What have we been up to?

I know many of you are asking the question: "Where did they go?? It's been a week, and we've not heard anything." Well, wait no more. Here's the update from me, Jim, so it won't have quite the same level of intelligent wit as Rick's. First, let's step back just a little over a week when I took a quick trip back to the states.

Last Sunday, we were looking for a place Rick could spend the few days I would be gone. We wanted something a bit less hectic than Simpson Bay Marina. Although the people there were fantastic - it has the feel of being in the middle of everything. As an aside, we were able to see the latest Harry Potter movie at the local cinema which was within walking distance of the Simpson Bay Marina. Also, Rick went to the top of the mast to fix our VHF - while he was there, he snapped a few pictures.

Also, not to be forgotten is Maho Beach. Home to the Sunset Beach Bar AND the end of the runway to the Princess Juliana Airport. Those of you who know me, understand my level of excitement about being able to watch jets land close up. To make a good situation even better, the Sunset Beach Bar overlooks the end of the runway. That means I can watch planes land and at the same time, enjoy a freshly blended Mango Daquari at the same time. Heaven.

Here's a pic of me in front of the surf board that indicates when flights will be arriving.

So we headed out to Grande Case which is on the northwest side of the island. That meant changing our flags from the St. Maarten (Dutch) flag to the St. Martin (French) flag (a flag that smells a bit like stinky cheese. I've captured that on film :)

Grande Case has a beautiful beach and the town feels as though you're in a small French village. We had a very good dinner at a local French place and spent the night on the boat. The cove was a bit rolly, so we decided to move around the corner to a small Marina called Port Lonvilliers in Anse Marcel. And this place . . . truly out of a French story book.

Anyway, I flew back to the US from St. Martin to JFK. I won't go into the details of my travel day, but let me just say it started by trying to find a cab at 7am in a rather deserted area without the benifit of speaking much French. Shame on me for not planning better. But in the end, all was well and I made my flight to the US sans problem (maybe I can speak French).

I got off the plane in JFK and immediately wondered who were all these people? I've been used to being around Rick and the two nubbins for 5 weeks. Occasionally, we'll have a neighbor moored close by or another boat near us on a dock, but this was defiantly a culture shock. I have to say, I kind of liked it a bit - it just took a while to get used to. However, I do like the solitude of island living as well.

Three days later, after having some great reunions and meetings while in NYC and DC, I returned to St. Martin . On the cab ride back, the driver and I were talking about life and such. You'll find that you can learn more about the local culture from the cab drivers. They are incredibly friendly and will talk to you about most anything.

So, we originally planned to leave Port Lonvilliers within a few days - but then Dean happened. Rick is writing another blog about Dean, so I won't go into specifics now. But since he was headed our way - we decided to stay put. The marina is VERY protected so it afforded us a good hiding place from the impending wind. There are some good pictures of the boat that Rick took during these days. You can click on any of these pics and you'll be taken to our gallery on Picasa.

So that brings us up to date. We're planning on leaving tomorrow or the next day for Antigua. We may go via St. Kitts, but that kinda depends on the weather. I hope all is well with all of you and look forward to your comments and emails. Stay safe and be well.

St. Maarten the easy way

We made it. We had a little trouble with our autopilot when we left the Sir Francis Drake Channel, but Jim fixed it on the fly. The wind was light and the seas were mild so for a "to weather" trip, it was really great.

Because of the light seas, or was it because or the Benadryl, the little monsters were much more relaxed for this crossing than they were for the last one.

Jim and I did 4 hour watches, but because this was our first big crossing of the trip, neither of us got much sleep. It was waxing gibbous moon that seemed to wash the surface of the sea behind us with a river of mercury. As the moon set, the night sky over our bow opened up to reveal the Milky way, Mars and Saturn. Orion was laying down on his side and his belt seemed to point right down to St. Maartin.

The sunrise greeted us around 5:50 and because of the Sahara dust blown over from Africa, the horizon took on many different shades of gray and blue. The sun peaked above the dust and some cumulus clouds at about 15 degrees above the horizon as a blazing ball of white.

At about 7:00 we saw the faint outline of St. Maartin in the distance. We could make out the difference between the tops of the island, but not between its base and the sea. We were escorted into Simpson's bay by dozens of schools of flying fish flitting just about the surface of the waves on wings that looked like they belonged to fairies. Yeah, that was a nice way to get to St. Maarten. We'll be here for a few weeks and then it's off to points south. We'll keep you posted.

St. Maarten Bound (Take 2)

It's been six days since our first attempt at a BVI to St. Maarten passage. During that time, we've installed a new outhaul, run three new reefing lines through the boom, reconfigured both the jib and the jennicker sheets, cleaned all the stainless steel, fixed the starboard air conditioner (again) and built and installed new tank racks (stay tuned for an individual post describing that fiasco). That's more work that I did in Virginia all last year! We've had time to monitor the weather for the best window to make the jump. We've re-provisioned, had a long talk with the dogs and are set to leave tonight for St. Maarten.

Now mind you, it's not a long sail as sails go, just over 90 miles. It's the point of sail that kicks your ass. This passage is a "passage to weather." There's a saying in the BVI, "Nothing goes to weather better than a 747." Going to weather means we're sailing into the wind. For those non-sailors out there, the physics of sailing allows you to sail in any direction EXCEPT the direction from which the wind is blowing. For example, St. Maarten is east of the BVI and guess where the trade winds blow in the Caribbean? You got it, they blow from the east. Some might ask, "Why Rick and Jim, why subject yourselves to such a beating from dear old Mother Nature? You seem like pretty smart guys, what's the point?" Well, we understand that in St. Maarten, there's Starbucks and Jim has it bad for a chi tea.

If all goes well, you can expect a post on Saturday detailing our successful crossing.

St. Maarten Bound

OK, here's the story of our trip to St. Maarteen (and a picture taken just prior to our leaving):


We headed out for St. Maarteen - Martin - Marteen - Maarten depending on who is doing the spelling - two days ago at about 7:00 pm. It took us about an hour to clear the British Virgin islands and head into the open ocean and by that time, it was already dark. The wind and waves were both a bit stronger than forecast so it was a bit of a bumpy ride. Coco and Cooper weren't happy about the rocking and rolling the boat was making and to top it off, when you're in seas like that, there is also a great deal of sloshing and banging to go along with the rocking and rolling. Well, if you're a dog, you either pee or throw up...and they did both.

Jim and I were each feeling a bit queasy and also respectfully afraid of the sail to come. We considered turning back, but decided that we needed to get use to harsh conditions and what we were going through wasn't all that harsh. So after we got ourselves psyched to weather out the storm, we heard this big BANG and discovered that our outhaul (the line that secures the clew of the sail) had snapped, leaving our mainsail "flapping in the wind" in a bad way. The sail had to be controlled and the best way to do that was to release the mail halyard and let the sail drop into the sail bag attached along the top of the boom. We took a vote and I was elected "vice-president in charge of crawling up to the mast in bad weather". So into my jack-line harness I went and up to the mast I scurried. Eyes of the World was in about 7 foot seas which, when you're heading into the wind, equates to up to 14 foot plunges into the troughs of the waves. I was facing the front of the mast with my back to the front of the boat. Every time we dove into a trough, the water sprayed up though the nets and gave me a cool, refreshing, dousing...well, maybe not so refreshing. With my back to forward, I couldn't see what was coming, nor could I focus on the horizon (please refer to the prior sentence describing the queasy feeling) and as a result, my stomach wasn't any happier than I was. Jim was behind the helm, holding the boat into weather so that when I did release the halyard, the sail fell straight through the lazy jacks and into the stack pack. Had he not been able to do that, the sail could have blown free and fouled itself in the rigging.

All went well with the dropping of the sail and we turned ourselves around on a heading back to Peter Island. Our initial plan was to head out at dusk and arrive after dawn. The theory being, "Leave with light, arrive with light." Now we were arriving back amongst the British Virgin Islands at 10:30 PM while it was quite dark. Being the prepared sailors we are, we had a watertight monitor installed in the cockpit so we could benefit from our GPS without having to be in the salon of the boat. The damn monitor was so bright that when we turned it on at night, it ruined any night vision our eyes had developed in the dark. What we did was flip it on for a few seconds and then shut it off, wait for our eyes to adjust and then make sure we weren't going to run into anything. Not the best way to come into a landing at night. We made it through the safest passage between Dead Chest and Peter Island and headed for Great Harbour to pick up a mooring ball for the night.

Most mooring balls are covered with a highly reflective paint and will light up like a beacon when illuminated with a flashlight. We pulled out our 1 million candle power spot light and began sweeping the harbout with enough light to tan a local. I'm sure the other boats in the harbour were a little peeved. However, safety first, a good night's sleep for the other folks resting in their already moored boats....a distant second. I navigated through a field of other sailboats and Jim grabbed the mooring ball with the boat hook like a pro. We snapped the shackle shut on our bridle and both gave a huge sigh of relief only then to discover that we'd lost both dogs overboard during the chaos. Ok, I made that part up. Both dogs were fine but after the peeing and the throwing up...who knows what I could have done.

We hope the next attempt at St. Maarteen will be nothing to write a blog about!