St. Lucia to Sint Maarten
As I write this we are positioned about 20 miles south of Sint Maarten/St. Martin and have now been underway for a little over 48 hours. The journey from St. Lucia to St. Martin measures 270 nm on the rhumb line making it about 30 miles greater than our longest passage to date (Luperon, DR to Mayaguez, PR). As expected, we found primarily light winds the majority of our first day at sea, requiring us to motor sail to make any decent headway at all. Later in the day the light winds were punctuated by numerous squalls which, along with rain, saw the winds jump from light to more than we really wanted. With the weather being so unstable we decided to motor sail with our main sail reefed. Unfortunately the patch that we sewed into the main just above the first reef point wasn’t quite strong enough to take the pressure so we had the choice of either running with full sail or putting in the second reef. With darkness approaching we chose the latter even though the wind wasn’t really strong enough to warrant it. As it turns out we stayed just ahead of some nasty weather and were treated to a fantastic lightning show astern of us throughout the entire evening.
Sail reefed with dark clouds in the background.
Squall 1…
and squall 2
There was light at the end of the tunnel though!
Red sky at night…
The next day brought with it sunshine, and an incredible dolphin show but still not sufficient wind to sail well. The standard easterly trade winds had apparently been sucked away by a weather disturbance some distance east of us. This left us with atypical light NW winds which, as you guessed it, was exactly the direction we wanted to go. By the time we were 20 miles abeam of Guadeloupe we had a decision to make: do we continue on motor-sailing to St. Martin or pull in to Guadeloupe to refuel. It was quite questionable whether we would have enough fuel to make it given the current conditions. Those following our Spot track might have even noticed that we tacked towards Guadeloupe at this time. Shortly after doing so though, the wind freshened and veered to the NE giving us a better shot at our target. So, back to Plan A it was.
Shortly after resuming our northward course we were rewarded for our perseverance with a little Mahi Mahi. Truth be told we were just reeling in the line to check for weeds on the lure when this unlucky guy decided to strike. Nothing like fresh fish for dinner!
We had about 30 dolphins playing in our wake.
Lying down on the trampoline we could almost touch them.
Dinner!
Even with multiple workouts Rebecca was still going stir crazy.
Did you know that the southern end of Montserrat was decimated by a volcanic eruption in 1995?
Sunsets at sea always rock!
Our second night underway gave us better weather but infinitely more ship traffic to pay attention to. Just around sunrise as we were rounding St. Eustatius with 5 or 6 huge tankers lying at anchor just to starboard, I realized we had a problem. I was on watch and when I instructed the autopilot to adjust course onto what would be the final leg of our trip, it sputtered at me, unable to make the correction. I immediately disengaged the autopilot to find that the steering was jammed. Oh oh!
Note: I don’t know if there’s a good time to lose steerage but I would rather it have occur somewhere other than just off an island with half a dozen big ships looming nearby!
After waking Rebecca early and getting her up on deck to help, and checking all possible onboard scenarios, it appeared as if one of us was going to have to get wet to check the rudder. As soon as I stepped down onto our stern steps I could easily see a long length of line trailing behind our boat. Ah ha! Once in the water it didn’t take me too long to extricate the line which was lodged between the port side rudder and the hull. I have no idea how long that line was (it was LONG) or what, if anything, it was attached to. I just wanted to get rid of it so I cut it free and let it go. Hopefully no other unsuspecting boater gets tripped up by it. FYI that is the first time that we have ever had anything more than our own fishing lines wrapped around our props or rudders. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Our destination today is Simpson Bay on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. When we last visited the island we only spent a few days there and that was entirely on the French side. This time we’re looking forward to spending a lot more time there and exploring the island in much greater detail. For those of you who’ve been to St. Martin/Sint Maarten, what are your must-not-miss things to see and do? Remember of course that we are on a limited budget so we’ll probably have to pass on any five-star restaurants. 🙂
Nice job guys!! Sorry to hear about the unfavorable wind and mystery line, but glad you’re there safe and sound. We hit up a place on the dutch side called Toppers one rainy afternoon and hung out with Topper himself for a few hours…super neat guy with LOTS of yummy flavors of rum and tons of great stories…but then again, he gave us a bunch of rum for free so maybe that’s why we liked it so much? Have fun and happy holidays!!
I remember reading about Toppers on your blog. I think you were hiding from a rain squall?
Thanks for the excellent pic’s & great story/info on your trip. Looks like your both becoming pros at catching those fish 🙂 As for the line I take it was fishing line ? Could have been from a long liner trawler ?. Regarding the Dolphins we are thinking of getting one of the Go pro2 under water camera so you can take videos of them swimming with you. The attachment you put on here the other day made us say yes to getting one. Now all we have to do is sell our other under water gear as its big & cumbersome.
All the best for the next part of your trip.
The line was actually an anchor rode or something similar. It had a small length of chain shackled to one end.
As for the camera, go for it!
St. Maarten must do’s? These are the things my wife and I did in 2009 and we had a great time with all of it:
-Orient Beach (part of beach is clothes free if you are into that);
-watch the planes land RIGHT over Maho Beach (grocery store nearby if I recall);
-“mud bath” @ Ile Tintamarre (just northeast of St. Maarten). Honestly more of a “mud scrub down”…but who am I to quibble with the marketing pitch?;
-Fort St. Louis in Marigot (good views);
-Lunch at a lolo in Grand Case
-Sunset at the cliffs of Cupecoy Beach just to the west of the Wyndham Sapphire Beach club (along Rhine Rd??). There is a poorly marked dirt road that leads there.
-Zip line at Loterie farm at the top of Pic Paradise (tallest mountain on St. Maarten). We went there but didn’t zipline due to the time. Picturesque just the same. Driving there was not for the faint hearted.
-Baie Rouge: we went because apparently there is a cave you can swim through and you can see “Devil’s Hole” which is an arch through which waves crash. Some in our party wimped out – so the cave and hole were not found that day (although we did see Devil’s hole from the water on a boat excursion).
pics from the trip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/37332059@N04/collections/72157622411106017/
Thanks Rich! Nice details.
Great Post…..love when you guys are underway
You just love hearing about the drama. 😉
rent a car from hertz………..160 for a week, then every morning go to a different beach and snorkle. till 1pm……………………….stay off the roads with scooter and bikes
Not a bad idea, John. I wonder if I remember how to drive?
Hi again you two:
Yet another safe passage under your belts and by the looks of the pictures dodging some sketchy weather too. Keeps you on your toes and all the more reason to set up a reliable “on watch” system.
Congratulations on sneaking up the Windward Islands. Have a great time in the French / Dutch principalities.
Thanks for the updates and for keeping the blog entertaining / knowledgeable and informative.
Alan
SV Mango Groove
Hi Alan
There is so much see and do here. I’m sure we’ll be busy exploring the leewards for a while!
By the way, the AIS rocks when it comes to big ship traffic!
Beautiful pics! Glad your trek has been basically uneventful.
Basically. 😉
Would love info on costs/procedures for getting into the lagoon, and how much anchoring room there is. We plan to get there sometime before Heineken Regatta (I’m sure it will be chock-a-block!) so any info will be helpful!
On charter a few years ago we anchored behind Isle Pinels in Orient Bay for some decent snorkeling, it was better over by St Barths and Isle Forche. Rich already mentioned Marigot where we walked around to see the sights. I’m sure you will find somewhere/some way to get muddy!
Although the season is just getting started there is PLENTY of room to anchor. See today’s blog post for more details. As for muddy, yeah, I’m sure we’ll figure it out.
Glad you guys made it safe and sound. When Linda and I were there, we went on the 12M racing yacht tour. We were on a cruise ship, and Linda hit a slot machine for $200. Had a great time racing on the Stars and Stripes against the Canadina ship. We won the race, they told us whoever yelled the loudest won, so we yelled up a storm in good redneck fashion. Had a great time at Orient beach, we also went parasailing and rented some jetskis. Enjoy your stay whatever you decide to do.
Thanks Izzy!