Then on 19th to Simpson Bay in Sint Maarten, where we anchored in the bay outside the canal, entering the lagoon the next morning and mooring up in Simpson Bay marina.

Main purpose of this week long visit was to reprovision and to sort boat issues——with which we were successful. We bought a new thermostat for the freezer, which has never worked properly, and fitted it. And it works—-here we are some 3 weeks later with the freezer at minus 17 degrees. We picked up the replacement lopolight steaming light—-which Tuomas and I worked on and finally fitted to the mast in Anguilla. And we had the number one autopilot repaired—-we’ve been using it since for a couple of weeks to Puerto Rico and it seems to be fixed this time! Also bought and made up an adapter for US type shore power fittings.

But we still had time to hire a car and see both parts of the island—-still a lot of evidence of the hurricane hit now 2 years ago.

On 27th February we sailed up to Anguilla. Customs block still on the beach as it was ten years ago! But more restaurants on the beach. Hired a car for a couple of days and saw much of the island. Still a lovely place.

And on 3 March we sailed to the BVIs. It’s about 85 miles, and to be sure of arriving during the day, we left Anguilla at 3 in the morning. The wind was light—-4 knots speed clearly not enough—-so we got the Chute up in the dark and ended up doing the whole passage under chute and mizzen. The wind got up reasonably and it ended up a pretty fast passage—-we dropped anchor off Leverick in Virgin Gorda before 1600.

Next morning cleared in at Spanish Town and into the marina in Tortola for one night. Thereafter nights on moorings off Cooper Island, Norman Island and Jost van Dyke, where we cleared out.

We left the BVIs a couple of days earlier than planned to get to Culebra before a big northerly swell which has resulted in 4 metre waves—-but we are now in the very sheltered bay on Culebra and enjoying the Spanish vibe!


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