Trip Report  #6:  St. Martin 

Filed from Jost Van Dyke,  British Virgin Islands

18  26. 0  N     64  45.0  W

March 6, 2006

Photo:  Leaving English Harbor, Antigua

    We left English Harbor on February 7, 2006, at sunset prepared for an overnight sail to St. Martin.  The weather was beautiful when we left, but we knew that we would run into squalls and fairly large waves as we crossed the open waters between the islands.  We had a light supper of soup and crackers and prepared for what might be a bit of a rough passage.

Photo:  Soup for supper

    As predicted, after the sun went down for the night, the wind piped up to 26 knots and large rolling waves from the east appeared.  During the night, the weather turned quite cool, and as we passed St. Kitts and Nevus on our port side, we went through lots of showers with high winds.  Our autohelm gave up, the control panel heating up to an alarming degree;  so, once again, we put "Otto" to bed and deployed trusty old "Bob". 

    We passed St. Barts on our starboard midmorning and sailed on to St. Maarten.  We could see the busy harbor of Philipsburg on the Dutch side of St. Maarten, with all the cruise ships lined up around the harbor.

Photo:  Cruise ships in the harbor at Philipsburg, St. Maarten 

    At 2:45 pm, we pulled into the anchorage at Marigot Bay on the French side of the island of St. Martin.  Marigot Bay is a huge bay with good holding and with room for hundreds of boats to anchor safely out of the range of ferries and cruise ships.  While there are plenty of duty-free shops, boutiques, outdoor markets and great restaurants, most of the night-life and casinos are in Philipsburg.  Marigot Bay is quieter, but quaint and pretty.

Photo:  The anchorage at Marigot Bay

    We only stayed in Marigot Bay for two days.  But during that time, we walked through the town, did some shopping and picked up some items at a French grocery store.  

Photo:  Tom on the dinghy landing in Marigot Bay

Photo:  Peg ready to check out the outdoor market in St. Martin

Photo:  Tom samples the old-fashioned, churned ice cream -  and found it good!

Photos:  Some street scenes in St. Martin

    After spending a lot of time this past month or so eating crackers and soup due to our mal-de-mer inducing passages, we treated ourselves to a meal at a French restaurant, La Gaiac, where we sat at a table overlooking the waterfront.  The meal was outstanding.  We started with a duck and mango pate with crisp-baked French bread.  Tom then had a cold, spicy plantain soup followed by a filet mignon with sauteed mushrooms. Peg had a salad followed by a grilled sea bream with caviar sauce.  The chef then sent a pineapple-coconut souffle that was so delicate and subtle.  Tom felt the need have a chocolate torte with ice cream.  When we treat ourselves, we TREAT ourselves.  The food was out of this world (the tab was also pretty far out).  And we're going to put off having our cholesteral checked for a while.

    We left the next evening at sunset;  destination: the Virgin Islands.  We had an almost perfect full moon and finally were sailing with the wind and waves on our quarter.  We had fairly large waves, and as we sailed across the open waters in the Anegada Passage, the wind was 20 to 25 knots, but it was so much more comfortable than the close-hauled sailing that characterized our trip from Venezuela.

Photo:  Tom sailing downwind at last

    The next morning, we approached Virgin Gorda and made our way through the fairly narrow passage between Virgin Gorda and the reefs around Neckar Island.  

Photo:  The channel between Virgin Gorda and Neckar Island

    We were intent on getting to St. Thomas and checking into the U.S. Virgin Islands to be there before son, Rob, his wife, Alexandra and daughter, Anastasia, arrived there.  But we couldn't resist poking into Gorda Sound to see how it had changed in the 30 years since we were last there.  Surprisingly, not much has changed.  There may be a little more development and a few more moorings, but it is still beautiful and uncrowded, and we were pleased to see it.

Photo:  Bitter End Yacht Club, Gorda Sound

Photo:  Gorda Sound, looking toward Saba Island

    We have one week to settle in before our family arrives and we are so looking forward to seeing them.  It has been several months since we have seen Anastasia, and at 1 1-2 years of age, months can mean big changes.

                    73s, 88s, Love & Hugs -

                    Peg & Tom Maynard

                    aboard s/v Starboard Home

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