Well over 1000 miles of motoring hard into
the wind and we’ve finally made that slight turn … from east/southeast to
mostly south! From here, we are hoping
it will be a LOT more sailing. Finally,
today we got to experience that serenity that envelopes your entire being when
you raise the sails and shut off the engine … and then there is silence! With our mainsail out of use, we sailed with
only the mizzen and head sail. It was
about a 20-ish mile trip from Road Bay, Anguilla to Simpson Bay, St
Maarten. The two islands are only about
5 miles apart but we had to go down the north coast of Anguilla, cross the
channel between the islands and then up the south coast of St. Maarten. We kept our fingers crossed that it wouldn’t
be a repeat of our previous trip (between BVI and Anguilla). We left Anguilla at 9:15am. The winds AND
current were in our favor for a change.
We were doing between 6-7 knots along the north coast of Anguilla. As we rounded the point, we were headed a
little more into the wind so our speed dropped to about 5 knots. The sailing was awesome … and very
comfortable! Too bad all days can’t be
like today! But for the next couple of
months, we will be heading south so we’re hoping we’ll experience lots of
awesome sailing!
As we rounded the point of St Maarten, the
inevitable happened. We were headed
directly into the wind again. So … the
remainder of the trip was a motor-sail.
We only averaged about 4 knots doing the south coast of St. Maarten but
it was calm and pleasant.
We arrived about 1pm. There is a bay just off the town. It had good holding and several boats were
anchored. But our objective was to go
into Simpson Bay Lagoon. There is a
lift bridge that only opens 3 times a day (twice in the morning and once at
5:30pm). Since we missed the morning
openings, we anchored and waited until the evening opening. Larry went ashore and cleared customs while
we waited. It cost a total of $41 US
($20 for the boat and $21 for the Simpson Bay Port Authority). Whether you have them raise the bridge and
you go into the sheltered lagoon OR if you stay anchored outside the lagoon in
the bay, you still MUST pay the $21 fee.
They’ve got quite a racket going. We figured since we had to pay the fee
either way, we would prefer the shelter of the lagoon and the closer proximity
to shops/restaurants/bars/etc.
At 5:15pm, we raised the anchor and headed to
the channel to wait for the bridge opening.
If we missed this opening, it would mean spending the night in the bay,
which wouldn’t be disastrous, but we much preferred the sheltered lagoon. There was one other sailboat and one
powerboat waiting with us.
Inside the lagoon, it was a little
disappointing. It’s funny. Most anchorages on the charts seem so small
and unprotected but when you get to them, they are actually really nice
anchorages. This place was the
opposite. The lagoon looks large on the
charts but once inside, it seemed rather small. Oh well, we found a nice spot to anchor before the evening winds
picked up and the rains came in.
For dinner, we had burgers made from the
ground Filet Mignon that we’d bought before we left. I had used one of those vacuum sealing machines to package the
meat and it kept it very fresh. No freezer
burn even after all this time. We had
the burgers on homemade English Muffins.
They were VERY yummy!
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