Adios to Barbuda, we have two long sails ahead of us before meeting our guests in the BVI. Tuesday March 5th, we checked the weather, light winds were forecasted, so we decided the 70 nm to St. Martin would take longer than expected and maybe leaving before dark would still get us there after sunrise. It was a beautiful sunset at sea, we saw whales breaching and lob tailing, what a treat. The seas were flat and the breeze was considerably stronger than forecasted. After a few hours of traveling at 8 knots, a little math (speed X time = distance) we realized we would be arriving at 1am. Yikes, we can’t arrive until daylight, it’s the safe thing to do. So the jib was rolled up to the size of a handkerchief, the main was double reefed and we managed to slow down to 4 knots. In the morning we anchored at Marigot Bay.
If you look at the google map, Simpson Lagoon is on the west side of St. Martin, Marigot Bay is north of the Lagoon and Simpson Bay is south of the lagoon. St. Martin/St. Maarten is the only island we’ve come across that is half French and half Dutch. The good news is that plenty of English is spoken and the U.S. dollar comes out of the ATMs.
To enter the lagoon we had to wait for the scheduled bridge opening. From Marigot Bay, the bridge opens three times a day.
The width of the bridge is less than Makai is long, but we’re so wide there was only a few feet of clearance on either side.
We stayed in the Lagoon for three days of shopping and saying good-by to friends. Eric had a long list of boat parts from Budget Marine, and I had an extensive provisioning list from Cost-U-Less (should be called lets-spend-more).
We had a wonderful evening of wine tasting with our friends from Cape, Fawkes, and Heymead. But after 3 days of shopping and not swimming in this enclosed lagoon, we were ready to leave.
At 8:30 Sunday morning we went out past the bridge only to be greeted by waves breaking in front of us. Apparently, the NE Atlantic had a storm which send high northerly swells our way. Eric floored it to get out into deeper water which was difficult since the bay is only about 10 feet deep and we had to go out a mile and a half to find water over 30 feet deep. These rough conditions gave us the opportunity to sail around to Simpson Bay on the south side of the lagoon. Here we had a great view of the airport.
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Not trusting the weather reports anymore, we planned our sail to the British Virgin Islands based on the fasted time. It’s important to arrive during the daylight so things like islands, rocks, reefs and shoals are more visible. If the trip will take more than 6 to 8 hours, we plan to leave in the dark for an early morning arrival. On this evening, the kids went to bed in one of the aft cabins, Eric and I did two hour watches, everything went smooth and Virgin Gorda in BVI greeted us with the sunrise.
Roy only had about 15 minutes to toss out his line before we were to head in between the islands. So out went the lures and in about 10 minutes he hauled in this Little Tunny. We’re not very good about measuring Roy’s catch, but I’m guessing this one was about 20 inches. Eric hove too which is a way to stop the boat and sit dead in the water under sail. Basically you back wind the jib and turn the wheel to one side and everything stops. While practicing this sailing move Roy set to work cleaning his catch. At the last anchorage we had wifi at, we found a youtube video on how to clean a tuna, so now we have four nice loins in the freezer to bbq for our first guest.
The BVI anchorages were also suffering from the northern swell that greeted us in St. Martin, so after cruising around looking for a safe anchorage to clear in with customs and immigration, we finally settled in Brandywine Bay, a dinghy ride away from Road Town where we have to clear in. The next morning over cornflakes, we watched the cruise ships come in.
BVI has a dozen or more islands with anchorages, each offering a different attraction. Many of the boats here are charter boats, you can rent one for a week or two, with and without a crew. The Moorings is one of the big charter companies in this area. A big part of their fleet is Leopard Catamarans like ours. They use the boat for a handful of years and then sell them off. Makai was a charter boat in the early 2000′s and by 2009 it was sailing with the Pimentel family who we bought it from.