Marigot ... Is Swell, in so Many Ways

I've been a bit quiet lately but all for a good reason, really! Firstly, the north swell is up in the anchorage and while we seem to have anchored in a very sweet spot compared to the boats around us, it is still a little too rolly to be able to compose at a keyboard (a little mal de mere, as the French say). It's so strange in this anchorage, there must be a shallow spot behind us because while we get a lift and drop with the swell, the boat behind us is getting the worst ride with even breaking waves pushing him around. I think he must be feeling so sick he can't even contemplate moving his boat. As an example here are some of the boats taking the swell IN THE ANCHORAGE last night. Don't worry, we slept really well. Just can't read or type...

Marigot is "swell" in so many other ways though, the least of which is the food. I'm not sure I'll be able to stay here for too long or I might need to implement a daily climb up to the top of Fort St. Louis above the town each morning. The patisseries as I've mentioned are just to die for, but even the grocery store offers so many options all shipped in from various regions of France; my favourite is the cheese counter.

Ok, these little morsels did NOT go home with us.

The streets are pretty charming to walk through, a real mix of Europe, the Caribbean and a strange elite tourism alongside the local grittiness. Can't quite put my finger on it yet, but I'll figure it out.

There's even an air conditioned North American style mall, but it was quite empty.

We've found a little dockside restaurant down on the Dutch side of the lagoon that is still extremely French. The first day I had a burger with blue cheese, and not just a little crumble thank you! Our lunch today, we shared a lamb shank with the most delicious carrots and potatoes. Who knew they could be soooo good?

Gotta love it when the cheap beer gets even cheaper!

The biggest thing we've been up to though has been the replacement of our dinghy. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really wrong with our current dinghy and outboard except that they are just too big and heavy for us. We've decided to replace them with a light-weight aluminum AB and 9.8HP Tohatsu engine. The total weight is just over 150lbs which is less than our current dinghy on its own. We should now be able to drag our new sweet ride up on the beach with no problem!

Passage Video

I shot a little video just before the moon set.  This is what it was like half-way between the BVI and St. Martin on Saturday morning.

St. Martin Bound

After our night at Lee Bay we sailed up to North Sound on Virgin Gorda under the watchful eye of this character! He must be a benevolent soul as the rest of the day and night went exceptionally well.

Can you see what we saw in the profile of the rocky outcropping?

After a restful day at Leverick Bay the full moon rose to ready us for departure. However, many a sailor will tell you it is bad luck to begin a passage on a Friday so we prudently tucked a reef in our sails and waited til 12:15 pm for our departure.

Full moon rising over Leverick Bay anchorage.

As we turned the corner and set our waypoint for Marigot on the French side of St. Martin, the winds were even more favorable than forecast. For the first part of the passage, about 40 miles, we had the perfect trifecta: a full moon until sunrise, winds in the 12-18 knot range BEHIND the beam and the seas running in the same direction at 5-8'. We watched as a line of squalls formed up behind us and a number of small ones in front of us, but we seemed to be sailing in a bubble and stayed dry the whole way. After the sun rose the winds started to diminish until they pretty much ran out of steam and we motored the remaining 20 miles to Marigot. With the potential for the Christmas winds to be blowing straight out of the east at this time of year we feel we must have pleased some nautical persona to have had such exceptional conditions.

I took this at about 3am with the full moon lighting our way.

Sunrise was bright in our faces right after 6am

With the early morning light we were greeted by a number of brown boobies who flew in circles around the boat. We didn't see any dolphins or turtles but we figured the air dances from these birds was pretty similar.

St. Martin now solidly on the horizon.

Getting closer...

The port of Marigot.

Being a Saturday, services in Marigot close up pretty early and we were happy to make it to the Capitainerie at Port Royal. Check-in couldn't be easier through a computer kiosk, the payment of $8 (or 6 euros if you have them) and surprisingly no one checks passports, boat papers or departure papers. Ah...the French life. The (non)formalities completed, we strolled down the street looking for a wifi cafe where we landed at a bakery. Nothing formal but we picked a couple of cold beer out of the fridge, selected a chocolate brioche to share and handed over the sum total of $5 if you please. Ah...the French life.

We are currently anchored in Marigot harbour. The water is so clear even for a harbour that you can see the ripples in the sand beneath the boat. We have a number of interesting neighbours but there is still very much the evidence of the havoc that Hurricane Gustav wreaked back in October. St, Martin was hit hard with more boats sunk than survived and there is obviously still lots of clean up left to be done. I imagine we will see lots more evidence when we explore Simpson Lagoon later on.

Pretty turquoise wooden boat right beside us.

A French warship anchored out in the harbour, and that is the island of Anguilla in the background.

Imagine the force that washed this heavy working boat up on the beach.

Not quite the beach-front property the owners had in mind.

Traversing the BVI

Sure enough as planned we pushed off the CYOA dock before lunch on Wednesday morning and after many goodbyes we set our sights on the BVI. I'd like to say that we set our sails as well but as is usual the winds were straight out of the east and in order to be able to check in before customs closed we took a direct rhumb line through the islands and motored up to Jost van Dyke.

The new CYOA boat "Days Like This" taking the lumpy seas in stride.

The winds were in the low 20-knot range and the seas rather lumpy so it was a hobby-horse ride pretty much all the way. Especially as we passed the Durloe Cays on the north shore of St. John we seemed to be pointing skyward only to plunge down over a wave ready to do it all again. Once we were able to turn the corner towards our final destination it all calmed down a bit and we made the customs office with plenty of time to spare.

The welcoming committee at the JVD customs dock.

As we checked in we recognized the custom officer and his writing appears on a number of clearance stamps in our passports. We didn't know though that our paths would cross again later...

Rather than staying in Great Harbour we headed round to the eastern end of the island and anchored just off Little Jost Van Dyke, amid a little contingent of Canadian boats. We hadn't settled for long when a dinghy arrived from Calypso Rose next door inviting us to join them for drinks at Taboo at Diamond Cay. Well, drinks turned into a delicious dinner of coconut cream shrimp with Laurie and Marcel from Vernon, B.C. and three guys off the other Canadian boat who had literally just sailed in from Fort Lauderdale. Laurie and Marcel had already befriended the staff at Taboo. As our dinner was brought to us, Laurie began to introduce us to the manager, whereupon he quipped, "I know, they're here until Saturday!" Henry had pegged him correctly and we were subsequently introduced to Mark, the daytime customs agent / nighttime restaurant manager. The one thing we have really noted down here is that those people who work, work hard and usually at more than one job!

Calypso Rose raising anchor with a wave goodbye.

The Pirate Bar - reminiscent of the Bomba Shack, but this was just an ironic collection of junk.

Thursday morning we said a quick goodbye to Calypso Rose and then put our watermaker to its first real water making test. After a few hiccups to get started and a little extra documentation added to the procedure sheets, we delighted in topping up our water tanks and all for the cost of about a fifth of a gallon of gas to make 30 gallons of water! That little test completed we pulled up the anchor and headed up the north shore of Tortola until about 3:30 in the afternoon when we tucked into Lee Bay on Great Camanoe Island at the east end of Tortola.

Downwind sailors disappearing in the swells north of Tortola.

The day had turned grey and squally (is that a word?) so we decided to leave the last couple of hours to Friday morning when we will hit North Sound for a top-up on fuel and as our launch-point to St. Martin.

Steele-grey skies and water.

A room with a view, but this one has bars - the BVI prison.

Japanese style architecture on the north shore.

And We're Off

It's been rather quiet on the blog recently, but with good reason. Boy have we been busy!

We kicked it into high gear last week and have finally knocked out the last of the boat jobs that held us to the CYOA docks.

Sunrise on another day at the dock.

Along with all the boat work we'll also admit that we've been having a lot of fun. The Sunday before U.S. Thanksgiving we went over to Honeymoon beach on Water Island and experienced a real local hangout with Jay & Deb, Paul and Laurie. We were treated to a ride over on one of the Sea Tow boats; much better than the bumpy ride it would have been in our little dinghy.

Captain Paul whisked us across the bay in the Sea Tow boat.

A lazy hang-out Sunday on the beach.

It was hot, so he dug a hole and lay in it - how creative.

Paul & I sat and chatted over a cold beer while ...

Henry chatted up Bubbles!

End of a perfect day. Now to get the boat...

Thanksgiving arrived on Thursday and John & Joanne very graciously invited us to their place up on the north side of the island for the feast. Erica gave us a ride and we joined Paul, Nancy, Jay & Deb for a wonderful meal of turkey with all the fixings. John & Joanne's house is perched on the cliffs overlooking Hans Lollick and the BVI with stunning views to the north-east. It was quite amazing looking down on the islands that we have sailed to many times and watching the winds and currents swirl through the channels.

John & Joanne dishing up appetizers on the deck.

Looking east to the BVI and overlooking the new house.

Jay, Paul & Henry swapping stories.

Deb seems to think its good to the last drop!

The boat work however has continued, the solar panels are all installed up on the bimini and pumping energy into our batteries throughout the day. So far, and it is early days yet, we find that by lunchtime our batteries are back to full and for the afternoon we just stay topped up until sunset. Obviously there will be cloudy days when we won't be able to capitalize on all that free sunshine, but we'll definitely take it when we can get it.

This morning we finally got to dress up Mowzer with her new graphics. Now, when we sit in an anchorage we won't look like other charter boats, we'll have a little distinction. Totally happy with how this little project turned out!

Now she's quite distinctive.

Now that we're done with these major projects it is time to start watching for a weather window to make our way to St. Martin, and it looks like the perfect one is coming our way this weekend. Along with that it will be a full-moon on Saturday so we are hoping for a relatively easy crossing. We will leave the dock on Wednesday, make our way up to the BVI and then continue to watch the weather for a period of calm in the winds. We're heading due east which is right into the trade-winds so we'd like either a shift in the winds to the north or a reduction to less than 10 knots to ease the 100 mile passage.

Woohoo!! Here we go!

A Great Blue Heron gets ready for an evening of hunting from the docks.