St. Martin, Sint Maarten,Two Nations, One Country,Dutch and French

Up early again and headed to St. Martin. The wind was light so we motor sailed the whole way. Not so much fun as sailing, but needed to enhance the wind if we wanted to get there with any daylight. The first night we moored out in Simpson Bay and went into the Lagoon by dingy to check depths as our chart indicated very shallow areas, but we found lots of water and in the morning went through bridge into the Lagoon and anchored on the French side west of the "Witch's Tit". Therefore we checked in the French side of the country.  Here we hope to get a number of projects on the boat done. Not the least of which is,12 Volt refrigeration to go with the wonderful solar panels.  We arrived during Easter Week festivities so not much was open for a couple of days so we explored the area to see what and where things were located.

The Witch's Tit

Carl up the mast to run new VHF cable

St. Martin is an island split in two with one side French and the other Dutch each with its own language. It is reminiscent of Europe. There is no industry or real agriculture on the island. It lives on tourism. That said, it is a fun place to be as well as a great place to repair of upgrade your boat. On the Dutch side there are 3 big marinas which cater to the mega yachts, and there are chandleries, riggers, sail lofts, and hardware stores all over. There are also great places for provisioning your boat.  The French side is great for fantastic French wines with buys under $4.00 US, cheeses and of course Baguettes and pastries.  The wine locker overflows.  We make our list of projects and get started.  The  afore mentioned refrigeration, no more hauling bags of ice and 30lb. blocks.  Also a new VHF with AIS included, Xantrec battery monitor system, as well as Nimble Navigator and Radar to complete the navigation electronics.  These projects entail Leslie hauling Carl up the mast numerous times and Leslie sending out a plea for an electric winch, never found! She now has great upper arm muscles.

Diane arrives after a wet dinghy ride

Karakter beach bar

 What do you do here?   We had to check out activities as Diane was flying in 3 days after we arrived.  We got the refrigeration in the day before Diane’s arrival so the beer and the Rose (dry French) would be cold….  Somehow the project’s time got reduced as we explored and played for 10 days.  There are great sandy beaches, many beach and lagoon bars, happy hour is $1 to $1.50 beers, resorts, and water sport places. A favorite pass time is to go to the Sint Maarten Yacht Club at about 1600, when happy hour starts, and watch the mega yachts go through the bridge.

Watching Mega yachts go through the bridge

back blast from airline taking off

 Another is to go to Sunset Beach, which is at the end of the airport runway, and watch the planes land right on your head and take off with their jet wash pelting you with sand and sending hats and towels into the ocean. 

plane landing right over Sunset Beach

We are now members!!

One of our favorites by far is Karakters, an old school bus parked right on the beach with chairs, umbrellas and a fresh water shower.  Lovely place to end the day.   We took a day off to visit St. Barts, 15 miles from St. Martin and found lovely French restaurants and of course the topless beaches. 

Shell beach St. Barts

We spent many days exploring Marigot on the French side of St. Martin.  We climbed up to Fort  Louis, and surveyed Marigot Bay and a fleet of Opti’s.  We shopped in the open air market and found wonderful spices, even TSA will let these pass.

Ft. St Louis

Leslie at the Market

A hike to the Rasta Farm showed a cooperative agriculture project in progress.  Carnival was to start on the 19^th of April so we took the local bus to Phillipsburg to see the sites.  Diane also had a fun time looking in all the fancy shops on Front St.  Luckily a shop keeper took pity on Carl and gave him a beer.   Diane’s 10 days ended all too soon and we saw her off on a jet plane, heading back to Philly.  

Simi sound truck

Mario's Bistro Great food and service!

With Diane’s leaving we must now concentrate on the projects.  Even with projects to do there is so much to distract.  We spent the first Sat. doing a beach cleanup at Nettie Beach and taking the local bus to Phillipsburg again to see the Carnival Parade on Mon.

Dinner at Mario's Bistro

Beach clean-up grooup

  There are lots of knowledgeable people living on their boats in the Lagoon so we had advise and help as we needed it.  It just seems like projects take longer than you think, even small ones esp. if you are missing a screw or nut as it is a mile dingy ride to the chandleries or hardware store.  WiFi is not as easy here as in other islands as there is really no WiFi available for anchorage except very expensive so we must go ashore and find a place.  McDonalds has one of the best on the island much to Carl’s delight.

We caught up with our sister ship Puurfect with Dave and Linda aboard.  They had been tied to a dock since April 1^st, doing all the same projects plus more as they were getting ready to do the ARC,Atlantic Cruiser Race, and had to be in BVI by May 1^st for the first leg to Burmuda. They decided to leave on Fri. the 26^th of April but we were nowhere ready to go so we bid them good-bye and fair winds. 

Dave and Linda preparing for the ARC

BBQ party on Rocketeer

 We met a couple on a large Cat named Rocketeer, this was an interesting boat as the steering station was in a front cockpit in the trampoline area and none in the after cockpit ,it was only for socializing.  She was 50feet in length and designed and built in FL.  We spent an afternoon with Glenn and Graca on Explorer Is. careening and cleaning and mending our dinghies.  Took a picnic lunch and explored the island that is in the Lagoon.   Prior to Hurricane Louis in 1995 the island was a big white sandy beach with palm trees.  Now it is an overgrown Dog Run. Glenn and Graca introduced us to our daily hike, up a mountain. 

Daily hike to the top of the hill

We ended their stay here with a large BBQ on their boat.  On the Thurs. nite that we initially thought we were leaving we ended up at a wine tasting thanks to the crew of La Luna.  $10.00 gets you 6 different tastings and then you pick and drink.  We all had brought tapa’s and the owner had made a delicious salmon mouse.  We ended this nite with a free meal at the casino and Carl losing $20.00 to Black Jack-he lost 4 hands.

Wine tasting

Wine tasters at Casino

Major projects for this year are done, can’t believe how time flies. It is definitely time to see the next island.

Visitor on board after a rain storm, must have rained frogs

Nevis and St. Eustatius

At 2 AM as we sit anchored before leaving Antigua, I am awakened by a bumping sound on the hull. It sounds like we are hitting a buoy. I get up and look around and we haven’t moved and I see no buoy, but I hear something bumping the hull. As I gaze around under the moon light I hear a whoosh, gulp. What was that? It came again and I saw something quickly break water then disappear. Is someone  snorkeling next to the boat at night? It comes again and I realize it’s a porpoise! He continues to swim around the boat for the next 5 minutes before moving on down the bay. What a glorious sight on a moon lit night!

Flying Gennaker

We were up early, not as early as 6 AM like we wanted, and by 7:30 we were off. We set the main at anchor and motored out of Falmouth Harbor under light winds. It was about 10 kts. out of the ESE, which was almost right behind us. So we motored with Main and jib set with only 5 kts of apparent wind. It’s a 50 mile run so as we cleared the reefs of Antigua at 9 AM we rolled up the jib, lowered the main and set the Gennaker! She looked wonderful, but we only gained about .5 kts as the wind was about 5 kts or less. It was a long sail and we passed by the kingdom of Redonda, it’s part of Antigua but no one lives there, and a succession of people have named themselves kings of the Kingdom of Redonda and once a year the king and his court meet on Redonda for a gala party.  Usually it is a British author.

The Kingdom of Redonda

 Then at 3PM we rounded the south point of Nevis and sailed into the mooring field.  We would have to check in the next day as it was after 1600 when we finally caught a mooring and settled.  Checking in was an experience.  For the first time we had to go to three different buildings to check in; Customs, upstairs over the old ginnery, then to the docks for port authority and then to the police station for immigration. Immigration is upstairs over the police station and I am not sure we would have found it if the immigration officer had not been coming to work.  A repeat to check out!

Nevis from sea

Leslie in the Hot Spring bath 107 degrees

At the ruins of Ft. Charles

Nevis is a great island! You can get there by boat, or it is reached by flying into St. Kitts and taking a ferry over to Nevis.  While we were there two small cruise ships anchored off for the day to enjoy the sights. If you rent a car, and fly into St.Kitts, wait until you get to Nevis to rent as it is much cheaper. Nevis is an old volcano surrounded by shallow plains to beaches. From the sea, sailing in it appears like a Mexican sombrero.  The people are really friendly and helpful and there are a few bars right on the beach. Nevis is famous because Alexander Hamilton was born and raised there and his house is now a museum.

There is also a famous set of hot spring baths that were very therapeutic and well known in the 1800s.  In the late 1700, English Admiral Heratio Nelson married Lady Nisbet from Nevis. We also visited Ft Charles, which is in ruins, and acquainted ourselves with the various beach bars. Double D, the most famous was closed, so we went to Sunshine’s and Lime. At Lime we had the best lobster dinner we have had in ages. Both bars had cheap drinks and good inexpensive food. The beach was also a great beach to run on for exercise.  The Four Seasons Hotel is a huge resort on the beach with a golf course, many pools and tennis courts.  Their beach is buffeted by manmade sea walls set about a 100 ft. from shore.  Lots of large wily spiny lobsters harbored there, we just couldn’t seem to catch them….

Lime Beach Bar

Leslie at Lime

One day while running the beach we met Markus and Annette, who took us on a tour around the island and to breakfast at an old plantation called Golden Rock. What a great place! Water features, patios, gazebos, and fluted column porches!  They were renting next door, the guest house of a Supreme Court Judge of the US, small world. They were interested in buying property, so we brought them aboard Frolic to see what movable property was like.  It gave them food for thought. I snorkeled around the boat and found numerous sand dollars which I gave to Leslie for her to decorate. We hated to leave, but time was passing and we wanted to get to St. Martin to get some work done on the boat.

Goldon Rock Inn

Annette, Marcus, Leslie and Carl
at Goldon Rock

St. Eustatius

We were up early and got going to St. Eustatius. The wind was light so we motored, then motor sailed, then sailed, and back to motor sail. As we approached the island I could not believe the number of tankers anchored off shore. The island is an oil storage area so there were almost a dozen tankers spread about. We took a mooring and were boarded by the Dutch Coast Guard. At first Leslie thought they were US Coast Guard. They were pleasant, but it was an annoyance.

Tankers at St. Eustatius

St. Eustatius harbor frount

 St. Eustatius in the 1700 and 1800s was a hub of commerce in the Caribbean. Founded by the Dutch, it was a tariff free port and they would have 2000 ships a year come to drop off and pickup various goods. It diminished in importance when it was taken over by the British and French whose taxes crippled the trade there. Today it is an ex-Dutch colony, but is a huge oil storage facility. It also has some great eco-hikes and wonderful diving in protected parks. St. Eustatius is notable as it was the first foreign power to recognize the colonial US on Nov. 16, 1776, and it is still a celebrated holiday on the island every year.

beautiful but don't know what it is

Fort

We toured the town and the Fort high on the bluffs, and watched the locals set up for Easter. It looked like everyone set up a tent on the beach and they had food and huge water tanks and of course music. It looked like quite a party and it continued well into the night. The next day was to be a big parade and all day party. However, after a day stay we were off again. This time we were off to St Martin, and finally we hope to get parts to do projects on the boat.

Tents set up on beach for Easter

Pirates in St. Eustatius

Antigua

Maga Yachts at Nelson Dockyard

Our one week stay in Antigua to have the outboard looked at and repaired as well as the Sea Talk cable repaired stretched on to three weeks. We spent some time anchored in Ordinance Bay in English Harbor.

Anchored in Ordance Bay

 It is a great hurricane hole and looks at the Mega Yacht berths on Nelson’s Dockyard. There is little wind and the Bay is like a mirror. After some of the windy anchorages we have had it is wonderfully quiet and we can sleep without fear of dragging.

We dinghy in next to Admiral’s Inn which is at the edge of the Dockyard and a five minute walk to Falmouth Harbor which has three marinas that harbor many more Mega Yachts.

Royal Yacht Leander

Nelson Shipyard from above

Leslie is a Member

Clearing Trails

It is here in the English and Falmouth Harbor area that we meet members of the Tot club, officially the Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua and Barbuda, and undergo our initiation into the Tot club.  The goal is to carry on the tradition stopped by the Royal Navy to give all in the mess a tot of rum at the end of the working day aboard any of her majesties ships.   The Tot club, a social group who meets nightly at 1800, has at least one tot together giving a nightly toast, one of seven and ending with the Queen, God Bless Her. That drink is nominally a Tot of rum, about 2.5 oz., but everyone stays around for another drink or two to socialize and sometime dine together. It is a wonderful group of like-minded people who enjoy getting together. To join we must join them in having a Tot of Pussers Rum each night for 7 nights, but it must be completed within 14 days. Also on the night of your sixth Tot you must take a test on the club’s aims, its nightly toasts, which are different each night of the week, and Nelson’s British Naval History. To our credit, we completed the initiation in 10 days, and also helped the club clear some historic sites and trails. However, we were now on the way to becoming alcoholics!   We had to move on to dry out.

During our stay at English Harbor we have our new outboard sent out for its first service. They tell us the propeller seal is leaking and the lower end has water in the oil. Since it is only 3 months old it has to be sent to a dealer for service. This takes 4 days. Days that we now paddle into shore instead of motor and 4 days we cannot go to Galleon Beach, which is our favorite.  We discover we can take a 1.5 mile hike over a hill and thru a vale and arrive at Pigeon Beach. 

Pigeon Beach

This is another great white sandy beach with nice shade trees and clear water. We get some work done on the boat and install a wireless antenna so we can get internet on the boat while anchored out. Carl also removed the non-working refrigeration and we gave it to people we met from Australia on Lateral Thinking as he has a generator that can run the system and it matches what he has and if nothing else can use it for parts.   We anticipate getting a 12 volt system in St. Martin. We use the time to hike a number of historic and scenic trails looking over breath taking views of the sea cliffs and ruins of an age gone bye. One evening when we returned to our boat, we were met by some friends and asked to help them re-moor a boat which had broken loose from its mooring and floated into the mangroves. So we helped run new lines and haul the boat back to its mooring and re-secure it. Fortunately there was little wind and very minor damage. The owner is gone for the next 3 months so we just secured it and kept it under observation.  It was the second saving we had done.  It is definitely an aware and helping community of sailors in the Dockyard area.

Green Island

Carl relaxes on Green Island

With our dinghy engine back and now members of the Tot club, we sail out to Green Island. This is a deserted island on the edge of Nonsuch Bay on the East side of Antigua. It is protected by a line of reefs on the ocean side and reminds us of the Tobago Cays in the Grenadines. They have recently put in moorings so we grab one close the beach and go in to explore. We find a number of trails through the island and around the headland a bunch of picnic tables. We also find a large tent made by draping a large spinnaker over a small tree. Pretty neat! In the days we were there we dinghy out and snorkel the reef, which is unfortunately mostly dead and broken up. We also meet a family from Cape Cod in Mass. They have twin boys that are 5 years old so we enjoy playing with them and watch them build fires on the beach. It brings back memories of our trip to the Bahamas many years ago.

Leslie goes to relax in the "tent"

When we leave Green Island we go to Falmouth Harbor and anchor off of Pigeon Beach, with its long sand beach, trees and tables to hide from the sun, a great playground for kids, a bath house with restrooms and great showers, and a beach bar and restaurant. What more could you need? We could just stay here forever, we have run into people that sailed in here 20yrs ago with plans to continue sailing and never left.  As we walk the beach one day we run into Rodger Fontaine, a fellow Newport Yacht Club member who we used to race to Block Island during the Mitchel Regattas. It is a small world.

Front window of the Post Office

Testing the rum

 We came back for the infamous RUM RUN…… Friday dawns clear and we get things done we need to do and then go in to meet Sharp Boy’s Taxi as he is gathering the 14 of us that will make the run.  This is an official run as the Tot is out of rum for the nightly tot.  We arrive at a Post Office, cum gas station, cum car repair cum grocery plus distillery. What else does a small village in the hills need?   We brought limes and chips because we must fortify as we test the various brews before we purchase. 

We stop for a coconut milk break

Back on the boat with our purchases

We purchase 5 gallons of rum for $15.00 a gallon. These we take back in gallon jugs to store with the bottled water.  Yes, Eric you will get to try this and then some.  It is actually very good and smooth.  Returning to the boat we make preparations to continue on our northern path.  Nevis is next and we are hoping for a down wind run and the inauguration of the Gennaker.  Do you know the difference between a cruiser and a cruise ship passenger?

Folks off cruise ships tend to be “underdressed or well-dressed”.  They don’t wear paint-stained or frayed shorts, boat shoes or Mt. Gay Rum Regatta hats.

Cruisers walk, ride bikes, or take local buses.

Cruisers make and sell jewelry, not buy high end gold and silver pieces. We’re frugal, but not the seeking-a-deal-on-a-$15,000-gold –watch cheap.  Cruisers are splitting-an-entrée cheap and finding the best happy hour prices cheap.

Cruisers tend to be polite.  Sailors greet other passengers on buses and say good morning or good afternoon when meeting locals and asking questions.

We use local services such as Laundromats, marinas, riggers, varnishers, woodworkers, mechanics, and local restaurants.  We buy local groceries and go to the open air markets.

We won’t be caught dead on a tourist pirate ship.

We are rigging the Gennaker in anticipation of a down wind run to Nevis.

A Century Plant in bloom. They only bloom once in their life