Anguilla to St. Martin

Winds this morning were dead out of the east at 15 - 20 knots  and the seas running from the NE at 2 - 4', which given we were sailing WSW down the north coast of Anguilla and then crossing the Anguilla Channel to Marigot on St. Martin, couldn't have been better.  We had a final close reach approach to Marigot Harbour with apparent winds topping out at 24 knots so we made very good progress with Mowzer picking up her heels to almost 8 knots with a very comfortable ride.  We arrived in the anchorage at noon and found a nice spot just off the sea wall just next to Golden Dawn.

Again, thanks to advance information we headed to the Capitainerie at Port Royale rather than endure the surly clearance officers at the ferry dock.  Other than waiting for the office to open at 3pm, this had to be the easiest and fastest clearance into a country.  We completed the form ourselves on a computer upstairs, the form was printed downstairs, we paid $7.00 and left.  He didn't even check out our passports or look at our clearance papers from Anguilla.  When we are ready to leave we can go into any of the clearance offices up to 48 hours before we wish to leave, fill in the reciprocal form and pay $7.00 to be on our way.  Amazing!

 We wandered through the lower streets of Marigot and Port Royal making sure we picked up a fresh baguette and some chocolate croissants for breakfast in the morning - ah the upside of a French territory (among others).