Saint Martin/ Sint Maarten N18:02.00 W63:05.00
Tioram 4
Tina & Tony
Mon 15 Mar 2010 00:10
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Saint Martin -- French/ Sint Maarten--Dutch
We arrived in St Martin on 12th March after a nice 15
miles sail. The weather has been a little unsettled and on our last night in St
Barts we dragged at anchor at 4am. The boat had been safely set for 2 previous
days/nights and we had taken all the usual precautions to motor against the
chain, take sights etc.
The wind had been steadily increasing with the odd strong
gust thrown in. Tony got up around 2am when the gusts where 20 knots and decided
to sensibly keep anchor watch. We also always set our anchor alarm on our GPS
chart plotter as well as strong wind and or depth change alarms.
Tony woke me around 4am concerned we might be dragging
backwards slowly, however at that point the tightly set alarm had not gone off.
By the time I had thrown some clothes on the alarm was also sounding. Tony had
anchored us in a good spot with space and not tightly amongst other boats as
some were. We were really pleased that Velsheda and Bystander whom had anchored
closely on our port side the night before had thankfully left.
We were in clear water, so we grabbed life jackets , Tony
went to the bow to lift the anchor and I took the helm. We used our simple
radios to speak to one another and they were a god send in the noisy gusts of
wind.
Tony gave me a compass bearing to keep in the black out
darkness. We used torches to see the yachts on either side to keep clear and
motored forward into a big ship channel and clear water.
The anchor was lifted,we reset, made sure we were not
dragging and all was well except for my bruised knees knocking together from the
unnerving experience!!!!
Anchoring and lifting is a relatively easy process but
throw in pitch black darkness, a few yachts around you, strong wind and gusts 20
-23 knots and my mind slips to the usual, 'Should have married a domino player
'.
So at 4.30am Tony went to bed exhausted and I did
anchor watch until 7.30am. We were very disappointed to have dragged as we
had taken such good care. Thankfully we were talking to a sail maker
yesterday here in St Martins and he said that Port Gustavia where we were
anchored is renowned for anchors dragging. The wind gets up from different
directions quickly then the current swirls and before your anchor can re set on
a turn your away.
Needless to say we are now firmly tied to a dock in a
marina. We both felt a bit jaded from around 10 nights of strong wind at anchor
as you can't really sleep properly---finally topped by the drag.
The marina is never as pretty as being anchored in a
beautiful bay, but sometimes its nice to be stationary and not to be
fretting when away from the boat ashore.
St Martin/ St Maarten is half French half Dutch and an
interesting mix. We are in Simpson Bay which has an inland lagoon accessed by a
channel with a lifting bridge. It was quite a spectacle in Simpson bay circling
and waiting with other yachts and massive 200ft Motor Yachts for the bridge
lift.
The lagoon is very shallow and with our 8ft draught we
need to keep well within marked channels. So much so that the marina send a
dinghy and guy to meet you in the open sea bay and guide you into the lagoon and
to the berth. If you can imagine we are on the small side to the mega yachts and
motor yachts so it was interesting.
The island we have seen so far is very Americanised,
Florida like and doesn't really feel culturally like the Caribbean. I'm
sure if we had time to explore we would see the real face of St Maarten rather
than the tourist area.
Provisioning is great here as all the usual foods are in
the supermarket---which is a nice change, but there are no 'boat boys' in sight,
its an affluent island.
Saint martin / Sint Maarten has some amazing beaches and
looks like an interesting holiday destination for mainly American tourists. We
have enjoyed some nice restaurants and there is generally a holiday feel to the
island.
We had an interesting chat to a chap about early 70's on
a neighbouring yacht today. He had sailed quietly into St maarten the day
before us. He tied his warps to the pontoon and in that moment completed a
circumnavigation. He and his wife only on about a 65 ft boat he built
himself left St Maarten in 2004 and returned now , six years
later.
He casually said that he had just arrived from South
Africa, just over 5,000 n miles and a voyage of 38 days. We congratulated him
and commented that 6 years seemed like the right pace to sail around the world.
He said ' Yes we took our time but we got distracted a couple of time along the
way and visited Canada and Chile. We also had 2 seasons in the pacific islands
because my wife liked it there'.
We asked where he was from , where was his home--------he
said he was Dutch but had left Amsterdam in 1966,-------- his home is the
boat.
He had a great sense of humour. I asked if 38 days was his
longest crossing. He said he had done a slightly longer crossing in his twenties
but ' at that time didn't really know what he was doing!!'.
He apologised for talking about himself and the completion
of their trip. We could only congratulate him and said that we thought far
from bragging he was being understated about such an epic voyage.
We had another interesting Immigration experience
yesterday. In St Martins you can clear in and out on the French side. If you
choose to go into the lagoon as we have you have to clear in on the Dutch
side.
We filled in the usual forms, where from, where to, names
,passport etc fire arms??. The Immigration officer, a lady this time dealt with
our forms whilst her colleague and herself watched the movie playing on the
video screen behind her.
We marveled as the usual questions were accompanied by a
movie called 'Beverly Hills Chiwawa 2. Apparently, the officer told us ,the
movie is about a posh chiwawa who gets lost in Mexico. The dogs even had
voices.
We had to stifle our hysterics, we thought Immigration and
Mrs. Doubtfire in Antigua took the biscuit but 'Beverly Hills Chiwawa 2 and
do you carry fire arms ??
We are leaving for the BVI's tomorrow for an overnight
sail and are looking forward to some simple bays again. The wind is set to drop
which is great for anchoring but it may be a slow crossing to the Islands if we
have to motor for 16 hours.
Hey ho too much wind and too little---oh the joys of
sailing
We'll let you know how it pans out.
Love to all
Tina and Tony x xx photos of leaving St Barts
and arriving St Maartens through the
bridge.
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