Moving Over to the French Side

Sint Maarten, independent member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is often referred to as "the Dutch side".  The Gilder is still legal tender and Dutch is still spoken but the US dollar and English reign supreme.  The fees to check into and stay on the Dutch side, whether in the shelter of the lagoon or in one of the anchorages is $20/week, so given that we are going to stay here for a little while and two weeks in the lagoon was enough we checked out and headed for "the French side".

On the flip side, St. Martin allows us to check in for up to six months for the grand sum of two euros if you check in at the kiosk at Island Water World.  Yes, TWO EUROS!!  What's not to love?

Along with Livin' Life we headed up to Grand Case for Tuesday night parade and dinner.  Not sure what's happened to Grand Case but the parade was almost non-existent, although the street party carried on and the barbecue ribs were excellent.  What a nice surprise when we were able to connect with Bruce and Cheryl Harvey who were visiting the island as well - Bruce was Caitlin and Jim's grade three teacher back in Richmond!

Just before leaving to head back south, Janice & Dave leant us their hookah to help clean the bottom of the boat.  As I mentioned, two weeks in the lagoon was enough - enough to start our own reef on the bottom of the boat and it was in serious need of cleaning.

Beautiful clear water, a cloudless sky and a long view to Anguilla on the horizon.

Dave & Henry wrestled for a bit to get the hookah running but after changing a pesky spark plug it was purring along

A neat little gizmo - lawn mower engine, air compressor and 40' of breathing tube with a mouthpiece at the end.

Henry's down there under the boat scrubbing off barnacles and teeny little shrimp

Final morning goodbyes with Dave and Janice

Dave & Janice headed off back towards Antigua and the north swell was making it's way into the anchorage, so off we went back to Marigot to tuck in behind the marina sea-wall.

Now that it's quieted down here, it's time for some serious boat work!

Hold that thought - who brought a cold onboard Mowzer?  Henry?  Where on earth did you dig up this horrible plague?  Having a cold anywhere just sucks, but in the Caribbean you may think it would go away faster with all that fresh air and sunshine.  However, I have to say that all I want to do when I have a cold is curl up under a blanket and sip a hot chocolate - not so much fun when it's 32C.

Do You Make Your Own Yogurt?

I know there are a number of cruisers (and land-lubbers) who make their own yogurt but I had not had a chance to connect with one for a lesson - until Antigua.  Thanks to Lann on Barefoot Life, I had a lesson, purchased some (cheap) equipment and we are now happily eating our own yogurt onboard Mowzer.

Don't get me wrong - we've always been able to find store-bought yogurt on all the islands, but sometimes the choice is pretty slim for some rather pedestrian brands.  This homemade yogurt makes a delicious greek-style yogurt that you can flavour as you like.

Below is the method that Lann taught me, if you'd like more info on this there is an excellent post on The Boat Galley by Carolyn Shearlock.

Gather your tools and supplies:

• A thermos - I like a wide mouth one
• Whole milk powder
• A thermometer
• Yoghurt starter (more on that below)
• A measuring cup
• Water

Boil up enough water to fill your thermos.  Cover it and set aside for a few minutes to warm the thermos.

 Meanwhile, mix together 1 1/4 cups of milk powder with 1 1/4 cups (or less) of cold water.

Once the thermos is warm remove the water to another container - you will use it in just a moment.

Pour the milk into the warm thermos.

Now add the hot water back to the milk, carefully measuring the temperature to reach 120 degrees F.

Add about 2 tablespoons of your starter yogurt to the mix and stir to blend it all together.

Cover the thermos and place it in a warm place for about 5 hours.  I wrap mine up in a towel as well since the lid is not well insulated.

After about 5 hours check your yogurt to see if it's thickened and set.  You can leave it a bit longer but if you leave it too long it will become bitter.  I find 5 hours works well for me but it will depend on how well you keep the temperature nice and warm for it to develop.

Et voila!  This batch makes two 35cl containers of delicious plain yogurt - all ready for some fresh fruit flavouring.

A note on starter:
Lann gave me a couple of tablespoons of starter on my first batch and now I just use the last couple of tablespoons from each batch to start the next.  If you loose your starter or are starting out fresh, you can use store bought yogurt to get you going but you do need to make sure that it has a live culture and no gelatine in it.  Fage is a brand recommended to me and the article referenced above on The Boat Galley has other suggestions as well.

Now if only we had freezer space for a frozen treat!

Where Does the Time Go?

It's been two weeks since we checked into Sint Maarten and entered the Simpson Lagoon.  Two weeks???  What on earth have we been up to during that time?

Well, for starters we joined Blue Moon, Livin' Life and Wild Cat and between us there has not been a dull moment.  In fact, when we counted up we found we knew 20 boats that were anchored somewhere around the island, and those were just the ones we saw or heard on the radio.  On top of that, Sint Maarten/St. Martin (SXM) is THE place to be in the Caribbean for boat parts & services.  Mowzer has been having a good old time opening up our wallets to make sure she is ready for our next set of travels.

We timed with our arrival on March 2nd was the Heineken Regatta.  This annual event attracts over 200 boats for four days of racing and party madness.  The lagoon was chock-full of racing and spectator boats and each evening sponsored and impromptu parties could be seen, heard and joined at the various hangouts around the lagoon.

Parking was at a premium at the dinghy dock at the Simpson Bay Yacht Club for the bridge viewing.

Each morning and afternoon a crowd would gather to watch the boats enter and exit through the draw bridge to the lagoon.

Brita & Jason (Blue Moon), Tim & Susan (Alpenglow), Janice & Dave (Livin' Life) and yours truly snagged seats in the front row for some 'judging'!

The parade of boats large and small through the bridge - IWW is always a colourful participant.

Boats jockeyed for space, passing double through the bridge and sometimes just a little close for comfort.

There's even a charter boat class with many participants in the regatta (folks come down for their vacation and rent a boat to participate).  This all-women crew had the 'model-stance' perfected.

Not sure what type of catamaran this is, but the bows are certainly distinctive.

The Sint Maarten Coast Guard was out in full force, helping to set the race marks.

Backing up the fleet of race boats, along came a beautiful motor yacht to clear through the bridge.

The final night of the regatta included a massive beach concert, headlined by Akon at midnight.

Getting ready for carnival?  Dancers on mini-stages were in full-feathered regalia.

While enjoying all the good times with the regatta it was decided that all the components had magically come together to try some wake boarding.  Wild Cat has an awesome dinghy with a 90hp outboard, Livin' Life has a kite board and Mowzer has a paddle board, Blue Moon has a tow rope and life vest (not the inflatable kind) so the recipe came together on a beautiful day for a little bit of fun.

The gang's all here!  Henry, George & Jan in the drive-boat.

Jason & Brita lounging on the spectator boat.

Henry showing off his male model moves - who knew he had them!!

Janice & Dave joined up as spectators for a bit as well.

Yeehaw!!  Henry's showing us how to get the paddle board going.

Oops - pretty awesome timing for this shot.

Many pictures were taken that day but this is my all-time favourite of Brita with the island of Saba in the distance.

(Thanks to all the participants for sharing their photos from such an excellent day.)

Sadly the time came for Blue Moon's departure westward.  We're not sure if we'll meet up again but we have shared such a wonderful time together since last August in Grenada that we have many great shared memories.  But one last chance to get together on Mowzer with a whole gang of people to celebrate Jason's and Gigi's birthdays - we had 14 on board, a new record!

Lots of stories being shared around the table.

Janice made sinfully delicious chocolate cake.

Au revoir you two crazies - until we meet again!

We then decided that a little exercise was in order and a hike to the top of Pic Paradis on the French side would provide just that.  

Lots of happy smiles at the top of the mountain.

A great view across the south-east corner of SXM - French Quarter and Orient Bay below us, St. Bart's in the distance.

What I haven't taken pictures of are all the little trips we've made to Budget Marine, Island Water World and Ace Hardware.  In addition we had a rigger from FKG come out and go the top of the mast for a rigging check of all our wires and we have a few things to keep an eye on but we are good for another season of cruising.  We've double checked our to-do list and made sure that we have all the little parts and tools needed to complete our tasks and we're now considering a change to our freezer given that we are in a completely duty-free zone with easy shipping from the US.  As SXM quiets down a bit between regatta and carnival (late April) we'll make sure we have time to check lots of items off our list.  What's life on a boat without a project list?  Who knows? - that's never happened to us!

So, before we depart for Marigot on the French side of the island and get out of the icky lagoon water, here are just a few final fun shots from the regatta.  We'll definitely put this in the calendar again for another year!

Final bridge entry - racing crews dressed up in costumes and other fun shenanigans :-)

Mexican sombreros and ponchos, I bet there might even have been a tequila or two.

Spectating from the dinghy this time - or you could just bring a swan!?

Or even a parakeet!

Last boat inbound coming toward us!!  This guy had balls to go through the bridge backward and then executed a beautiful 180 right in front of the crowd.  Don't try this at home folks!

More of Barbuda

For a change of scenery we headed down to Cocoa Bay where we hoped we might find a bit more snorkelling and a more settled anchorage.

Well, the snorkelling didn't really deliver (we've heard it's better at Spanish Point but didn't make it over there) so we headed ashore to see if there was anything to see on the southern end of the island.  The scenery ashore doesn't really deliver either and if you had dropped me down on the middle of the sand road I would have been hard put to decide if I was on Anegada or Barbuda.  Salt ponds, scrubby, thorny bush - the only difference is donkeys.  There are numerous donkeys on Barbuda and on Anegada you see more goats and free range cattle.

At the south end of Barbuda we walked around the little resort airstrip and over to Gravenor Bay - about 2 miles each way.

The grass airstrip - fenced against donkeys.  We saw one small plane land at night for an almost empty resort - really??

Jackie, George and Henry stride off along the sand road - not much to see here.

Massive salt ponds in the distance, but no pink glow of flamingos.

Not much seems to last in this area - we saw numerous ruins of various ages.

A family of three very skittish donkeys.

More salt ponds, the sun beating down and a potential shortcut home across the end of the salt pond.

Reminiscent of finding a cow skeleton on Anegada on the salt flats, this donkey's skeleton was bleached white on the parched sand.

Having exhausted just about all we felt we could see down at Cocoa Point, we headed back up to Low Bay for time ashore at Codrington.  The anchorage at Cocoa Point was definitely calmer than up the west coast with an east swell running, but we wanted to do more touring and wouldn't be on the boat much anyways.

Since we were planning on leaving on the last day of our cruising permit for Antigua & Barbuda, and the conditions were perfect for a sail to Sint Maarten, our first order of business was to check out of the country.  This didn't mean we were leaving immediately though, we still had an afternoon for exploring.

The checkout process on Barbuda is not computerized, so we did our sashay too and fro between the various officials to complete our paperwork in triplicate.

1st stop:  The Harbour Authority (at the tourism office) where we paid $2usd, and also picked up information about Barbuda.

2nd stop:  Customs - where Henry and George lazed on the veranda as they awaited their turn.

Very civilized, but no rush.

3rd and final stop:  Immigration, where there was a convenient little waiting spot for Jan outside.

Final stop, but not part of the official proceedings - lunch at Byron's Cafe by the dock.  This was a hot-spot of activity with school kids and locals.

With all the official paperwork completed, we were free to spend the afternoon as we wished, so we lined up a taxi tour to go and see the old Codrington Estate and the caves on the north-west shore.

George Jeffrey is a well-known guide whom we engaged to join us on the taxi and along with another group of cruisers we set off across the island.  Once again, the scenery is not stunning, until you get to the 125' highlands, but the way of life is laid-back and very communal, and people are exceedingly friendly.

Track and field practice at the local middle school.  The kids have taken off their shoes and are running barefoot.

Our field day - across the lagoon to Codrington and over to the east shore.

George explains the lay of the land to our group at the Codrington Estate remains.

It was a bit of a squally day at deserted Two-Feet Bay on the east coast.

The main attraction - the caves in the limestone cliffs.

Interesting formations within the limestone.

We climbed up through a hole at the top of the cave and emerged on the highlands above the beach.

A panoramic view with not a soul in sight.

Back down the ladder through the hole at the top of the cave.

Our day wrapped up with our return to Codrington and we felt that although we hadn't seen the sinkhole we would leave that to another day.  We had seen just about all that Barbuda has to offer, but the main attraction is the peace and quiet, and the absolutely stunning beaches.

Three a.m. saw us lifting the anchor for our 80-mile trek to Sint Maarten.  It dawned a cold blustery day and I didn't take off my fouly jacket until just before we arrived and the sun put in a short appearance.  The sail downwind was uneventful and we arrived just in time for the five o'clock opening of the Simpson Bay Bridge into the lagoon.

A bowl of hot stew on a cold, rainy day.

Anchor down in the lagoon and we were greeted by a rainbow over the SXM airport.

Fun times await in Sint Maarten - on last count there are about 20 boats here that we know and we are just in time for the Heineken Regatta!