Philipsburg, St. Maarten
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 21 Dec 2007 03:07
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18:01.167N 63:02.992W
We sailed from Virgin Gorda to St. Maarten as
planned last Monday night (12/17), and arrived in Simpson Bay on the Dutch side
of St. Maarten to check in to customs at 8:30 Tuesday morning. The wind
was moderate and coming from a direction that was less than ideal, causing us to
trace a giant Z in the sea as we made our way south past St. Maarten, and
then northeast back to the island. The swell was only six or seven feet -
just enough to make it a bit uncomfortable, and just enough to cause the boat to
pound into the waves since we were headed mostly into the wind.
Fortunately, this time Bill wasn't with us, so when we sailed up a wave, got a
bit airborne, and crashed down the other side, nobody unintentionally levitated
while trying to sleep in the forward cabin. The sunset wasn't bad (picture
1), the moon was half visible and the stars were incredible.
Both Don and I had a scare on our separate watches
when we heard a loud thump - like something hitting the boat. In both
cases, it was a flying fish. Those buggers really do fly. Don's
flying fish bounced off the dodger and right back into the water. My
flying fish was not so talented. It thumped on the deck just outside of
the cockpit and floundered around. When I finally realized what all
the ruckus was about, I knew I had to get the fish back in the water
before it suffocated. Of course there was no way I was going to touch the
thing, so I scrambled down into the galley and went for the tongs. With
those in hand, I sort of shoved the sad half-dead fish over the side through a
gap in the toe rail. In the morning we noticed a bunch of fish
scales at the scene of the tong-fish-shove and wondered if the thing lived
through the ordeal or not. I hope so. If not, imagine him telling
his friends in fish heaven that he was killed by a giant pair of tongs.
They probably wouldn't believe it.
Along the way throughout the night there was pretty
heavy freighter and cruise ship traffic (got to supply all of these tropical
islands with tourists and then supply the goods to sell to the tourists on these
tropical islands, right?). At one point we had a cruise ship passing us on
the right and another passing us on the left going the other way. Both
were within a mile of our boat, and given the way cruise ships are lit up at
night, both looked a lot closer. I was on watch and feeling pretty much
like a cruise ship sandwich at that point.
We somehow survived the less than perfect wind,
flying fish and cruise ship traffic and arrived in Simpson Bay where we anchored
the boat and Don dinghied over to the customs office to check in.
The customs office is located next to the lift bridge that spans the
channel into Simpson Lagoon. We chose not to enter the lagoon
(instead we went on around the south side of the island to
Philipsburg), but the lagoon is certainly a popular spot, especially for
mega-yachts. The lift bridge that blocks the entrance to the lagoon
only opens for incoming boat traffic three times per day, so the line
waiting to get in was pretty long (picture 2).
Once we got to Philipsburg, we anchored in the
giant Grand Bay (picture 3 - our boat is just right of center), not too far from
those cruise ships that tried to run us down, and have been here ever
since. We've found the people here to be quite friendly.
Yesterday when we dinghied in to see the town, we happened to arrive at the dock
at the same time as a boatload of cruise boat people. A bunch of
vendors and people touting promotions for this and that were waiting just beyond
the dock to accost the tourists, and when one of them accosted us, she was
surprised to hear us say that we were there on our own boat and were not from
the cruise ship. 'You're here on your own boat?' she asked us, seeming
quite incredulous. 'You mean you sailed on the ocean to get here on your
own little boat?' When we told her yes, she grinned so we could see
all of her gold dental work and said, 'I'm too scared to be in a boat over the
deep water, I could never do that'. When we asked why she would be so
scared of the ocean, especially living on a small island like she
does, surrounded by deep ocean water, she just kind of
shrugged. Then when Don went on to point out that she could just as
easily drown in seven feet of water as she could in 3,000 feet of water,
she let out a big belly laugh and reluctantly agreed. Those damn
engineers - they are so logical.
We plan to leave St. Maarten tomorrow
(Friday, 12/21) for Antigua, where we will spend Christmas and then New Year's
with my sister Margy and her husband Rick. It will be another overnight
80ish mile trip southeast. Hopefully we won't run into any killer cruise
ships or flying fish on the way.
Anne
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