Anguilla

Anguilla’s name (think middle syllable) refers to eels and it gets this name from its thin shape, 16 miles long and 3.5 miles at its widest point. Its capital is a village in a valley called “The Valley,” The island has about 16,000 citizens plus several thousand tourists in season. It boasts itself as the number one “destination wedding” place and we saw a billboard stating that tourism is our number one industry, and reminding residents to protect it – be nice to tourists. And they are. It also has, what else, a medical school.

Our short voyage from St. Maarten was fast fun but rather uneventful. We did make several tacks once rounding Anguillita, a tiny island at Anguilla’s western end. Road Bay is the only port of entry for boats.

Customs 

is at the end of the dinghy dock.

Anguilla has a rather weird policy: Customs is free on the way in and on the way out, as long as you anchor in Road Bay. But to take a day trip (no overnight anchoring allowed except in one other bay right next to Road Bay) to anchor in the outer islands to snorkel for the day or visit any other of the beautiful bays that surround the island comes at a cost of $53.00US per day.

So we stayed in Road Bay which while quite rolly, and noisy at night because of the DJ at Elvis’ beach bar, was convenient.  (and we're cheap...you think?)  We are third boat from the left in this photo.

We chose to be further out (a three minute dinghy ride to town) instead of nearer to facilitate our planned 3:00 am departure – less other boats to dodge in the darkness.

The strip of land on which the customs office and about 12 restaurants are located is the village of Sandy Ground. Sandy Ground is actually a strip separating the bay, aqua water to left, from the salt flats, gray-green water to the right. From the flats, from the 1600s to the mid 1980’s, salt was extracted – back breaking labor. 

While we were here Roger was reading a book called The Big Oyster, by Mark Kurlansky, which is a history of oysters and New York City and the relationship between them.  While sitting at Roy’s Restaurant (free beach chair and wifi with expensive lunch), 

he read that a community was formed on the south side of NYC’s Staten Island in New York by freed black people  before the Civil War who were engaged in the oystering and strawberry growing industries, called Sandy Ground. Roger loves coincidences like this.

Anguilla has had an interesting recent history. Electricity was not introduced until the 1960s. England in its arrogance, had decided, when dismantling its empire to lump Anguilla with St. Kitts and Nevis. And the leader of St. Kitts, the largest of the three islands made statements about teaching the Anguillans who was boss. An armed revolution ensued in which the shots that were fired resulted in no deaths, and Anguilla was granted what it wanted, a relationship analogous to that of Puerto Rico to the US.

We took ataxi ride with Don Richardson,

who loves his island and talking about it. He warned us that he would even be answering the questions that we did not ask and he was true to his word. He took us to two of the three huge luxury resorts in the western end of the island, facing St. Martin.

At CuisinArt, 

which caters to families, the architecture reminded us of Santorini, and one of the restaurants there is so named.

Nice place with St. Martin in the background, about eight miles across the sea.

Cap Juluca has the loveliest beach and is the big destination wedding place.  It is mostly villas, some with their own pools. 

Don wanted to take us to Viceroy, the grandest of the three but we asked instead to see the east end of the island. We saw the fisherman's bay

with a restaurant that you can only get to by boat -- like Happy Island at Union Island.

We saw the home of the beloved former leader and were dropped at Shoal Bay for 45 minutes, with our consent so Don could take another fare. Is this a gorgeous beach or not?

Then more sights and lunch at the English Rose in The Valley, the capital of the island. Roger had stewed goat. Then a haircut by a Spanish speaking barber, a postcard, a stamp and Don took us back in time to check out of customs early the next morning, after a lovely sunset.

So we only spent two and half days here and enjoyed it. Posted from Virgin Gorda, BVI’s.

Sint Maarten

It took us less than two hours to make the 14 mile passage from St. Bart to St. Maarten. We used only the genoa and with winds 120 to 150 degrees off the starboard bow and did better than seven knots with 5 to 7 knots of apparent wind.  A squall came up as we approached our destination with apparent wind of 25 knots  which boosted our speed to over ten knots!  Fortunately it passed before we had to furl the big sail.

Here are three cruise ships in Phillipsburg, which we visited by bus from Marigot last winter. 

Phillipsburg has a big boardwalk (behind the cruise ships) and many stores to serve the needs of hordes of tourists.

St. Maarten is the Dutch side of St. Martin. Last year we were moored in a marina on fore and aft moorings on the French side, having entered the lagoon  under the drawbridge over the cut from Marigot Bay into Simpson Lagoon  (a VERY large body of water covering several miles with hundreds of boats on anchor and dozens of mega yachts at docks) and took our dink to the Dutch side many times.  We checked in with the French Authorities, flew the French courtesy flag and left under the drawbridge over the cut through the Dutch side. 

This time we followed the reverse process, with entry on the Dutch side, and hence flew a new courtesy flag, for us, the one of the Netherlands Antilles.

A funny thing happened on our first night. We had arrived in Simpson Bay, outside Simpson Lagoon shortly after noon and anchored to await the 5:30 pm opening of the bridge. We found we were the last of about seven boats in line to enter. And we apparently were not going fast enough to satisfy the bridge tender. About 150 yards from the bridge, seeing the bridge coming down, Roger yelled  on the VHF: “Don’t you see us; we are coming in!”  “Too late; see you in the morning,” was the irrefutable reply.  So we anchored again, nearer the cut, and entered at the 9:30 opening the next morning, anchoring between three marinas that cater to megayachts.  Here is the view from the bridge looking outside the lagoon; we were anchored where the pirate ship is.

And here is the view in from the bridge, ILENE in the middle.

Of course, dinghys and kayaks can go under the bridge even when it is closed.

The kayak picture shows two of the three megayacht marinas that surrounded us.  We anchored in eight feet of water with 70 feet of chain out.

The third marina was La Palapa with more of the same.

Despite all of this accumulation of multimillion dollar mega yachts with big crews, the economy is more dependent on tourists who arrive by boat at Phillipsberg and by air.  Our anchorage was under the takeoff flight plan.

After clearing customs and diluting the oil in our dinghy fuel tank (it runs so much better without too much oil), we dinked over to the French side and had a nice lunch with Bob and Laura Fleno of the Harlem Yacht Club. Bob is an honored Past Commodore of the Club.

Their boat, “Thai Hot”, is a 40 foot Island Packet. Roger had sailed with him from Bermuda to New York a few years ago, and Bob had sailed with Roger from Virginia to Tortola in November 2010. It is always fun to see friends from home and compare stories. And the he next day we had the pleasure of introducing the Flenos to our favorite restaurant, on the French side, Bistro Nu. 

We had a great meal  including, gratinee, pate, leek vinaigrette, steak Tartare, frogs legs, veal kidneys, and a cheese plate and crème brulee for desert, and two bottles of Cote du Rhone – definitely an “off diet” meal.  We exchanged SIM cards and they gave us some books.

The Girl Scouts have a saying: “Make new friends and keep the old; one is silver and the other gold.”  We have made a lot of new friends but these were golden days.

We also spent a lot of money both at the great supermarket and at the chandlery.  Sint Maarten is a duty free nation and prices are lower here than elsewhere in the Caribbean so it is the place to stock up and we left a lot of money. On our primary shopping day Roger counted up the number of times he got into the dinghy and got out somewhere else: 17 “trips.”  We finally have the complete collection of paper charts and replaced the hot water heater, the boat hook and the dinghy running lights. We also got fins for the bottom of the outboard engine to improve the dinghy’s performance, at Bob’s recommendation, and small screwdrivers and WD-40.

We had a full day of rain and high winds. When they hit 30 knots we veered and heeled but our anchor did not drag.  It's nice to feel secure! During that day there was little that could be done so Roger worked on plotting out the various ports and anchorages for our trip from St. Thomas to Florida -- a lot of them.  The wind forced the postponement for a day of our high speed ferry ride and day tour of the tiny nation of Saba.

Laura Dekker, the young Dutch solo circumnavigator, ended her loop here in St. Martin (where she began almost a year ago to the day!) on Saturday, January 21. She had arrived out in the Bay and awaited the announced 3 pm special personal opening of the bridge for her entrance. We normally seek to avoid crowds but got caught in the excitement and joined the throng who watched her steer her  38 foot “Guppy" to the dock and stand on deck with a justly satisfied look.

 Lots of fans about on the dock and in dinghys.

We had one more memorable meal at Tropicana, where we dined last year. Roger studied it to try to learn how to make a salad as pretty (and as tasty) as this.

We arrived here on January 14 and plan a short sail to our next nation, Anguilla, tomorrow, January 23.

Saba

We interrupted our stay in St. Maarten, to be reported soon, to visit Saba. Saba is an independent island nation. (Are they admitted to the U.N?) The license plate shows the map with Fort Bay essentially south off the oval with the flag emblem in the center.

As shown by the map, the island is roughly square, about five square miles, and very little of it flat.

Population 1500! Plus about 350 to 400 students from the US and Canada when attending the Medical College there.

Medical schools are a growth industry here with even the smallest islands having them; they make money!

All the roofs are essentially the same: not red tiles but red corrugated metal. The island had no port until they made a tiny one by building out a seawall to create, Fort Bay, on the SW side, in the 1940’s. Our fast ferry right, power plant behind, the beginning of the road that goes up next and the seawall at left.

There are a few moorings on the west side 

But we were scared away from sailing there by the cruising guide’s report of the inability to use good moorings or to anchor because the sea is so deep so close; so we took the Fast Ferry “Edge” for a 1.25 hour crossing of the 24 miles from St. Maarten.

This shows ferry’s pontoons and cloud topped Mount  Scenery, 3084 feet above sea level, shrouded in a cloud. Her captain:

With 3084 feet up and only about a mile from the coast, the grade is very steep and extensive switchbacks are used to get the nation’s 800 cars between its villages on the one road that connects them all. The Bottom is the first such village, after Fort Bay, and is the capital and site of the Medical College. It is only a few hundred feet above sea level. Next is Windwardside, the largest, which gets some wind from the east and is about 1500 feet up. Until the 1950's there was no road connecting these villages, just a set of stone staircases and Dutch engineers said that one could not be built but the Sabans proved them wrong. Hell’s Gate is at the edge of the east side cliffs and the road (our driver did not take it) leads from there down to the airport near sealevel on the windward east side.

 Our ferry tour included a van and driver who drove eight of us about, and lunch at a nice restaurant in Windwardside, Scout’s Place. view from restaurant:

The driver dropped us off at a place where there was a stone path leading about 700 stair steps to the summit, or 300 down to Windwardside.

 A sign said the trail was closed because it had rained a lot the previous day and it would be too slippery.  Ilene said "no, I'm not going" but Roger said "yes, I'll go a bit". He fell (a bit bruised, but not bloody or broken) and so we took the downward path to shopping and lunch.  

After lunch Roger visited the museum which told, as he describes it, the Caucasian history of the island, with WWI certificates of honorable discharge and photos of men in Naval uniforms.

Before we left St. Maarten for Saba, a probably expensive and probably dangerous new water toy was demonstrated: water jets from a barge towed in the water behind, propel the rider upward or forward, depending on how the jets are aimed.We did not inquire as to the cost of purchase or rental.  Heck....they won't even rent us motor scooters!

Posted from St. Maarten.

St. Barts

St. Barts is such a favorite of so many people, and we missed it on our trip south so it was a new island for us. But we did not love St. Barts.

The 48 mile sail from Nevis to St. Barts was a romp once we get through The Narrows, the strait separating Nevis from St. Kitts to the north, which is not that narrow. We left at 6:45 am with reefed main and motor. Out in the Caribbean sea, as measured point to point on the half hour by the logging feature of the GPS chartplotter, we were fast! With reefed main and small jib and the wind averaging about 17 knots between 60 and 90 degrees off our starboard bow, we hit a peak of 8.4 knots (without surfing down any waves) and for a four hour period starting at 8:30 we averaged a bit better than 7.6 knots!!

But St. Barts was a bust for us.  Gustavia , the Capital, is a cute enough town, built around a rectangle of water in which too many boats are moored in rows, fore and aft.

And it is filled with megayachts of the type that don’t go to Nevis because there is no one to impress there.

They are cheek to jowl.

Here is Genevieve, passing us on the way out.

And it is filled with stores selling every brand of high end merchandise known to mankind, only more expensive here.

And it is filled with chic restaurants and chic women and is too expensive and too crowded.

We mentioned rings, rather than cleats, at the dinghy dock --  big ones; and Lene looks happy too.

We anchored in the outer harbor with many other boats, near les Gros Islets (the big little islands?) 

with small cruise ships further out.

After checking in with customs, only 21 Euros, we went to the commercial harbor for a free login and password for their harbor wide wifi, but back at the boat, it did not work. Neither did Lene’s new SIM card for the local phone.

After a very uncomfortable rolly and pitching night, in the crowded outer harbor,

in the morning after spending some time with croissants and keyboards at a boulangerie with wifi, we decided to check out the following day and spend the night in Anse de Colombier, a lovely bay with beach at the northwest corner of the island. We got there using the small jib only and hit peaks of 7.2 knots, because the wind remained strong. Why can’t the wind be nice and strong when we are sailing and then calm down when we get to the mooring.  Actually, on average, winds do tend to diminish at night, but not this night. The government provides free moorings  for overnight use at Colombier and we took one, though in the process, with the winds howling at better than 20 knots, we lost our boathook. We will get a new one in St. Martin. Though supposedly protected from the force of the easterly winds by the island, the wind came over the hill, and off shore and spoiled the time there for us. Anse de Colombier has lovely hiking trails. But the howling  winds from off shore and past us out of the Bay, made it no fun. We did not even try to light the outdoor grill in that wind and al fresco dining would not have been comfortable.

Posted from St. Maarten.