wasn't willing to try to eat one at lunch though. Charlie had fresh mahi-mahi.

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The weather has been beautiful here. Clear sunny days with good breezes. The temperature is in the low 80's in the middle of the day, but cools off at night. We sometimes have scattered showers overnight.

Arrival in St. Martin

March 26, 2011
The easy sail was not so easy as the direction we were trying to go to get to St. Martin was right into the wind so we had to tack. On one tack our VMG was only about 2 knots. Finally we just furled the jib and used the main with one reef ( overnight) for balance and motored along the course line. What we thought would take 14 hours ended up taking more like 20. We arrived at just after noon on Saturday and just after the Customs office had closed for the weekend. I called the Marina Fort Louis about 1 and was told they were closed until 2p.m. So we anchored , ate lunch, and put air back into the dinghy and put it back into the water. We were anchored in a huge anchorage along the coast of Marigot Bay, on the French side of the island. Then we went into the Marina Fort Louis because the guide book said that the harbor master could help with customs. This Marina does mostly Mediterranean mooring stern in with bow tied to a mooring ball in front. They can also do bow in but to get to the dock one has to climb over the bow pulpit and anchors. They were able to clear us in for customs. We cleaned the salt off the boat before eating dinner and falling into bed.

March 27, 20

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We had a late breakfast before we walked outside of our marina to the town. Since it was Sunday, there were not many shops open even though there was a large cruise ship in the anchorage. I asked someone and he said that on the French side, the people relaxed at the beaches on Sunday. However, there are no close beaches for us to relax on.

There is an unusual fountain with sculptured birds on it near our Marina. We walked around,

saw many restaurants ( many not open on Sunday), two bakeries, but almost no shops open. The shops look crude with corrugated metal covering the fronts. there is one very nice West Indies Mall in a large nice building with huge skylights and several stories. It looks like it is attached to a new hotel. we were also looking for some internet cafes. One was at one of the bakeries and another was in the bar/cafe in the West Indies Mall. However, my battery needed charging and there were no empty plugs in the bakery, and the West Indies Mall had european plugs. So we will have to buy internet time at our marina $7.00 per day or maybe euros a day.

We found the Marina that connects from the Simpson Lagoon and Bay. Only 2 of the many restaurants in this area were open. We ate in the French one which was very modern and very open overlooking the boats. Businesses take both dollars and Euros, They charge you in Euros and then covert it to dollars for credit cards. There were a few kiosks down by the harbor selling hats, shirts, dresses.Each of us bought one item.

Now that our dinghy is in the water, we can explore more of the area on it tomorrow. In Tortolla, it was recommended that we suspend our dinghy next to our boat out of the water and chained or cabled to the boat to prevent theft. It is held suspended above the water by a halyard using a rope sling. I have seen this in the Chesapeake to keep the slime off the dinghy. At the dinghy docks, they recommended that we also chain the outboard to the dinghy and the dinghy to the dock to prevent theft.

Spanishtown, Virgin Gorda, BVI

March 25, 2011

We arrived in Spanishtown on March 23. We have relaxed several days. We did laundry, browsed the few shops, and visited the famous Baths area. a large cruise ship arrived on the morning of the 24th so the area was covered with cruise ship patrons. Their

orange lifeboat launches. We walked to the post office and then to the Rock Cafe, which was not open for lunch so we went to the Mermaid beach bar nearby. We waited until after the cruise ship patrons departed to go to The Baths yesterday afternoon. We ate a lovely dinner at restaurant Chez Bamboo. Delicious Lobster Bisque!

We placed the dinghy on top of the boat for our sail tonight to St. Martin. After lunch we will go check out of customs. We have to leave about 4-5p.m. to arrive by 7-8a.m. in St. Martin. We need to arrive after dawn so we can see better where we are going to anchor or moor or go into a marina. It should be an easy sail.

North Sound, Virgin Gorda, BVI

March 19, 2011: We left nanny Cay Marina on Tortolla about 1030 with nice breezes. Unfortunately the wind was coming from the very direction we were attempting to go so we ended up tacking back and forth across our courseline until about 3p.m. when we finally turned on the "iron wind" (engine) to make sure we arrived in Virgin Gorda's North Sound by sunset. We arrived at Leverick Bay and were hooked up to a mooring ball by 5p.m. We enjoyed our cocktails and dinner on the boat.

March 21:

We went ashore to explore and to have lunch at the beach bar, Jumbies. The weather was very breezy but sunny. There is not much to Leverick Bay except for 2-3 shops and a very small but well-stocked grocery! Charlie's watch has not worked since he replaced the battery so we bought him another one at the Dive shop. A shirt and a pocket backpack was purchased from the Pusser's Store. We ate dinner on the boat. More boats were there at the mooring field that night (17).

March 22, 2011

After going ashore to try to get online for

e-mail and news, The wind was not quite as strong as the last two days, but there were scattered showers off and on. We returned to the boat, unhooked from the mooring and morored across the sound to The Bitter End Yacht Club mooring field. It took a while to find an acceptable mooring ball. Once attached, we departed for shore and a delicious oven pizza at the Crawl Pub. It kept sprinkling off and on. After lunch we browsed around the Bitter End area, bought Chas a T-shirt and Sharon a Bitter End visor.

Once back on the dinghy, we rode over to the Brias Creek Resort where we left the dinghy at their dinghy dock. We walked over to the beach on the other side at Big Bay. It was practically deserted but very pristine with lovely chairs and hammocks. They

serve a lunch for $35.00 + drinks and gratuity every day, but we were there after lunch. Drinks were $10.00 each. I was so chilly that I had to put a jacket on while at the beach. we passed 2 tennis courts, a garden, stables and a heliport on the way to the beach. We did walk up the hill to their special restaurant where athe set price for dinner $85 excluding drinks and gratuity. the menu did not look that spectacular so we did not make reservations. the views were spectacular being able to see both Caribbean and North Sound. We went back to the boat for a salmon, wild rice, green beans and salad dinner after our cocktail hour. As usual, we had some rain overnight.

March 22, 2011

After breakfast, we went back to The Bitter End and walked all the way around the beaches to the cut out past Saba Rock. A family was learning to parasail so we watched them as we backed in the sun. Charlie had tried to get online from the boat to no

avail and we were told that we could only get online at the Bitter End restaurants. Then a lady at the beach told us she could get on to the Saba rock wifi. so I am currently at the Bitter end restaurant toward the Saba Rock side using the Saba rock free wifi. The hobie cats stopped at Saba Rock for lunch.

We will depart North Sound to sail, wind permitting, to Spanishtown, Virgin Gorda, BVI tomorrow. We have to go to Spanishtown to clear out of BVI customs before we depart for St. Martin.

Leaving Nanny Cay

March 18, 2011

The awaited package arrived much earlier than expected: today! So we will be underway tomorrow morning once we check out, and we won't have to return for the package. It will be a relief to finally get underway. We plan to hit the beach this afternoon to finally enjoy and relax! I know I will celebrate with another" pain killer".

Enjoy some more Nanny Cay pictures. There are some big beautiful boats here. Several charter companies operate out of Nanny Cay. We visited the chandlery often and enjoyed shady lunches in the outdoor restaurant. I always enjoy the lovely tropical flowers.

Making Repairs

March 11-16, 2011

We have been making progress with our repairs. The lazy jacks and second reefing line have been repaired. The safety bar in front of the stove has been reinstalled. The bilge pump alarm has been raised and a new switch for the lower bilge pump has been installed. I am slowly hand stitching the new zippers in the cockpit. We are still working on the bilge hose replacement which has become a more difficult job than expected.

The weather has been beautiful down here with temps in the high 70's low 80's. At night it cools off nicely. We had the skipper/minder of the custom boat next to us for cocktails tonight. We are not yet enjoying the beach as we are working on the boat. We are gleaning information of where to head to once we depart Nanny Cay. Since we have been to BVI twice before, we may not stay here long before heading south.

March 15-16

I have finished the zipper replacement and it works well. Charlie is still fighting with the upper bilge pump. He got the replacement hose attached and it worked, but the float switch had become un attached. By the time he finished working with it, neither it or the pump worked. After working to find the right wires for a whole frustrating afternoon, we called an electrician this morning but he has not yet appeared. Meanwhile Chas is putting in a new shower sump pump, but has run into difficulties with inadequate hose connectors. The old one needs a new diaphram but it is a 1987 model original with the boat. My galley sink becomes clogged and drains very slowly. It will all work out in the end but can be very frustrating in the interim!

Vinegar seemed to handle the sink problem. Charlie has installed the new shower sump pump, we have the dinghy in a hoist to lift it off the water to prevent it being stolen. An electrician figured out the bilge problem...one factor being too many old deleted wires still bundled together. We have reworked our deck prisms to try to stop their leaks. All the problems we know of have been fixed.

We were waiting for a package from the states, but will go to Virgin Gorda tomorrow and return to Nanny Cay for the package on Monday or Tuesday. the winds are brisk so we should have a good sail to North Sound.

I have added some pictures of Nanny CAy , its beach, views, and the pretty multicolored buildings.

Charleston, SC to Tortolla, BVI

We finally departed Charleston, SC for the Caribbean on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011. The Parkers, Lauther and Priscilla, were there to see us off. Bill Loring who has done the Caribbean 1500 twice was helpful as crew for us. We did three hour watches around the clock.

The wind was out of the SW and very light so we motor sailed for the first 28 hours. Then the wind picked up to the teens and 20's. Lots of waves were crashing across our bow. A cold front was chasing us across the Atlantic and finally caught up with us on Tuesday making the seas very confused with waves breaking in more than one direction. we were all tired and quite beat up due to the heeling of 20-30%. After talking to Commander Weather Service, we decided to heave to in order to rest and to let the cold front pass us. We still were making about 3 knots in the right direction even during heaving to. About 7 1/2 hours later we continued our trip. Now the waves were not confused and the wind was from the NE. We did have rain most of the night but it was not turbulent. These NE winds pushed us all the was to Totolla. Eventually they became the Trade winds. We actually only used the motor for about 53 hours during the whole 9 days. Early Monday morning, March 7, 2011 we could see the mountains of the BVI in the distance. We were at the Customs dock in Soper's Hole by 1300 hours. After checking in , we proceeded back to Nanny Cay Marina. We had a late lunch at the Beach Bar. I celebrated with my first "Pain Killer" of the season.

The picture is of a sunrise in the Atlantic Ocean during passage.