18:02.06N 63:05.40W

22 April 2012

Light winds and medium swells were the call for the day.  Off to St Maarten, Dutch side, using the islands of Nevis and St Kitt as buffers from the northeastern swell.  However the southwest swell was noticeable.  Motoring along the southwestern side of St Kitts was interesting in seeing how much money has been spent to keep coastal roads operational and they even built a shipyard of sorts at the northwest corner of St Kitts.  Never saw a Travelift  have to run uphill with the yacht it was carrying before!

Once north of St Kitts we chose to go east of St Statia since heading west meant going outside the oil tankers anchored along the coast.  Not much of interest heading up until we got close to St Maarten.  Then a bang and a bit of vibration.  I went to the stern and saw we had snagged a lobster pot line and float.  Luckily the line cutter on the prop shaft worked and cut the line free.  Sorry to the fisherman but I did not expect to find a lobster pot float in 45 meters (about 150 feet) of water.  We had a vibration that continued however so we took it slow into the anchorage at the entrance to the inner lagoon in St Maarten.  When we set anchor and reversed the remaining line and float freed itself from the prop shaft and floated away.

Simpson Bay, outside the bridge, is the official anchorage and described in the pilot guides.  All lies as far as I can tell and others confirm.  This is a very rolly place that is not pleasant at all overnight.  Glad we did not have to stay more than a few hours.

The bridge into the lagoon is opened at set times.  Not a big bridge and the entrance is narrow but some significant yachts make it through.  Judging by the broken concrete I assume some yachts miss the mark.

No big deal to enter for us and we hailed the marina on the radio.  Of note we are now in the “USA” for radio transmissions and the channels on the VHF are different.  The marina uses channel 79A not channel 79 as the European radios are tuned.  Our main radio allows selection to the USA channels but the handheld VHFs do not.  Not issue but it does confuse many boats from Europe.

So over to the marina and the security guard assisted us into the fuel dock for the night.  Being Sunday many of the staff are not around.  This is fine as we settled in having electricity from the generator and plenty of water onboard.  The security guards here are very capable in berthing boats, not like many other places we visited.

In the morning we were assigned are proper berth and I went over to customs, immigration and port authority to complete the clearance into a new country.

The trip was 62 nautical miles, nearly all by motor with about one hour of poor sailing tried.  It took nine hours to get here from Nevis.