10/11th April - Simpsons Bay, St Maarten 18:02.200N 063:06.025W

Whisper
Noel Dilly
Sun 14 Apr 2013 00:12
"Simpsons Bay, St Maarten" - 10th April

We left Anguilla mid morning after 'Clearing Out", we failed miserably to get any ice or bread, but can manage without especially as we have one of those wonderful non refrigerated standbys in our stores - a part baked baguette. 

We had a really great sail again.  With wind and swell behind us we made a steady 7 knots down the Anguillan coast.  Once clear of Anguillita on the west point and beating towards St Maarten it became a bit more lively and with the swell hitting us on the beam we managed 7-8 knots.  As our course changed again around St Maarten we were tighter on the wind and slowed down to our usual average of 5 knots.  We tacked into Simpsons Bay and anchored, tomorrow when the bridge lifts we will pass into the Lagoon.  It is a bit roly here tonight, but not too uncomfortable, the wind is whistling through the rigging, a good time to be tucked up in ones bunk. 

"Simpsons Bay Marina" -  11th April

We were ready and waiting for the bridge to go up at 9:30 to let us and many other small ships enter the lagoon.  We have decided on some civilisation for a few days, (running water, electricity, wifi, shower facilities etc all 24/7) and booked into Simpsons Bay Marina, the home of mega yachts but they do cater for small cruisers too!  Here we can fuel up with diesel and water, charge all batteries, buy stores for our long leg to Bermuda as well as the Azores.  Give Whisper a wash and brush up and generally get ready to leave these beautiful islands and begin the next leg of our adventure. 

Our entry into the lagoon was not without incidence.  It is a narrow entry and many yachts jostle for pole position, as there is a current flowing, revs need to be quite high to avoid being pushed sideways.  A small red yacht cut in front of us and proceeded quite slowly until we reached the other end of the channel, when suddenly it made a sharp turn to starboard and slowed down.  What on earth was it doing we asked ourselves.  We just managed to scrape by her stern whereby an apologetic lady called out that her engine had stopped.  Fortunately two ribs came to her aid but not quite in time.  The wind and current took her bow round so that in no time she was lying across the channel and the small wooden yacht with a bowsprit which was following us in had no chance, there was nowhere for him to go, he in turn was being followed by a beautiful 'J' Class yacht.  There was a resounding crash as its bowsprit hit the red yacht a glancing blow as it tried to pass by.  We don't know how damaged the wooden boat was, but we saw the red boat later and it has a very mangled pulpit frame.  We also wondered what the regulations of the prevention of collision at sea would make of it.  Who was to blame and what could have been done to avoid it?  We talked about what we might have done (hindsight being a wonderful thing), pulled out a little headsail maybe to keep moving forward, they actually deployed their anchor very quickly but it did not hold.  Anyway we were very thankful that we were not involved.

Then, if escaping a collision was not enough excitement for one day, to our surprise, as we headed towards the Marina, "Nee-naw nee-naw", we were pulled over by the Coast Guard Launch with its blue light flashing!  Being 'pulled over' involved going around in small circles very slowly (the lagoon is very shallow in places), whilst being boarded by two burly young men in heavy boots bearing a clip board and guns in their holsters!  They were very pleasant and gentle with us, asking many questions and wanting to see the ships papers and our passports. Whilst one filled out the paperwork, the other asked if he could take a look below, not that we felt we were in a position to say 'no'.  I went below with him and he asked to look in lockers under the seat. I opened the one he pointed to which he looked in with a torch, then I opened others at random, he nodded his approval.  Next he asked to look under the floorboards, I told him that some were screwed down but opened the ones which weren't. "What's that?" he asked, peering down into the well where a white bag was nestled in the beams, "Rope", I replied, he just nodded.   Next he peered into the forepeak, "what's in there?", he asked, pointing to the locker in the bow.  "That holds the anchor chain, would you like to see in?".  The answer was affirmative, he flashed his light in, there was the chain all nicely piled up.  When I asked if he wanted to look anywhere else he said 'no' and went on to explain that he could tell we were just a couple enjoying traveling and we would not have anything illegal and that normally he looks every where.  I thanked him and replied that I knew he was only doing his job!  Job done they called their launch back and cheerfully wishing us a pleasant stay, stepped off Whisper and turned off their blue flashing light. 

We then called up the Marina Dock Master who had come out to meet us but seen that we were under inquisition and had returned to the Marina.  Once moored up we launched Rustle on the starboard side, it felt quite strange and awkward as we have always done it on the port side.  We dinghied over to Customs & Immigration to 'Clear In'.  Having filled in the necessary form we went to the 'window' and presented our form only to be asked if we would mind filling out another form as their photocopier was not working and they needed a second copy.  We dutifully obliged and after the paperwork was finished at Immigration we went to the next 'window' to pay the necessary fees for entering and staying in the lagoon. Presenting the piece of paper from Immigration we were told,  "We don't have any electricity to process your payment, please can you come back later".  With that a yellow Post-It with a number on it was slapped onto the form and handed back to us.  We giggled as we left the office thinking that maybe they had not paid their bill and had been cut off.  It most definitely was beginning to feel like one of those days!

The rest of our day has been very low key - we  kept our heads down!


Photographs: "Approaching Simpson Bay Lagoon"
                    "Coast Guard Launch"

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