05/25/2009 Leeward Islands

05/15/2009 I am leaving St Martin after two weeks. I had not thought I would stay there that long, but it is a nice place and it was good to hang out with friends from Colorado while I was there. I did meet another Seawind owner on my last day there. We may connect as I head south. He was deciding on whether to go north to the states or stay south for another hurricane season.
I have been undecided how to make this next leg. I have horror stories of the beat down south. I do need to keep working east until at Antigua or Guadeloupe. I have had different inputs from others but I have decided to go the original course I planned. That is to sail to St Barts and then on to Antigua.
I left at 6:45 in the morning from Simpson Bay. I had the intention to sail straight on to Antigua when I first left. There is a charge and I need to check into St Barts Customs even if I had no intention to go ashore. But after I started and calculated the time to arrive in Antigua, I decided that I would do this trip in two legs. It did in the end make for an enjoyable trip.
I anchor in Anse du Public (Public Bay) on the north end of the town of Gustavia at 11:00am. That was an easy trip. I had engine problems with my outboard for the dinghy last night when I came back from town. It would not start today so I had to row into the beach to make it ashore. I walked into town from the bay and visited the Port Authority and paid for my right to anchor in the bay and signed in with Customs. The charge was 6.5 euros.
Since I paid for the night I figured I may as well get a taste of this part of the island. I walked around town and hiked to the top of the hill overlooking the harbor and a bay behind the hill, Anse du Grand Galet. There are a couple of boats anchored in there with a nice beach. It looks like a great place to anchor if I ever make it back through here again. There is the remnants of Ft Karl and Ft Oscar on top of the hill. It amazes me how small the forts were built compared to the forts in the US overlooking the large harbors.
The town of Gustavia was fairly quiet while I was there. There was no cruise ship in the area, but there was a lot of car traffic buzzing through the small narrow streets. It is a clean town and island from what I saw. After a cold beer, I headed for the airport. This is something I needed to see since I read about it in Jimmy Buffet’s book. Where my boat is anchored in the bay was the flight path for the runway. I would listen to the engines on the plane as they came in and it sounded like the pilots would shut down the engines as they were approaching the final approach. Then the plane would fly through the cut in the hills and drop out of sight. The runway is built right up against the hill and the planes would literary glide down the back side of the hill and hit the runway. The runway is not long so the pilots cannot use much runway to land with. It was interesting having the planes fly right over your head on the approach.
05/16/2009 This morning I took off at 5:30AM. I have a 70 mile run to make it to Antigua and I would like to get there before sunset. I expect to be there by 6:00PM if all goes well. We have had 20+knots of wind it seems like forever, but there is suppose to be a slight decrease in speed and the wind is expected to shift a little bit to the north. I started off with a double reef in the main and sailed out of the lee of St Barts. The wind did not shift, but the sea state was down with 2-3 foot seas and the wind was about 15 knots. I shook out the reef and gained an additional knot of boat speed.
The trip was another non-event. I was able to hold the same tack all of the way to Antigua. I made it into St John’s Harbor at 7:00PM. I was just behind schedule, but I did arrive right after the sun set. I was quite surprised to not see any other sailboats in the harbor. It is a large harbor, but must be used for commercial traffic only. There are plenty of anchorages and I went into an anchorage just west of the commercial dock and had the whole place to myself. It is probably the most green island I have seen in quite some time. I look forward to exploring around the island for the next few days before I head south again.
05/17/2009 This morning I pulled the anchor early and headed south to Jolly Harbour. This was recommended as an easy place to clear in with Customs and they have plenty of shops, restaurants and a bus stop. When I went into the marina to get information, I was told that Customs was closed on Sunday, not true. I found the dinghy dock and walked around the marina area. Sunday became a lazy day for me. I caught up on some email and banking on-line while having a beer and pizza at one of the restaurants. I added this picture of the blue water here as I hav enot seen water like this since the Bahamas.
05/18/2009 Today I went into Customs, Immigration and the Port Authority. I did find out that they were open on Sunday. I luckily did not get scolded for taking so long to check in. After fueling up the dinghy, I took off for the bus to head into St. Johns. St. Johns is the capital of Antigua. This is one of the few islands that did not ping-pong amongst the European powers during the 18th and 19th century. It was held by the British since the first settlers arrived and started the sugar cane production. The town still has many of the old structures that date from the 1800s. There are the typical shopping areas around the cruise ship pier with open markets and high end retailers. I also walked up to see the Cathedral that overlooked the town. This Cathedral has survived a couple of earthquakes and several hurricanes. It has hard wear, but still standing.
Antigua is not a cheap place. It is not uncommon for a meal to cost EC$100.00. I would usually have a pizza or salad and even that would cost EC$40.00. The good news is that the EC$1 =US$.42, but it was still expensive. The national government also had a 15% tax on everything bought. A gallon of gas cost EC$11.00 at the marina.
05/19/2009 This morning I took No Rush into the marina to get fuel, water and ice. As I said before, this is not a cheap place to stop. This cost EC$180.00 and I only took on 14 gallons of gas.
After fueling up I motored down the coast and stopped at Crab Hill Bay for a swim and walk along the beach. I anchored off of the beach and swam in. I am surprised out how little tourism there is going on anywhere on the island. St John was busy when the cruise ship was there, but not much activity anywhere else on the island. The beach was the same. There are several bars and restaurants and they were either closed or very few patrons.
After walking the full length of the beach, I pulled anchor and motored around the point to English Harbour. This is now a National Park. It is a smaller harbor that is protected very well from hurricanes and in the early from the French and Spanish by way of Fort Berkeley. This was also Nelson’s Dockyard during the colonial times. Ships that crossed the Atlantic or cruised the Caribbean Islands could come in here and be hauled for work. Many of the structures are still standing from the early days. This is also the headquarters for the annual Antigua Race Week. It is the largest regatta in the Caribbean and becoming one of the largest in the world.
05/20/2009 Today I took the dinghy to shore to clear out of through Customs and then hike around the area. I am able to clear out of the island up to 24 hours in advance. This allows me to not have to wait until Customs opens the following morning to leave and get an early start on the next sail. I walk around and check out the museum they have there and some of the structures. I walk out to the fort. As most of the forts, it is a relatively small structure, but nature provides a good area for the British to protect this harbor. There is still the powder magazine standing. It was designed to be bomb proof and hold up to 30 kegs of gun powder for protection.
Afterwards I walked over to Falmouth Harbour. It is fairly empty at this time. A few weeks earlier it would have been hopping with all of the boats in town for the regatta.
05/21/2009 This morning I readied the boat for the crossing to Gaudeloupe. I take the motor off and remove all of the equipment from the dinghy. This has helped a lot with transporting the dinghy if I get into any large seas. I sailed out by 6:30AM and started across. Again I have favorable winds and make good time. When I get to the lee of the island, the winds pretty much came to a stop. I motored down the coast until I reached Basse Terre. This is a beautiful island to sail along. There are steep mountains with plenty of vegetation.
I anchored off of the coast along with a couple of other boats for the night. I am glad I was in a catamaran and not the monohull anchored next to me. There was a swell there that would cause the monohull to roll about 15-20 degrees. That could not be fun. I just had to deal with some halyards banging.
05/22/2009 Decision time again. Do I keep heading south and go straight to Dominica without any stopping in Guadeloupe or do I go around the south end of Basse Terre and sail north to Pointe a Pitre. I decided to hang out in Guadeloupe for a few days and sailed north to Pointe a Pitre. It was a good sail with only one tack for the whole trip and I made it into Pointe a Pitre by 1:00PM. I looked into staying at the marina but decided not to as they did not have any mooring balls and I would have to tie into the dock European style with tying off a line to the bow to a ball and backing in stearn first. I am sure at some point I will to do this, but I am not ready. I decide to go across the channel from the marina and drop anchor. It turns out to be a pretty good place. The wind is open from the channel, which provides a great breeze through the boat and there is a reef right in front of me that keeps the seas pretty flat. Not a bad place at all to anchor.
After setting the anchor, I ready the dinghy and go back into the marina to clear through Customs. This is different as Customs does not have an office there. All I need to do is fill out a single form, pay the marina 2 euros for a fax and they fax it to Customs. I wait 15 minutes and I receive a fax back and I am cleared in.
I check out the area around the marina. There are again plenty of shops and restaurants to spend time in. if I needed any work on the boat I am sure this would be a good place to have it done. I walk into town to see what is going on and I also want to find an ATM machine. I am low on euros. There is a large public square in town and plenty of shopping. I mean a lot of shopping is available here.
Tonight for dinner is McDonalds. There is one located right next to the bank. I had an interesting experience here. Dinner cost 7.5 euros. I handed the attendant a 50 euro bill. He asked me to have a seat and he would bring my change to me. The machine was busy with another order. I have never seen this done before in a McDonalds and I was a little apprehensive. I did go sit and with a minute he brought over my change. It is another time just trusting someone and there was no issue.
05/23/2009 While I was here I wanted to get out and see the islands. Guadeloupe main is actually two islands. To the east is La Grande Terre and to the west is La Basse Terre. I decided to rent a car for a couple of days and see what I see. I was able to rent a car right from a shop in the marina district I am staying in. The car was 33 euros a day and that appears to cover all expenses including rental, taxes and insurance, I think. The bad news is I am in a French country where there is very little English spoken and hardly any on the signs or menus, the car I rent is a stick shift and I have not driven a stick for 13 years. The good news is that at least they drive on the right hand side of the road as we do in the States and I was able to pick up the shifting real easy. “Just like riding a bike”, like they say.
Since I had a late start on Saturday, I decided to drive around La Grande Terre. There is a highway system here and all told there is suppose to be over 1500 miles of roads between the two islands. Most of all the highways are two lane roads and the speeds are around 50-70 kph. I drove along the south coast out to St Francois with a stop in St Anne. In St Anne there is a nice hopping beach with plenty of vendors out selling everything from homemade ice cream to all this shop with all blue and white clothing. In St Francois they had a large marina. I also drove around in circles for awhile trying to find my way out of town and the highway that headed north.
I found my way out and drove through Le Moule and then over to Morne a l’Eau. Located here was two things. I cross road that took me north to Anse Bertrand and this cemetery I have a picture of. As you can see most of the crypts are decorated in a black and white checkerboard. On my way to Anse Bertrand I drove through a lot of farm country. I was pleasantly surprised to see the sugar cane fields. I was not aware that there was any sugar cane still grown in the Caribbean. That was like gold in the old days and was the driving economy down here into the mid 1800s. There was sugar cane everywhere here like corn is grown in Nebraska and wheat in Kansas. From Anse Bertrand I made my way back down to Pointe a Pitre and the marina.
05/24/2009 I made an early start this morning with plans of driving around La Basse Terre. I took off and drove across the canal and towards the north end of the island. Again I have a problem traveling around here as I do not speak any French. I would like to take some tours, but everything is in French so there is not much I can glean. I did try to stop at the Le Musee de Rhum (Rum Museum) but they were closed.
I drove to Deshaies on the northwest coast and then down the coastal highway. From the water I saw this road and thought it interesting to drive as it appeared to follow the coast. From the water it did not appear to be any homes away from the coast. This was true, but the highway did not stay at water level. There were many hills to climb and it was pretty much like a roller coaster down the coast.
I was worried as I was low on fuel and it was Sunday morning. I needed to make a fuel stop and again I can only be thankful for sign language to be able to instruct the gas attendant on how much fuel I want in the car. I was worried as I was low on fuel and it was Sunday morning. After fueling up I drove eastward on Route de la Traversee. This is an east-west (sort of) road that cut across the mountain tops. I drove about half way as I wanted to finish driving back down the west coast. All of my driving up to this point had not been a problem with other cars on the road, but on this steep, curvy road, it seemed like everyone wanted to drive twice the speed limit.
After making my way back down to the coastal highway, I headed south again to the town of Basse Terre where I anchored the first night I was here. I stopped had some lunch and took a nap in the air conditioning of my car. Afterwards I kept on the highway south around the tip. I stopped at the light house I saw from my boat and there was the Fort de l’Olive which was built in 1636. I sat at the light house and watched people swimming, fishing and riding wind surfers.
After there I followed the road along the coast and started to head back to Pointe a Pitre. All of the sudden I saw a sign for the National Park and Chutes de Carbet (Carbet Waterfalls). I decided why not. The National Park is mostly rainforest and I would like to see the waterfalls that are written up as a sight to see. I got off of the highway and drove up the steep winding road for about 5 miles. The road at some points was so steep I would need to drop the transmission into first gear. Along the way I saw enormous banana plantations. As I was climbing higher into the mountains the temperature is dropping and the clouds are thicker.
I drove to the end of the road that was the entrance to the park and the walking trail to the many different falls. The coast was 1 euro to enter and it was well worth the cost. The main falls was about a one and a half hour hike. I figured I would go as far as I could and while on the way, enjoy walking through a rain forest. The trail started out very nice with paved stones laid out and good stairs. I had to hike down the hill to the river and cross a bridge. The I started up and the trail became a nice stone walk, but not paved. Then I climbed higher and it turned into mostly board walk and many stairs. Then I reached the peak of the trail after about 45 minutes of the most intense stair master work. Then the trail became trail. There was some carved rock and a few wooded steps, but most of it was narrow steep trail back down to the water again. I made it to a river and it was getting late. I thought about turning around and made the mistake of pulling out my map. I was able to determine where I was and it did not appear that the falls would be much further so I pushed on. I then had to climb back up the mountain and when I came to the section that took me back down towards another river I decided I would turn around. As I was heading back I came across a sign that indicated that the falls was only 15 minutes away. I looked at my watch and new that I was moving faster than the typical times for travel were so I pushed on. One of my concerns was that I really wasn’t prepared to be hiking in the forest. I had no raincoat, fresh water, I was dressed in cotton shorts and a t-shirt and best of all my hiking shoes are my flip-flops. I climbed down the rocks and make my way to the waterfalls. When I was almost all of the way to the falls I passed a family and the wife looked at my flip-flops and just shook her head.
I did make it to the falls and here is a picture. There is actually three cascading falls. As I was standing there viewing the bottom of the three, the mist appeared to clear or my vision was becoming acclimated. In the second photo you can see the rim above me and a glimpse of the second or middle cascade. Unfortunately I did not have time to climb to see the other two falls. After a few photos I high tailed it out of there trying to make it back to my car before it was too dark to see anything. I made good time, even passing the family ahead of me. I took my time as going down was less exercise, but required more caution getting down some of the rocks vs. stepping up.
When I made it back to the parking lot, I saw this man feeding a bird right from his hand. I also saw two Mongoose crossing my path. As it was a lark to drive up here, it was the highlight for me renting the car and driving around the island. Up there was to see the sugar cane and banana fields. You just don’t see those in Colorado.

05/14/2009 St Martin

05/02/2009 I am anchored in the Bay of Marigot. Marigot is also the town located here. Today I pick up Jim and Alecia. They cruised with me for a week in the Florida Keys and they are back for round two. While waiting for them, I started getting a layout of the area and where different services are available. It took me awhile to figure it out, but I am having a little bit of anxiety. I finally realized it that this is my first time to a country that was not a US territory or member of the United Kingdom. I know no French and I will be using the Euro. This is also a first as all of my travels on this adventure have been to countries that use the US dollar. I did ask a local policeman if he could show me Customs. I found out that I was asking for the wrong thing. I needed to ask for the Clearance office. It is located at the ferry dock and was closed Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday.
I have found a couple of restaurants along the water front that I have eaten at for a meal and they also have wi-fi access. The food has been good and reasonable. Most all of the area is closed down. I am not sure if it is due to the local economy or because of the holiday on Friday. (When out and about on Monday I determined it was a mix of both.) The marine store is also closed, so I need to wait until Monday. The water pump failed again so I mended it one more time.
Jim and Alecia showed up at 4:00. They took the local bus from the airport to Marigot. The airport is located on the Dutch side of the island. To make it to town it required two different buses, but the total cost for both of them was less than $10.00. This island also will take US dollars. There is some concern about getting a fair exchange rate. The restaurants I ate at offered a check in both Euros and Dollars. There are a few stores and gas stations that are offering 1 euro = $1 if you use cash.
05/03/2009 With all of the stores and clearance closed we will stay around Marigot for another day. After a lazy morning on the boat, we headed into town to do some more exploring. We walked through town and found another bakery that we decided to try out for lunch. The bake goods and sandwiches were very good. Now that we were energized we took off for a hike to the top of the hill overlooking Marigot to the old fort located there. The views from atop the hill are incredible. You have a 360 degree view from up here and it gives me a good idea of how the town is laid out. We then head over to the local supermarket. It is closed still. No surprise there.
On the way back in town we saw a game going on at a local stadium. It turned out to be a local game of softball. There were three things going for this game. It was in a stadium that had sitting, sitting on the shade and a local was selling cold beers for $1.00. We sat and watched about 4 innings of the game. We then went out hiking towards town again and found a poster advertising Fish Days in the town of Cul de Sac. We caught a local bus to Cul de Sac to see what was going on. It was a local festival as you would see in the US with different booths set up with all kinds of different fish dishes and local crafts. We walked around and tried a few of the different fishes.
05/04/2009 Monday morning. Budget Marine is open and I am able to purchase a new water pump and replacement starboard running light. After I returned I installed the new water pump and we are back in action with water.
I can finally check into Customs. It was a fairly easy process. It is the first place I have found that it is all computer based. I did not have to write out all of the documentation. The small issue is that they use a French keyboard. Some of the keys are placed in different places. Not a real issue for a hunt and peck kind of guy that I am. The cost was 25 Euro for clearance and an anchor fee.
After that I made a quick stop at the local marina to find out about filling up the water tank, we went off for a spot of lunch. I did the unthinkable and ordered a hamburger and French fries. I had seen many people ordering them the last time I was there. A hamburger is a hamburger.
Hiking for provisions is now the order. We find the grocery store and start filling up for the week. This is definitely a French store. There are not many recognizable labels. We do our best and figure we won’t die from anything we bought. It was interesting that they charged you if you wanted to use a grocery cart vs. a basket, the security guard took mine and Jim’s back packs and there was visible security throughout the store.
Two more stops on the way back to the dinghy. One was the local bakery to try out another pastry and pick up a couple loaves of bread. The other was the Duty Free Store for some rhum and gin. I picked up some of the local rhums that I had in the past. They are very good flavored rum with fruit in the bottles.
We made our way back to the boat, put away the stores and lifted the anchor. We motored up to Grand Case Bay. We dropped the anchor for the evening and hung out. Alecia is in charge of the galley for this trip and she put together a light dinner of French breads, cheese and a bottle of good wine. Life doesn’t get much better or relaxed.
While we were watching a movie the wind kicked up. We were seeing gusts of 38 knots. This caused the anchor the slip and in the middle of the squall we had to go into anchor reset mode. There was a boat behind us that we almost passed while being blown backwards. The second time setting the anchor it set good and hard and we didn’t have any more problems for the next days.
05/05/2009 We decided to hang out in Grand Case today. It is a small resort town on the coast here. We eventually made it ashore. We are not moving too fast in the morning. The plan is walk town, find a place to try some of the local cuisine, and then hike the length of the beach. We walked town and there are many boutiques and restaurants, bakeries, a rental car agency and a few local grocery stores. It is a nice little town with narrow main street. There is hardly enough room to walk and not get hit by a passing car.
We ate at a lolo. It is a eatery that is small and open aired. They cooked on an open grill like I saw in Puerto Rico. The ribs and chicken are fantastic and the beers are cheap. From there we hiked the beach from one end to the other. There appears to be no codes for where or what to build. There are homes next to restaurants, next to apartments, next to hotels. I did find it interesting how the homes are built to the edge of the water and the overhanging porches.
05/06/2009 Today we went snorkeling on the north end of the bay. Jim and Alecia went in. I stayed with the boat. We had strong winds and I was on a mooring ball designed for a smaller boat. I was able to install the new starboard running light that I found out when I was entering Virgin Gorda the week before.
Afterwards we sailed to Friars Bay. There are a couple of restaurant/bars that are listed as a must not miss. They are nice places and the beach is fantastic. After a couple of beers, we took off for the Dutch side of the island to try out some different anchorages. We ended up in Simpson Bay, as all of the other bays were very rolly. We were able to duck in pretty close and provided us protection from the wind and waves rolling in from the east.
05/07/2009 We went ashore to see what the town offered us. It is very touristy with plenty of restaurants, delis, bakeries, etc. We had a mission to find wi-fi and a grocery store. We stopped at a local café for a coffee and wi-fi. We then hiked about a mile or so to find a good size grocery. The currency on the Dutch side is the Gilder or the US Dollar. The exchange rate is favorable and it is easy to use US Dollars here.
We stopped for lunch before we went back to the boat. We had a good fish sandwich at Lee’s. This was recommended to us by a couple we met the day before at Friars Bay. I recommend it also.
After lunch, we pulled the hook and sailed back to Marigot Bay. I needed to go there to clear out of customs and get more water. We had a good sail with reaching and sailing into the wind to make it there. No Rush is sailing real well.
05/08/2009 Today we took off for a beat to St Barts. We needed to check out of the French St Martin and pick up some more water and ice. After we were finished we sailed down around the island and started our tacks for St Barts.
While we were off the Dutch side of the island, Alecia awoke me from a nap to ask how we should deal with what looked like a tornado tail coming from the clouds. It was the beginning of a downspout that never completely formed. There was the tail in the clouds and we saw the water being lifted off of the ocean. I was just happy that it was downwind from us. We kept an eye on it and the squall that was blowing through. This was a first for me on the water.
We made our way to the west end of St Barts for the night. We ended up sailing 38 miles today. It was Alecia’s first off shore sail and Jim had not been on an offshore in quite some time. Tomorrow we will go ashore and do some hiking.
05/09/2009 Today we hiked on the western edge of St Barts. It is mostly a National Park with a couple of beautiful beaches and a small village. The weather is fairly dry here with plenty of cactus. The beaches are beautiful white sand and not very crowded at all. I almost felt like I was intruding when there was someone else within a hundred feet.
After we returned back to the boat, we hung out and enjoyed the weather. I spotted a turtle swimming next to the boat. Jim and Alecia grabbed their snorkel gear and went in to see the turtle. They also spotted another turtle lying on the boat under the boat eating the sea grass.
05/10/2009 Today we sailed over to a remote island off of St Barts. It is also part of the National Park. It was a good place to snorkel. Alecia gave me the new nickname of Barracuda Bill. I have a knack for finding and spotting the barracuda in the area. As we swam around the bay, we came into contact with a large school of small fish. It was very similar to the school Cliff and I saw in the BVIs. On the edge of this school was a 4 foot barracuda. Nothing like being in the middle of a food chain. After the snorkel we had a pleasant down-wind sail back to Sint Maarten.
We came ashore so I could get web access and I wanted to try and connect with Harold and Teresa. We ended staying too long. We started at Jimbo’s for a margarita. It lasted way too long, but we were able to some how find our way back to the boat.
05/11/2009 Today Jim and Alecia flew home after a wonderful visit here. This is their second time around and we had as good a time as we did in Florida.
05/12/2009 I was finally able to connect with friends of mine that are on vacation here in St Martin. The chore of the day was laundry and watching the sunset. Harold, Teresa and I hung out all afternoon and evening at their condo on Maho Bay. It is located next to the main airport here on the island. One of the activities that people participate in is to go to the beach at the end of the runway. When the planes take off the jet wash blows over the beach. People try to stand and get knocked over, tumble weed. When a 747 took off I watched a guy grab onto the fence and get lifted off of the ground.
05/13/2009 Today Harold and Teresa joined me on the boat. We sailed for a while today and then anchored in a Long Bay. It has a protective point to anchor behind and a long beautiful white sand beach. We sat with drinks and watched the sunset again. Life is so difficult down here, but I will volunteer again.

05/02/2009 Hanging out in the Virgins

04/23/2009 After dropping Cliff, I expected to hang around the Virgins for the next week or so. I did not have specific plans. I met up with Hans and Ruth Deller. I had seen them on their boat in Francis Bay. They are from Conifer, CO. That is only about 15 miles from where I live in CO. After spending time in town I stopped by their boat to introduce myself. I found out that they had spent ten years in the Virgins as the owners of a charter boat. I asked them if they knew the couple that I had chartered with when I was with Motorola. They not only knew them, but saw them earlier in the day.
I thought Gus and Marcella had left the business or area. I had trying to get in touch with them over the years. They are now only five miles from where I am anchored. I now had a plan on how to spend some of my time.
04/25/2009 After pulling the anchor I headed for Christmas Bay. This is located on an island off of the southeast corner of St. Thomas. I motored into the bay and there sat Marolanga. Marolanga is a 43’ Catana sailing catamaran. It is the boat that started me on multihull sailing and another inspiration that has brought me to this part of the world.
With some trepidation I went over and introduced myself. It had been 14 years since I met them for a 4 day charter. They remembered me immediately. Not my name, but my face and the charter trip. They had done several Motorola charters since ours. Ours was the first. They remembered some of the activities including a song that we put together as part of a contest amongst the different boats. We had won the contest with words written to Come Monday by Jimmy Buffett. We hung out for a few hours and decided to go snorkeling in the morning together there in the anchorage.
04/26/2009 Today became a lazy relaxing Sunday morning. I was excited to go snorkeling with Gus and Marcella. They move a little bit later than I do so I broke into a project on the boat. The gas valve on my gas grill had frozen. It does amaze me the amount of wear and tear that boats take when on the salt water. I figured out how to take the grill apart and removed the valve. Now I had it apart, I also figured out that the valve will need replaced. That will be another project trying to find a replacement valve. Down here in the islands is not like being at home and having specialty shops that you find just about anything. I put the grill back together in time for a good swim.
As we were swimming the water was murky from the tide washing through. We first saw a medium size turtle swimming along. I glided along with it for awhile. I have not been in the water with a turtle since the first snorkel in The Keys back in November. I then spotted a sting ray working at burying itself in the sand. We also came across a porcupine fish. I had seen these before, but did not know their name. It is one of my favorite fish. I call it the teddy bear of the sea. There were two of them and they are the largest I have seen. From the front they have a squarish body with large black eyes. They are somewhat timid, but sad looking with the big black eyes. You just want to hug them.
After the snorkel, Gus invited me back over to review the cruising areas of St Martin and the other islands as I head south. We discussed where to look for the parts for the grill on St Thomas and I worked with Gus on some software for his computer and testing out my TV tuner for the laptop. Marcella invited me for a dinner of spaghetti and I made a salad. It was like old times hanging out with them. I am really happy to find Gus and Marcella and see that they are still happy doing charters after all of these years.
If you are interested in a fun crewed charter in the BVIs, please contact Gus and Marcella on Marolanga. You can use the url on the left hand of my blog page.
04/27/2009 I decided to make another trip back into Charlotte Amalie. I was on the hunt for parts for the grill and I also remembered that I needed to fill up one of my propane bottles. After anchoring, I took the dinghy over to Crown Bay to the marina there. There is a air condition (as there is no heating shops in the area) shop that Gus thought might have the parts or would know where to find them. In the area also is the propane dealer. The good news was that I was able to get the propane. The air condition shop did not have any parts and was not aware of anywhere to find them. I hiked down the road to the Ace hardware and the same answer. I decide to catch the bus to the Home Depot as a last chance. No luck there. It is one of those projects that I will need to work on when I return back to the States this summer.
04/28/2009 I put another plan together. I would sail to a bay on the south side of St John and do a couple days of hiking before I set off for St Martin. I went to pull the anchor and the trouble started. I caught a piece of garbage in the bay. It was an old chain. The good news was that I was able to get the anchor raised enough to see it, about four feet below the surface, but not high enough to release the chain from my anchor.
This is what cruising is about. How to resolve issues like this on your own. I first tried to put a loop on the end of a line and lower it to the anchor. My plan was that if I could catch the knee of the anchor, when I let the anchor down, the anchor would pivot and the chain would fall off and I would be free. The first problem was that the line would not sink on its own. I needed to add some weight. The only thing I could find was my largest crescent wrench. I did get the line to sink to the knee, but as I lowered the anchor, it did not pivot as hoped. My next thought was that I would swim to the anchor and try to free it from the chain. That is not an option as the wind was blowing pretty strong and I was in somewhat tight quarters with other boats. I could not let my boat drift into another boat and I did not like the idea of having my boat drift without me on it. Time-out. Let’s eat some breakfast and think this through again. The idea I came up with was to raise the anchor again to as high as I could. I would then swim to the front of the boat and take a loop of line around the chain and tie it off to the front two cleats of the boat. I would then be able to lower the anchor and the fouled chain would stay suspended by the line. The boat would not drift. The down side was that I needed to swim in the bay. It is not a clean bay in any sense of the word. No other options. I got the line ready up front and then went for a quick swim. I was able to dive down and loop the line around the chain and set it by the deck. I got back on the boat and tied the line off on the second cleat and let the anchor down. It came free from the chain as planned. After getting everything ready for leaving the anchorage, I let the line free from one of the cleats and it slid free of the chain. I am off again.
I then made my way out in the sea. The weather had piped up. I started out with 20-25 knots of wind gusting to 30 knots and five foot seas. This is probably the roughest weather I have sailed No Rush in. Then the squalls started to blow in. I was seeing sustained winds of 30 knots. I put a reef in at the second point and took off again. Now I was seeing winds gusting to 38 knots. This is now probably the heaviest weather I have ever sailed in period. I decided to tuck in on the north side of St John instead of the constant beating on the south side. I made it Francis Bay one more time. I grabbed a buoy there for the night. Tomorrow I would go for my hike from here to the south side instead of the other way around.
04/29/2009 Best laid plans of mice and men… When I woke up there was no water pressure. Another project. I had replaced the previous water pump when I was at Boqueron, only a month and a half ago. A connection had corroded at the back pressure switch. After troubleshooting, soldering and putting everything back together, it was noon.
That morning I had caught the weather and it appeared that the best time for me to make the passage to St Martin is going to be Thursday. I had planned on a night passage and I would need to get moving. I canceled the hike and set sail for Virgin Gorda. The wind was on my nose again and it took me eight hours to get to Virgin Gorda. I needed to stop there so I could ready my dinghy for the off-shore passage. On the way through the cut, I was almost hit by another boat. Another area of corrosion was my starboard running light. It is out. Another project. Here is a photo of what rain squalls look like. Luckily this one was behind me and blowing away.
Being that I made it in so late and it was real dark, I decided to spend the night and leave first thing in the morning.
04/30/2009 First light in the morning. I worked on getting the dinghy ready for the passage. This means taking the motor off of the transom and storing it and cleaning out the fuel tank, bag with the life jackets and spare fuel, the anchor and any other items in the dinghy. I put all of the items away and re-attached the dinghy to the davits and we were ready. I went to pull the anchor and it was stuck. I am having flash backs to Charlotte Amalie. I am on the edge of a mooring field. I tried slowly to move the boat forward with the engines and luckily the anchor came free. Relief.
I was able to sail across the bay and out the cut. I am leaving the Virgins and making what should be my last long passage for this part of the trip. It is 75 miles of open water to St Martin from Virgin Gorda. We have light winds coming from due east. This will make for a slow passage, but I am on the boat No Rush. I started out the day with a reef in, but I quickly shook it out and went with full sails.
The good news was there was a nice wind shift that allowed me to sail all of the way to St Martin with only one small tack. I was able to hold the port tack from one o’clock in the afternoon until I made it into St Martin the next morning.
I did have one first that wasn’t pleasant though. I became seasick for the first time. It was a truly gut wrenching experience. I cleaned out my stomach. It was strange as the seas weren’t big and the air was pretty light. I was down on my cabin digging though some of the food stores I had. I believe I got sick from looking down in the choppy seas below decks. A little bit of vertigo set in. I was happy that it did not wipe me out. The best place I was able to go to recover was down in my bunk. I had a good breeze blowing through the hatch and it was cool down there. I was able to rest it off and had no problems the rest of the trip. This photo is after the sun set. Red skies at night sailors delight….
05/01/2009 I made it into the bay on the French side of St Martin at 6:45AM. Exactly 24 hours after raising the anchor and leaving Virgin Gorda. It was no record setter, but I never had to use the motors either. I have this photo here. I usually don’t have sunrises, but I thought this was a great picture with sun behind the cloud as I was anchoring.
Today is Labour Day, A holiday that has shut down pretty much the whole island. I did a little hiking around and could not check into Customs as they were closed also.
My water pump has also gone out again. After working on it, the same wire that I repaired corroded through again. I repair it once more and set the wires so that he water will drip away from the connection. We will see how long it will last. I will need to wait until tomorrow to see if I can get a replacement.