After 5 weeks back in Colorado for the holidays (and some football), we’re back on the boat. After all the activity from the ARC rally, St. Lucia was now very quiet. The marina was only about ½ full. It’s really sad, because many of the locals work on or with boats in some form or another… general boat maintenance, sail repair, engine maintenance, boat cleaning, taxi service, and more. With so few boats around, they have limited ways to earn a living. The stores also had a limited supply of food items. We couldn’t find chicken anywhere –no chicken breasts, chicken thighs, drumsticks, fresh or frozen – nada!
We had spent several weeks in St. Lucia already and so it was time to push north a little. Most things were in good shape after sitting in the water for so long… except for the growth on the hull! Ugh…. Anthony, ever the racer, decided the growth would slow us down so he set out to scrub some of it off. No small feat – especially with 2 hulls!
We moved out of the marina and into a nearby anchorage so Anthony could clean them! It is not an easy job because it’s hard because you’re fighting the wind and the waves to stay in place and scrub. After about 90 minutes, you’re exhausted so cleaning both hulls (inside and outside) took multiple attempts over several days. But I guess if we sail 1.5 knots faster, it’s worth it…
On Wednesday, Jan. 19th, we headed out for a short, 3 hour sail to Martinique. We were trying to catch up with boats that were part of the GLYWO rally – – Grand Large Yachting World Rally. Grand Large Yachting is the parent company for Gunboats and Outremers (both catamarans), as well as Allures and Garcias (both monohulls) and several of our friends we met in France were participating. They left Tenerife to cross the Atlantic one day behind us and were leaving for Panama on Sat., 1/22, so this was the last chance we would have to see them again.
We were invited to accompany them at the start on Saturday morning as they headed to Panama. Of course we got up early to be first to the start line, but I had to continually remind the “captain” that this wasn’t his race….Ha! Ha! We sailed 1 leg with them, waved goodbye and headed back into the harbor.
We also wanted to be in Martinique for a little repair work. Outremer sent 6 service technicians to Martinique in case other owners need boat work before heading to Panama, and we hoped to benefit as well. We still had a leaky escape hatch and a few other small things that needed some attention. Outremer sent the “A team” of Stephan and Rafael, so once the others left for Panama, Rafael came to our boat to work on our leaky hatch. He added a seal to the escape hatch, but unfortunately it still leaks. I think it’s gonna’ need to be completely replaced so that will have to wait until Florida.
We moved from La Marin to St. Anne and met up with our friend Norm, from Norm the Storm, (who crossed the Atlantic with us). He had been in Martinique since Christmas and was headed back to Canada soon, so we met for happy hour and dinner.
St. Anne was beautiful, but very crowded, therefore the cellular/internet service was constantly “overloaded’ and it was hard for either of us to get any work done, so we decided to move north to Sint Maarten (an overnight sail). We chose this destination in large part because no COVID test was required for vaccinated travelers! We left early one morning and 36 hours later, anchored in Phillipsburg near the Cruise ship dock.
The next morning, we headed to shore to clear in. Once again, we went looking for the immigration office but the one mentioned in the cruising guide was closed. We found a local policeman who told us the office would open at 10:00 – maybe – (as with many things in the Caribbean), but we could walk down to the cruise dock and clear in there instead. Directions were a little confusing, so after wandering down the road for about 20 minutes, we finally figured out which office to go to (after almost turning around within 500 yards of it…). Nothing was open in Phillipsburg, so we move to Simpson Bay (also on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten – and it was quite busy!
In fact, all the mega yachts that spend summers in the Med, must come here (Simpson’s Bay) for the winter – WOW. Check out this video of the sheer number of enormous mega yachts at the Simpson Bay Marina . We heard a rumor that Jeff Bezos’ boat was anchored in the bay, but couldn’t verify that in any way…
While in Simpson’s Bay we had a visit from the local “policia”. They stopped by to check our “papers” and just say hi. We got into quite an interesting conversation about COVID’s effects on children’s education and home-schooling. They were keen on the idea and had lots of questions once they found out we had home-schooled our two children many years ago… We recounted our experience and they went off to ponder the idea further!
Once again, it’s time to push northward – on to the Turks and Caicos Islands (~500 NM). Unfortunately COVID tests are required (and lots of other paperwork) but luckily we have some on board – and we’re negative!!! Off we go!
