PHOTO LINK——>> Antigua to St Maarten, January 

Before leaving Antigua we went for one last hike, a short one from Piegon beach over the hillside and ridge to Nelsons Dockyard. We went with Gail and Eric and as we reached the hilltop we could see Go Lightly and Desperado leaving the anchorage for Jolly Harbour. Again it was a fun walk with great views and excellent company.

The following day we too sailed around to Jolly Harbour where we checked out. That
evening we were treated to a brilliant firework display from the hilltop above us. It was excellent, but poor Chico thought the world was ending. He dashed down below, must have tried to hide under the bed covers as they were all amuck, but was found cowering under John’s crates of beer in the shower stall.

Leaving Antigua at 6am the next day we had planned to sail westerly towards St Kitts, but the seas were such that we changed course and headed to St Bart’s. I found it to be a very uncomfortable passage as I was feeling ill, John found it to be rough but not too bad, Auto found it to be too stressful and broke a bolt (so we thought), and so was not working. This meant that for 7 hours the boat had to be hand steered which was a right pain for John as he had to do most of it as I was feeling like rubbish. Anyway, we caught 2 fish, a barracuda, which was thrown back and a nice Mai Mai, which we kept, and arrived safely at 6pm, 12 hours at an average speed of 6 knots.

Gustavia is the Capitol of St Bart’s and the Harbour was crammed with mega yachts, mega mini ships and tenders from them taking the rich, famous and their lot back and forth between them. Everyone was decked out in their fancy party attires, drinking their cocktails getting ready for the big midnight count down.

We made for Columbier which is the next bay from Gustavia, where we got a mooring for the night, had a quick swim, shower, light dinner and crashed out by 9pm. I do remember hearing the fireworks at midnight but even Chico hardly stirred, we were just too exhausted.

The sail to St Maarten was just a few hours the following day. We were then able to make the 3pm Simpson Bay Bridge opening into the lagoon and then through the swing bridge into the French side.

St Maarten is the same as it was except for the remnants, wrecks and entire boats that are still on the shoreline from the recent hurricane, which hit. Plus there are a large number demasted vessels many of which are for sale.

We have been quite busy with boat work as St Maarten is an easy, less expensive place to get projects done. John had to
purchase new batteries as our battery bank was failing. That was his 1st accomplishment. He next sorted out cabin and cockpit lighting and then replaced our anchor chain with another 200feet of 3/8ths G4. Along with some other small projects and getting parts he accomplished most of his aims. I managed to get the cockpit covers properly finished, made new side covers for the boat, sorted and cleaned.

Chico went to the animal hospital and had the snip, got his chip inserted and became a Dutch cat with his new official passport. Overall lots of successful days of work.

We went on a hike, which was arranged by Mark on Sea Life, along with Chris Doyle the famed Cruising Guide author. It was the same as one last year. We were dropped off all 30 of us at Pic Paradis which is the highest point on the island.

We checked the views and set off to find the trail and hike along the ridgeline that is 25 of us as 5 had already dropped out, which was good as they had very young children and would have been slaughtered. The walk set off at about 10:15 and finished around 3:30, and everyone was filthy, cut from the vines and so bleeding, exhausted but happy to have completed it.

The pathway was virtually hidden, I’m guessing not many had travelled it, plus it had nasty thorny vines, which jumped out and tore you if they caught on. Also due to the hurricane there were trees down, plus trees down with vines. So we had many areas where we were crawling under or climbing over debris or vegetation. When we finally reached the first bit of roadway – on the Dutch side – 4 others quit due to exhaustion. We continued back on to the pathway and down the hillside into Marigot where some of us had a lovely cold Carib. The hike really was tough but fun too with fantastic views of St Maarten and we met some great people.

We visited the airport beach with Gail in order to see the KLM arrive. It really is thrilling seeing this huge plane flying in towards you and it just skims over the fence to land on the other side. Plus the area is the best people-watching place imaginable! It was a lovely walk along the beach getting there and back and having Gail along was fun too.

Another Sunday we visited Marigot and walked to Fort Louis. Again we were reminded how pretty and quaint the French side is. The views from Fort Louis were as wonderful as before. Then we visited the Super U, the grocery store. It really is thrilling visiting a huge, clean, well stocked French grocery store. The cheeses, meats, fruit and delicacies are just wonderful to look at. And we are not alone in this many others who live this life style feel likewise. It’s relaxing just to look at what is available and browse the aisles in AC.

We had a bit of hassle with the new chain and the windless and so were on a mooring for a few days while that was sorted. Then we moved out of the lagoon via the bridges, passed all the mega yachts to the Simpson Bay side. We were shocked by the growth on the bottom. After not even 3 weeks it was nearly covered in baby barnacles. So we scraped away on the bottom and adapted to the swell in readiness for leaving.