St Maarten April 3, 2008 Position: 18:01.160N 63:02.589W
SeaTrek
Bill and Judy Stellin
Thu 3 Apr 2008 22:23
|
We are on the "hard" right now, don't worry that doesn't
mean aground. We are in a boat yard having the hull waxed and the bottom
painted. St Maarten (Dutch) side in the main town of Philipsburg is very
affordable, compared with St Martin (French) side which is inside Simpson Bay
and caters to mega yachts and is priced in euros.
This yard is about as dirty as one could get. There
are no paved surfaces anywhere and with the wind blowing between 25-30 kts
gusting to 40kts, dirt and sand are in clouds swirling around and into every
crevice on the boat. That is until it started to rain and so now
everything is a sea of mud. Despite the conditions, the boat looks great after a
waxing and we shouldn't look like a sod farm on the bottom with our new Micron
66 paint. This stuff better work. It is $235 per gallon and we
used two gallons.
We are not here because it is cheap, we didn't know the
price until we talked to others after we arrived. We are here because it
is close to where the cruise ships dock and we will be meeting our daughter Kim,
son-in-law Guy and their two boys, Ben and Jon on April 9.
We had to leave St Barts due to the weather. It has
been blowing 25-30kts for weeks and the anchorage was so jumpy, rolly and
generally miserable we couldn't take it for more than the six days we were
there.The anchor has never failed us no matter what the
conditions are which is great comfort. We are choosy where we anchor and
make sure we are well fastened to the bottom. I dive on the anchor each
time to make sure it is set.
I'd have to say the weather has been atrocious ever since
half way across the Atlantic. It rains almost every day, the wind blows so
hard it is almost impossible to ever go to any destination to the east of
where ever we are. Even going north is hard due to the wind being out of
the NE a good bit of the time.
This present weather system is just one of a string of
intense low and high pressure fronts that come through every week and never
end. We have yet to see with our own eyes any bay, beach or idyllic scene
as shown in the glossy magazines and brochures. All we see is turbid water
due to it being churned up all time from big waves and a sea scape that is
covered with white foam from the size of the breakers.
We do occasionally get a break but it is so brief we
hardly remember them.
St Maaten/St Martin has a big lagoon which is a favorite
anchorage because it is completely land locked. There is a canal into the
lagoon from the south and another one from the north. Each is crossed by
an opening bridge. Because of the high winds this week, the bridges have
been closed since Tuesday, (it is now Thur). Every boat has been trapped
inside and only God knows when they will be able to escape.
I remember people (mostly those that don't know what they
are talking about), telling us that we shouldn't go to the Med because either
the wind doesn't blow, or it blow 100 MPH and the water is dirty.
Frankly the sailing here is much harder because the wind
never stops blowing and never changes direction,plus the water is often stirred
up and cloudy. At least there would be long weather windows in the
Med. that would allow passages in any direction. Here the window is
minutes long and sailing comfort really just depends on much of a beating
you can stand. Wave heights have consistently been no less than 7
feet and right now approaching 20 feet. These are potential gear
buster conditions on almost every passage. It takes a strong boat and
sails to withstand the beating they take.
|