Sint Maarten, 18:01.2N,63:02.7W

Serenity of Swanwick
Phil and Sarah Tadd
Thu 24 Mar 2016 00:54
We had been going to spend a night in an anchorage at the north end of St Barts, but the forecast yesterday (Tuesday) morning was for strong trade winds over the rest of this week, so we decided to make the passage to Sint Maarten, and possibly find a marina berth for a couple of nights.

The passage over the 14 miles of the St Bartelemy Channel was very quiet and we arrived in Great Bay in the mid afternoon.  Bobby’s marina offered us an alongside berth at a cost greater than any we have paid since leaving England, or a buoy in the harbour at US$10 per night, so we are now attached to a huge yellow mooring buoy, apparently big enough for a vessel 10 times our size, but in only just enough water for us to float!  It has been quite windy over the last 24 hours, but we are very well protected from the sea here and it has been much more comfortable than our last few anchorages.

This island is supposed to be a huge holiday destination, and the fact that there were 5 cruise ships in today suggests that it is, but I haven’t yet seen anything worth photographing.  Maybe we will find out what it is all about when we move further north towards the French section of the island.

For those of you who don’t follow facebook, disaster struck this morning.  A pair of shorts flew off the washing line and went for a swim.  Phil was ashore with the dinghy getting our customs clearance at the time, and there were too many motor boats wizzing about to take the risk of swimming after them.  I am quite surprised that this is the first thing we have lost off the washing line as we are quite often drying washing in very windy conditions.

Because I can’t possibly do a post without at least one photo, here is the moon rising over Phillipsburg, St Maarten, this evening.

Sent from Windows Mail

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