We
were planning to leave St. Martin today, on Wednesday, but then
on the Monday afternoon radio net,all the weather prognosticators
said that the weather was changing dramatically, and they predicted
thunderstorms coming through maybe Wednesday, and big northeasterly
swells starting Thursday. Lance said he really didn't want to be
in the middle of the ocean, the tallest thing around during thunderstorms,
and it looked like there would not be another weather window before
we needed to put the boat up on Monday the 26th of May, so we took
the engine off the dinghy, stowed things and prepared for an early
morning departure.
Ideal conditions would have had more
wind, but we were happy to have fairly flat seas. We woke up
at 4:30, and raised anchor and were underway by 5am. We motored
the whole way, with help from the jib part of the way, and found
ourselves back in the BVI before the 18:45 sunset. Light winds,
0-10 knots. It was so placid that we could allow the autopilot
to do all the steering, while Lance and I sat around reading
and hanging about. We anchored below Spanish Town Virgin Gorda
in Valley Trunk Bay just above the Baths. In the morning, we
allowed ourselves a leisurely wake up, swim and snorkel, beach
explore etc. We moved up to Spanish town arriving at around 11am,
and made sure they remembered that we are coming to be hauled
out. We refueled and established that we seem to be using about
1/2 gallon of diesel per hour, and we filled up the water tanks
and established that we are very conservative with our water
use.
St. Martin was wonderful, and I can't wait to return
next year. Every morning at 7:30 on VHF radio channel 14, there is an informal
cruisers net, where all new boat arrivals are welcomed, information on any safety
and security problems is exchanged, and then people offer up and buy, sell or
trade items. A few businesses advertise their goods and services, and you can
ask questions about what's available, when the bridges opens, etc. Cruisers in
St. Martin monitor channel 14 all day, so you hear boats calling each other.
We particularly enjoyed hearing the cruising children calling for their friends
on other cruising boats and arranging to play. The bay is |
clean and you can swim in it and we established a favorite boulangerie
for latte's and fresh bread. This is a free port and very French
on the French side. The proprietor of our
hangout, "Cafe Parisienne", was an extraordinarily stylish lady who
did the French dual air kisses with panache. The local markets had plenty of
fruits and vegetables (mostly brought in from Dominica) and fresh fish along
with a great deal of tourist kitsch.
The weather speculators were accurate, and
by 1pm, rains of biblical proportions filled our dinghy and soaked
the vacationing tourists. We stayed in Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour,
confirmed our haul out, bought some groceries, had lunch, and waited
for a break. At 3:30, the rains had lulled, and we left and headed
for one of our favorite havens, and here we are.
There is a definite hierarchy to the boating
population here and we feel we are now greenhorn members of the cruiser
rung. Lowest of the low are the cruise boat tourists who get hauled
around in large groups. This group often has name labels and matching
bags but can be recognized at a distance by their immense bulk. They
seem into the eating and gambling more than the islands and seem
a little confused about where they are at any given moment. Making
conversation with a cruise ship tourist in Bitter End, we asked which
was his favorite island of all they had visited. He felt it might
be that Swedish one that starts with a "B" and has all
the nice Dutch architecture. "Awesome". Above the cruise
ship denizens are the charter boaters. They can be recognized by
the matching Beneteaus with identical sail covers. These are the
people everyone moves away from (or ostentatiously starts throwing
out fenders) when they try to anchor. If within hailing distance,
they will be given anchoring advice. Generally considered amiable
entertainment in the late afternoon, they are tolerated if on a mooring
ball. As we have an ex-charter Beneteau, we have had to add dinghy
davits as a sign we are not of that ilk. Being "in" on
one of the radio nets helps as well as does a fairly dark tan. St.
Martin seems to be largely off the charter circuit and, like Culebra,
a cruiser hangout. Next year, the plan is to spend just enough time
in the BVI to check out the boat and then move down south into "real
cruiser" territory right away. |
