St Martin and St Barts

The overnight trip from the BVIs to St. Martin was lumpy, but we made the 14 hour trip and timed it perfectly to go through the 8:15 AM bridge opening into the Lagoon. They charge boats for anchoring in Marigot Bay, but there are no fees to anchor inside the Lagoon which is very calm. We slipped into the lagoon (briefly touching the mud on the way in) and anchored below the Witches Tit. This rock mountain entertained us as we watched wild goats climb up and down the shear rock cliffs at dusk and dawn.

St Martin was sighted by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and claimed for Spain. Later it was the Dutch who occupied the island in 1631 and set about exploiting its salt deposits. The Spanish retook the island in 1633, but continued to be harassed by the Dutch. The Spanish finally relinquished St. Martin to the French and Dutch, who divided it amongst themselves in 1648. We cleared into the French side since it was much cheaper, but we were free to move around both sides of the island.

We grabbed a few boating items here at the two major outfitters and enjoyed the French cuisine. We had 3 foot long freshly-baked baguettes each day and sampled a few of the pastry shops. We headed north to Grand Case on our last night, an area known for its fine French restaurants, and we blew the budget for one special dinner. Appetizers of Foie gras and escargot, followed by lobster bisque, duck breast in mango sauce, roast lamb and a chocolate soufflé will be fondly remembered by this crew.

It was a short 3 hour hop down to St. Barts. Discovered in 1493 by Christopher Columbus who named it for his brother Bartolomeo, St. Barthelemy was first settled by the French in 1648. In 1784, the French sold the island to Sweden, who renamed the largest town Gustavia, after the Swedish King GUSTAV III, and made it a free port; the island prospered as a trade and supply center during the colonial wars of the 18th century. France repurchased the island in 1878 and placed it under the administration of Guadeloupe. St. Barthelemy retained its free port status along with various Swedish appellations such as Swedish street and town names, and the three-crown symbol on the coat of arms. In 2003, the populace of the island voted to secede from Guadeloupe and in 2007, the island became a French overseas collectivity.

Its capital is Gustavia, which is also its main harbor. I handled the typical Customs and Immigration duties and discovered from the Port Captain that it was relatively inexpensive to grab bow and stern moorings in the main harbor. It was a bit of a challenge to maneuver and grab the mooring without assistance, but we handled it pretty well. This spot positioned us yards from all the nice shops and restaurants and was very calm for restful sleeping. We attended the church services on Sunday morning (this time in Portuguese) and enjoyed the nice French beaches where clothing is optional :) We caught up to friends Mary and John aboard Navigator and we enjoyed the day at Shell beach.

This island is very clean and has become the playground for the rich and famous. The prices of everything reflect that so we are eating on the boat and enjoying the beaches and walks through the town.

Tom

Paradise Discovered and A Visit with Mom

There may be a lot of boats in the Virgins, but it’s not surprising. Around each island there is another white sandy beach or beautiful flowers or exotic birds and all surrounded by clear blue waters. We spent the last couple of weeks rediscovering these islands and searching for nice spots to visit with my Mom who is coming for a visit. This is the end of the Carnivale season and the Children’s parade and fireworks in Charlotte Amalie harbor will happen while she is here. We found some nice spots and more than a few nice restaurants to visit. Mostly we were searching for calm anchorages since the steady 15 to 20 knot trade winds can make some anchorages too rolly for comfort.

Mom arrived on schedule and we got her on to the boat and we stayed in Charlotte Amalie harbor for a few days. We did see the Children’s parade and we learned that these folks like their music loud and that they are in no particular hurry. We sat (and standed) in the hot sun for a couple of hours before deciding that lunch in a cool spot would be nice.

We all sat on the bow of Emily Grace on the second night and enjoyed the fireworks. Despite the loud booms, it was refreshing since it was one of the few times that we were not deafened by the loud music coming from the shore bands.

The next morning we moved to Cane Garden Bay on Tortolla and then on to Virgin Gorda for the next couple of days. We enjoyed a nice Mother’s Day meal at the Bitter End Yacht Club, but Tom did not find the lobster he had been hoping for.

Next we moved into Otter Creek (inside Coral Bay on St. John) and enjoyed the protection from the 20 knot winds before heading back to St Thomas. We had time for one more lunch before heading to the airport and Mom treated Tom to his lobster. We had more than our fair share of showers during Mom’s visit but it sure was nice seeing her again. She left with a few bottles of flavored rum and some more family memories and stories to share.



We depart tonight at 6:15 and will arrive in St. Martin in the morning. We'll see how the French and Dutch Islands compare to the mainly Spanish speaking ones we have visited so far. Kim will be dusting off her French language since the Captain has no fluency in this language.

Tom

Tiptoeing through the Virgins

We checked in at Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas only to find that US citizens coming from Puerto Rico can bypass the customs and immigration step. So we toured the harbor town and bought a few items. Kim showed great restraint going by the duty free jewelry stores, but we will be back twice to shuttle my Mom to/from the airport and she will get another chance. It was a rolly anchorage with all the activity in this harbor, so we dodged a few cruise ships and a sea plane and left for St John.

Two thirds of St. John Island is a U.S. National Park, and was given as a gift by the Rockefellers in 1956 provided it was maintained and the public was allowed free access. We spoke to a local boater and they are all upset that the Park has filled most of the nice anchorages with moorings, charging everyone $15 per night and not allowing anyone to anchor if moorings are available. We are all for moorings where coral reefs are being damaged or critical habitats or eel grass are being hurt by repeated anchoring. In those areas, we gladly pay the fee although we also dive the moorings to determine if they are safe for our 60,000 lb home. Most places we prefer to anchor since my anchor and chain are new and sized to keep me safe in 60 knot winds. But in most of St John, the bottom is just good old sand and filling up anchorages is just a veiled way to generate revenue.

We entered secluded Coral Bay purposely since we were told that this spot is far from the main harbors and residents there are welcoming to cruisers. We snuck way back into Princess Bay and had the whole bay to ourselves. Sure enough, the Park had put in 5 moorings, but,...get this… they were all marked Day Use. Where were we supposed to go at night? We had read that there is no fee for these moorings so we grabbed one and settled in. We swam around the bay finding only sand bottom, but saw many fish, starfish and even a 4 foot barracuda. We stayed for three days (and nights) and we never saw a soul. We dinked over to the local town and enjoyed lunch. While walking the back roads, we saw an enormous flowering bush(tree?) that was just covered with Bananaquits and hummingbirds.

We left for Tortolla and Tom checked into the British Virgin Islands(BVIs), which are a British Crown Territory, and spent most of the morning looking for a guy to do some stainless work. The quality of the craftsmanship and the ability to get good quality stainless was really lacking in most of the previous islands. Here in the BVIs, thousands of boats are chartered here and a great infrastructure has been developed to fix the boats and keep them in service. Sure enough, I found the shop and two small but important jobs will be done in a week.

That business taken care of, we headed to The Baths. An unusual geologic formation known as "The Baths" located on the southern end of the island makes Virgin Gorda one of the BVIs major tourist destinations. At The Baths, the beach shows evidence of the island's volcanic origins, as huge granite boulders lie in piles on the beach, forming scenic grottoes that are open to the sea. The massive boulders create a series of caves and whirlpools that are fun to explore. The light streams in from above and small nurseries of fish like tiny Sergeant Majors swim the many small shallow pools of water. It was fun to see this site through Emily’s eyes, since Kim and I had visited these islands on a bareboat charter of a 51 foot sailboat almost 15 years ago.

We left Road Town in the dark to arrive at the Baths at sunrise and were rewarded with a free mooring. We kayaked in and had the place to ourselves for almost two hours. By the time we returned to the boat, there were more than twenty boats moored and anchored and they were marching ashore. We were happy to leave and proceeded to another spot we had visited before near the Bitter End Yacht Club.

This area of Virgin Gorda is called Gorda Sound and provides nearly 360 protection from winds and waves. We intend to stay here for a few days and relax while we reminisce about old memories and create new ones.

Tom

Puerto Rico to Culebra

We never made it to Monkey Island as we diverted to Vieques because of wind and waves and decided to stay there an extra day instead. There was good snorkeling and it was calm and the monkeys will probably be there on our next go round. From Vieques we went into Puerto Del Ray which is the largest Marina in the Caribbean. They wheeled us around in golf carts whenever we asked and we had all the water we needed to give the boat a good bath.

We rendezvoused with Noel Carrasquillo to get our 16 packages of boat stuff we had ordered and we had a nice dinner with him and his daughter at the Marina restaurant. They came to the boat afterward and got a tour and Noel even came back the second night to bring homemade candied papaya from his Mom and other coconut and almond sweets.

The second day we rented a car and toured El Yunque, the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Forest System. The forest is located on the slopes of the Sierra de Luquillo Mountains in Puerto Rico, and encompasses 28,002 acres. El Toro, the highest mountain peak in the forest rises 3,537 ft above sea level. We hiked for almost an hour to see the La Mina Falls and Kim and Emily got wet while the captain took a few photos. There were the sounds of tree frogs and wild birds all around us as we made our way to the falls. Kim was fascinated by the tree snails that were everywhere.

We left the following day for Culebra and we found a nice anchorage and a nice town. The water is clearer here than Puerto Rico and we managed to snorkel two days in a row. We were greeted by nice vibrant healthy reef and quite a few fish. We swam with a hawksbill turtle for more than 5 minutes and a spotted eagle ray swam beneath us. Emily is getting better at snorkeling and was even doing a few surface dives down towards the reef.

We found a nice church ashore and enjoyed prayers in the town square and we were welcomed into the procession of palms down the streets to the church for mass. We also spent a day at Flamingo Beach that apparently is commonly ranked in the top 3 in the world. It was nice with powdery white sand, warm water and palm trees and we all enjoyed the scenery.

Tom