The Leeward Islands
St. Martin to Guadeloupe
5/20/2015 We left Virgin Gorda at 1400 and did an overnight
passage to St. Martin across the Anegada passage. We left in the afternoon to
time our arrival at St. Martin so we could get under the bridge which has
limited opening times to get into the Lagoon anchorage. The Anegada Passage
(nicknamed the Oh- My- God- A- Passage) is another one of those that can be
very rough and unpleasant. But again we got lucky as we did in the Mona Passage
and had a motor-sail with a reefed main to steady the boat. It got a bit lumpy
around 10p.m. until we got into the shadow of St. Martin. We arrived too early
for the first bridge opening so we had to anchor in Simpson Bay at about 0500
until the first opening at 0930. There were a number of sailboats queued up to
go through the bridge and then a huge mega-yacht got in the back of the line.
There was a port authority boat out there trying to rush us through so the
mega-yacht could get in on the first opening. It was a bit hairy with a narrow
opening and boats lined up bow to stern trying to pass through. But we made it
and found our anchor spot on the Dutch side of the Lagoon. We had to look for a
lighter colored water area(sandy) rather than the darker water which had weeds
on the bottom and where the holding was less dependable. We actually anchored
fairly close to the airport runway (but not in the exclusion zone) but the
flights were not all that frequent and stopped in early evening so didn’t
disturb our sleep.
Half of the island is French (Saint Martin) and half is
Dutch (Sint Maarten). If you anchor in Marigot Bay on the French side, you
don’t have to pay for the bridge opening nor do you pay the fee to anchor in
the lagoon. However, the Marigot Bay anchorage can be quite rolly so we elected
to anchor inside the Lagoon where it is calm and protected. The short time we
were anchored in Simpson Bay on the outside of the Lagoon on the Dutch side
gave us all the rolling we could handle.
While in St. Martin, we enjoyed baguettes and pastries on
the French side and did a little shopping but didn’t buy anything but a small
dry bag with a shoulder strap which is now Liz Ann’s purse. We went to Mahoe
Bay which is at the end of the airport runway. People swim here and line up
along the airport fence and hang on when the big jets start up and it blows
them out with their legs and bodies flying like kites in the air. We just watched
the crazies doing this. We then went over to Mullet bay and had a nice swim.
The water was refreshing but not cold and the beach was nice.
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| The crazies holding onto the fence waiting for the planes to blow them back |
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| Wonderful pastries at Seafina in St. Martin |
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| Sculpture along the waterfront |
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| Swimming at Mullet Bay |
We ate at
Lagoonies (a cruiser hangout) on the Dutch side a few times too. We had to
leave our friends, Caroline and Greig (S/V Lequesteau) in St. Martin because
their engine died and they had to stay and order a new engine and wait for it
to come in and be installed.
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| Our first landing spot on St. Martin |
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| A reunion of the "Rat Pack" group that left Georgetown, Bahamas together |
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| Lights on the bridge in the Lagoon in St.Martin |
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| The lights change color every few seconds |
5/25/2015 We left Simpson Bay Lagoon in St. Martin at 10:30
with S/V Jump, S/V Mythago and S/V Tehani and sailed to St. Bart’s. We arrived
at Anse Columbier mooring field at 1545 that evening and were heading to a
mooring when a very rude speedboater raced ahead of us for the mooring to which
we were headed. We had to go take a mooring on the other side of the field
which was a bit rolly but not too bad. We only spent the night here and then
headed out the next morning to Guadeloupe. Hope to spend more time here next
time but we were trying to get south to be in Grenada by our deadline of June 1
for hurricane season. Our insurance requires that we be south of 12 degrees 30
minutes during hurricane season.
