Avventurist

Cruising the Leeward Islands

Sorry about the extended time since our last posting, but we been BUSY! Also good wifi has been harder to find as we move south. I have noted several gaps in our tracker record - those are my goofs when I have forgotten to turn the gizmo on for parts of our journey. We did sail in between those gap points - believe me!

We left Leverick Bay in the British Virgin Islands at about 3 AM on Sunday March 6 headed for St. Martin. We consulted with Chris Parker, our weather briefer, and he told us that although the crossing would be rough, that day would provide us with the "least bad" conditions for the next week or two. We left in the moonless dark at 3 AM. Geez, it was dark leaving the bay! I had my head down on the GPS chartplotter to keep us off the reefs. I was a nervous captain that night as I could see nothing beyond the end of the boat. We passed right by Branson's private island Necker on our way out. An hour later we were on the open ocean and Sint Maarten was 70 miles directly upwind from us. It was a long slow slog against 5-6 foot seas, but we arrived at Sipson Bay and were anchored outside by 5 PM. It was the next to last night of the Heineken sailboat race so there were fireworks and a loud band playing until the wee hours - we later found out it was U2!

Simpson Bay from our anchorage

Simpson Bay is a unique place with a completely protected lagoon, home to many superyachts of the rich and famous.

The Maltese Falcon

You have to come and go through a drawbridge that only opens a few times a day. We missed the last opening on Sunday night, but we cleared customs and entered the lagoon the next morning. Our home for the next 10 days was the Simpson Bay Marina, a pretty nice facility with completely maddening wifi. We rented a car and spent our days re-provisioning, visiting the beach, getting boat parts and repairing things, and seeing all of the island.

View from Fort Louis in Marigot Bay (French side)

Cindy particularly enjoyed the beach bar next to the airport where incoming planes fly right over your head!

Half of the island belongs to the Dutch (Sint Maarten) and half belongs to France (Saint Martin), but there are no borders between the two sides. You drive along and suddenly the road changes and the highway signs are in French. Thankfully, most everyone speaks English and accepts US dollars.

In the marina, we had several interesting neighbors, including a British family that had been cruising for 6 months with children of 10 and 7. We also got back to our boat one evening to find another Hylas 49 sailboat had replaced the British family. There are only about 60 Hylas 49s in the whole world and we had never met anyone else who owned one. I enjoyed the limited opportunity I had to pick this other owner's brain about the Hylas systems. Unbeleiveably another Hylas 49 was also in the marina(but the owners not there), so 5% of the world's Hylas 49s were in that one marina for a few nights!

Our KC neighbors David and Elaine Flora joined us for our last few days on St. Martin. We had a great day visiting the French side of the island, especially a large street fair at Grand Casse, complete with Caribbean steel drum band and a French islander singing a Hank Williams, Jr. song on karaoke. We had a lovely french dinner at a restaurant over the beach.

Our last night at St. Martin involved a move to a different marina at Oyster Pond Bay on the east side of the island. The marina was decrepit and the tiny entrance was hair-raising. I was also stressed by several mechanical prolems. We lost our bow thruster (bad controller) and the generator was shutting down shortly after each start. We also inadvertantly dragged a dinghy line which our cutter prevented from fouling the prop, but the cutter was then broken. The good news was that a boat workman was already in the water in his dive gear when we arrived, and he was able to dive on our boat and diagnose the problem. He also found someone to work on the bow thruster for us. This was definitely our guardian angels looking out for us!

The reason we came to this marina was to see Cindy's brother Charlie, his son Matt and Cindy's Uncle Jimmy and friend John, who had rented a sailboat to see the Bucket Race of 100 ft+ classic sailboats on nearby St. Barts. It was great to see family and we had a fun meal together that night at the surprisingly good marina restaurant. Next morning we left for St. Barts.

St. Barts is only 12 miles from St. Martin, but the sea was lumpy and our trip was not comfortable, particularly for our guests. They were troopers throughout our cruise however, and we were so happy they were willing to join us!

The harbor at St. Barts was stuffed full with race participants and spectators. We had to drop our anchor way out in deep water and conditions were rolly that night - not very comfortable for sleeping. However, we got to see some of the biggest most beautiful sailing yachts, including the magnificent Maltese Falcon, at one time the biggest private sailing yacht in the world. The lights of St. Barts plus the lights of the mega-yachts were quite a sight, and combined with a large fireworks display to create a real spectacle.

We got up early the next morning (March 17) for our 42 mile run down to St. Kitts. The sea was still fairly lumpy but we had a better angle to the wind and the sailing was magnificent, with much of the run at or above 8 knots. We even saw 9 knots a few times on our knotmeter! We passed by Statia as we rounded the north end of St. Kitts. Both of these islands are very impressive with tall former volcanos that brush the clouds. They are tall enough that the islands receive substantial rains due to the uplifting of trade winds air mass as they hit and roll over the island peaks. I was amazed how fast little rain storms would develop at the peaks of St. Kitts and roll down on us, with short hard rains and a big increase in wind speed. However, the steep mountainsides are poorly suited to agriculture and most of these islands grow very little of their own food.

We checked into the Port Zante marina in the capital city of Basse Terre, towards the south end of St. Kitts. Promised electrical service was not available and the marina was a bit sad. Nearby was the cruise ship terminal where most weekdays several large cruise ships would dock, belching forth thousands of tourists. Business was very busy on those days, but we discovered that the entire country virtually shuts down on the weekends when the cruise ships do not dock. Nevertheless, we hired a driver and took a tour around the island on Sunday March 19, after a lovely breakfast at Royal Palm Court. (This was a residence provided for the managers of a foreign bank which was now a small hotel/restaurant.)

Our intrepid neighbors, Dave & Elaine

Can you see the little yellow bird? He has a very loud call!

The old fort atop Brimstone Hill sits on a dramatic mountaintop and was a highlight of that trip. It is a Unesco World Site.

St. Kitts does not appear to be particularly prosperous and does not cater to cruisers. Boat services are hard to find. But they do have alot of monkeys!

Pirate monkey - Monday morning the cruise ships were there so this guy was working!

Our neighbors flew out on Monday March 20 and I finally tracked down the bow thruster part that was supposed to have been deliverd to me the prior week. It had been tied up in St. Kitts Customs Office. That import issue cost me $92.00 in import duties! I installed the part and thank heavens it worked perfectly! By asking around, I found Sam the Man, the captain of a fishing boat, who agreed to help me with my generator problem. Sam found the problem in about 5 minutes (broken impeller in water pump), I had a spare part, and we quickly had the generator working again. Sam was quite a character and proudly told me of his twin daughters, one a local doctor and one a local lawyer.

We left St. Kitts Tuesday the morning March 21, passing by the length of nearby Nevis. We had originally planned a stop there, but we were a bit behind schedule so we hurried on to Monserrat. The seas were lumpy and uncomfortable that day for our 32 mile trip. Monserrat is a unique island, half lush and green and the south half is a volcanic wast from the most recent eruptions there in 1998. The former capital and biggest town, Plymouth, was partially buried. The remaining sturctures are too dangerous to live in because of the threat of further eruptions and the gasses regularly emitted by the volcano. We saw all this from our journey a half mile off the coast and even smelled the volcano's sulferous fumes a few times.

The top of the volcano is usually hidden in clouds

This was just an overnight stop, so we raised the "Q" (quarantine) flag, but did not go ashore or check in through the island's customs office. We were up and out early the next morning.

Our trip from Monserrat to the north end of Guadeloupe was another passage of about 34 nautical miles. The seas were somewhat more comfortable, but again the wind was right on our nose, so we were able to do very little sailing. In these conditions, we often put up the mainsail only to dampen the rolling of the boat. Occasionally you will see the wind come off the nose a bit and power up the sails, but on this day the mainsail was probably only producing 10% of our power, and rest was our diesel engine. Under good conditions our boat can travel at 7-8 knots per hour, but when the seas build and she is punching through waves, our speed often falls to 6 and below. The 34 miles from Monserrat to Guadeloup does not sound like a lot, but it can take us almost 6 hours if we are only making 6 knots. Those are 6 tiring hours as you are constantly bracing up and adjusting to the waves and the rolling and pitching of the boat.

We checked into Guadeloupe at the northern port of Deshaies (pronounce "Days-Ay") and enjoyed the little town into the evening, including a nice French meal at a cafe. The customs chore of checking in was done at a computer store in the back of a bikini shop! The French islands really have a remarkably different "feel", a bit more prosperous and the food and bread is definitely better! We ran into our friends Cory and Dale of Hi Flite in the harbor and chatted about our respective adventures. In our rush to leave the next morning, as I was retrieving over 200 feet of heavy chain and our 65 pound anchor, our electric anchor windlass gave me quite a scare. With half the chain up, it stopped working and then would start working without any action on my part! Pulling up all that chain from 50 feet of water, plus the heavy anchor is nearly impossible to do by hand, but very slowly and with frequent hand "nudges", I managed to get the anchor back on board. Needless to say, until this problem could be fixed, we were out of the anchoring business!

We motored to the south end of the island to the capital city of Basse Terre to the Sud Ancrage Marina. The docks there are very nice, but virtually no one speaks any English. There was no electrical service for our boat because all systems were on the Eurpopean 220 volt standard. With lots of sign language, I was finally able to convey that I needed repairs on my windlass and my generator, which had developed additional problems. On Friday March 24, a young fellow in a dirty T shirt and carrying a small disorganized bag of tools and parts appeared at our boat. I had no faith in this fellow, but he proceeded to find that my windlass problem was really a bad switch. He found the part on the other side of the island, drove there and was back in 2 hours installing the part on Avventura. Similarly he quickly found that my generator problem was a small connector in the control unit that needed to be replaced. His charges were low and he solved my problems quckly with practical solutions. I never got his name, but truly this kid is a genius!

On Saturday March 25 we rented a small Citroen car and toured the S end of the island, including two hair-raising drives up steep tiny highways on the sides of the Soufriere volcano. The Citroen had a stick shift and a tiny engine, making the stop and go traffic on the steep hillsides something of a nightmare for me. The sides of the volcano house quite a rainforest, with waterfalls and lush forest vegetation. Most of this is a national park of Gudeloupe, but there is little signage and nothing in English, so we really could not tell what we were seeing or where the various trails went. We stopped at one trail head in the vicinity of Carbet Falls, and followed a crowd 400 meters straight down a muddy and rocky trail to a lovely plunge pool below some small falls

. The climb back up the 400 meters in the 100% humidity was TOUGH. We had a delicious lunch of chicken and curried goat at a small country cafe in the little town of St. Claude on the side of the volcano.

Sunday March 26 we left for Les Saintes, a set of small islands that is part of Gudeloupe, 12 miles S of the big island. This is a charming place, with little European-looking houses all with red tin roofs. We again ran into our friends Cory an Dale from Hi Flite. We spent two nights at Les Saintes, enjoying the French restaurants and the beach. We had heard from several people how nice these small islands were and they did not disappoint.