St Martin/Sint Maarten

We knew the weather was going to change by the end of the week, so we cleared out of Saba on Thursday morning, 17^thApril. The wind was already gusting from 5-25 knots on the mooring at 7.00am, so we put a reef in the mainsail and left. It was 32 miles to Marigot Bay, St Martin, but we knew we would be in the lee of the island for the last 10 miles. The first squall hit us about half an hour after we’d left. Heavy rain belted down and visibility reduced to half a mile or less. The waves began to build and soon they were breaking over Sal Darago and drenching the cockpit. After a short while, the squall passed and weak sunshine tried to break through the grey clouds. Whew! We breathed sighs of relief and thought the worst was over. We should have known better. Within an hour the sky darkened again and Jeremy put a second reef in the mainsail. Once again, steep, breaking waves swept over us and Jeremy noticed that our dorade air vent on the roof was facing right into the waves. This means that sea water can pour down through the saloon ceiling and drench everything below. He went forward and capped the vent hole.

The view from Fort Louis over Marigot Bay and beyond

Only 6 hours after leaving Saba, we motored into the beautiful, turquoise shelter of Marigot Bay on the French side of St Martin. (The island is half French and half Dutch. Both sides have their own currency: euros for the French and Netherland guilders for the Dutch, although both sides accept US dollars. There are also several languages spoken including English.) I felt exhausted and shell shocked, but we were still in one piece and Sal Darago had taken the battering without damage. After clearing in, obtaining maps from Tourist Information and buying a few provisions, we could relax and sleep.

Jeremy claiming Fort Louis for Britain

The next day was Good Friday. Many places were closed so we had a planning and making lists day. The wind continued to be strong and heavy showers kept passing over all through the Eater weekend. On Saturday, we caught a bus to the Dutch side, compared prices at Budget Marine and Island Water World and bought a Standard Horizon VHF radio with AIS. For the non-sailor reading this, AIS stands for Automatic Identification System. All big ships have to have transmitters and receivers fitted, which give their position and course. Our AIS is a receiver and it picks up the signals from ships and other vessels giving us their name, course and closest point of approach. If a ship is going to pass too close, we can call it by name on the VHF radio. Hopefully, we can avoid any future close encounters. We decided to buy the equipment here as this island is duty free. We also bought a pair of waterproof binoculars, which have been on our list for ages.

How many cruise ships?

Jeremy spent Easter Sunday fitting the VHF radio with AIS and I checked all our tinned and dried food items before making a provisioning list. We walked up to Fort Louis just above the bay on Easter Monday. The next day we took our laundry to Shrimpys, a great facility for cruisers located in the French canal, just before the bridge into Simpson Bay lagoon. Here, I spent most of the morning catching up with email and posting the latest blog, while Jeremy made several trips filling up with diesel at the fuel station opposite and water at Shrimpys. We spent the afternoon in the supermarket.

Rent a brolly at Phillipsburg

It was time to have a look round St Martin/Sint Maarten, so we did our own island tour on the bus (well, three buses actually, total cost for the day – $12US). The traffic is heavy on both sides of the island. The Dutch capital, Phillipsburg, was packed to overflowing with tourists. SIX cruise ships were in the port, disgorging a minimum of 10,000 visitors. Avoiding the diamond shops and expensive restaurants, we eventually found three places we wanted to visit: the small, but informative museum, the Courthouse and the restored Methodist church. Our bus broke down on the way home; it boiled over on a hill. Fortunately, we were able to catch another one but this one nearly ran out of fuel and we had to wait on the bus while the driver filled up at a garage. We find travelling this way more interesting than “doing” the islands in air conditioned taxis and a lot cheaper!

Found a church at last

On a calm Friday morning, we motored the 15 miles to Road Bay, Anguilla, another beautiful, but flat island with stunning blue bays where turtles pop their heads up and lobsters lodge in coral crevices. 

Sunset at Road Bay, Anguilla