Blog

March 31st – April 5th 2014 (-4 on UTC)

Dear F&F,
We were sad to leave St Barth\’s. Friends Richard Spindler and Donna de Mallorca told us it was the best of the Caribbean. They spend 3 months per season here (which is the entire season for them). We could see why. Being here for the St. Barth\’s Bucket Regatta and getting to see Jimmy Buffet were certainly a highlight of our Caribbean sojourn.

Nikki persuaded me to go in for a final coffee and croissant before we left the anchorage for St Maarten/St. Martin. Unfortunately, the lady at the bakery was not particularly pleasant, but I will say, just about everyone else on St. Barth\’s was.

We had to leave by noon in any event in order to catch the 3 pm bridge opening for access to Simpson\’s Lagoon less than 10 miles away. St. Maarten/St. Martin is a true condominium. The south side of the island is Dutch and the north side French and hence the two different spellings. Legend has it that a Dutchman began walking from one side of the island with a Gin in hand and a Frenchman from the opposite end with a glass of wine. Where they met became the final border!

The lagoon is a huge area with several established marinas and takes up much of the island\’s interior. The boating industry on the island is mostly geared up for the Mega Yachting fraternity. We counted over 60 AIS targets in the lagoon alone and saw a few dozen Mega Yachts ensconced. We hailed the Simpson\’s Bay Marina and thought ourselves fortunate that they had space available. That is until we found out the price! As we needed to take care of some deferred maintenance, I bit the bullet and took the slip.

Catamarans are sometimes charged a premium (in cases like this one – double) for the privilege of having two hulls. Many marina\’s include utilities, but not this one. There was the water, electric, garbage collection and security charges. It all added up to a whopping $458.00 for a two night stay. The facilities were not even near up to standard for these kind of fees. I also had the world\’s most expensive boat washer here. The boats\’ hulls were actually only 1/2 \”on the dock\”. The dock fingers were extra short, but don\’t worry (I was told)…just imagine they\’re there!… Definitely a place for the \”RO Club\” (Rich Owners) and not your average yachtie. Once we got settled we dropped the dinghy and cleared customs. No hassle on the Dutch side, but the attitudes were definitely – well – attitudes. Turns out that Ron and Kathleen off \”Lady Amelie\” had a VERY difficult time with the Customs officials on the Dutch side. Hey and Ron\’s Canadian. Everyone loves Canadian\’s, right? You are supposed to check in/out separately for the Dutch/French sides. We didn\’t, more on that in a minute.

Once back from customs, we decided to check out the marina facilities including the large Market Garden supermarket across the road. It was a delight and had everything from edible flowers,(well this is mega yacht territory!), to decent wines (hurray!). We stocked up again as we knew we would not find shopping anywhere close this selection and quality nearby.

The next afternoon, Ron and Kathleen dinghied over from the French side where their Switch 51, \”Lady Amelie\” was up on the hard awaiting transmission and rudder repairs. We decided to go and try the Mojitos at \”Jimbo’s\” the Tex Mex place in the marina. The place was owned by an American who had had the restaurant over 20 years. Once upon a time…he came here on a boat!..:-) The food was good, the atmosphere great and the service was lovely. Something about an American owner? The next day we had some minor boat jobs to get done and as time was getting away we decided to anchor for the night in the lagoon. This would get us ready to head up around to the main bay on the French side – Marigot Bay. We\’d leave first thing in the morning. This would also save us a $225.00 night at Simpson\’s Bay Marina.

The two sides of the island are actually connected through a narrow waterway with a second bridge between the two sides of the lagoon.
However, the width of the bridge opening out to Marigot Bay is barely wider than this boat and a vicious current often runs through the narrow opening. We decided to go the long way round back through the entrance bridge we came in to enter the Lagoon; out the Dutch side. This was a wise choice as we will reveal momentarily!

The lagoon has a long highway bridge which effectively separates the Dutch and French side respectively. The colorful changing bridge night lighting display reminded us of the bridge view at Rivergate Marina in Brisbane, Australia where Nikki and I began our journey together.

One of the things this island is more famous for is its airport! In fact, for \”plane spotting\”, it\’s rated the number one airport in the world!
The planes coming into land actually have to land at the very beginning of the runway as it\’s not particularly long for a jumbo jet! The daily flight from the Netherlands is a big 747 and the main attraction. It is only 75-100 feet above the beach where the sun bunnies arrive to watch the spectacle. There is a well known restaurant bar, \”The Sunset Bar and Grill\” which has a flight monitor to let the patrons know when the big aircraft are due to arrive. This is a bit of a circus and makes for an interesting way to grab a drink with 200 other people there for the same purpose.(Some great photos to be published later on this one!)

We took a taxi with Kathleen and watched in anticipation as the great metal bird emerged out of the grey rainy skies ready for touch down. It was an amazing sight as 200 odd cameras witnessed the scene from the bar and beach for posterity. The bar must make a killing with the fact its the best place to watch. Sad to say, but this really is the one part of the St. Maarten island experience we enjoyed the most. Was there something we missed in translation perhaps?

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St Martin (Marigot Bay, French side) would be our last French Island to visit this season. We went to the French Customs office and played as if we were still on the St. Maarten side. The unbelievably rude \”tude\” made us just blend in with the 100 or so boats in the bay. We told him we\’d come by when we moved the boat (which of course we already had!) We had no intention of going through their ridiculous system to check in for two nights with \”Attitude R US\” stamped across their foreheads.
Despite some \”up market\” areas on the French side, we had to endure the begging. So much for the enlightened French welfare system. Don\’t get me going!

It\’s one thing to be expensive, but is there value in the cost? Are the locals friendly? Of note: The higher the density and frequency of Cruise Ships = less than delightful attitudes. Can you spell \”jaded\”? This is a tourist economy, reputation means a great deal. With few exceptions, we\’d say St. Maarten and St. Martin are \”must miss stops\”. As St. Barth\’s was one of our favorites, less than 10 miles away, St. Maarten/St. Martin was one of our LEAST favorites. Sorry to be a bit of a bummer, but we\’re relating our experiences. Maybe someone else\’s is different, but this was ours. Frankly, we wouldn\’t go back.

Sadly, this would also be our last encounter with Ron and Kathleen as they were waiting for parts to arrive from overseas and at the best guess, would be here 3-4 weeks…..at least. We decided to go and check out the small Port La Royale Marina for our farewell dinner together. After being hustled for business as the four of us browsed the menus, we decided on The Galleon restaurant with the lure of a free cosmopolitan cocktail and the best mussels in town. We obviously had our “gullible tourist” radar turned off that evening with yet another pretty ordinary meal. The company and conversation made up for the quality of the food. We had a lovely night and said our farewells to Ron and Kathleen (for the second time this season). As we dropped them off in the dinghy, we traversed the narrow channel back to Marigot Bay anchorage, glad we had made the decision to go the long way around with \”Beach House\”. We heard from Ron & Kathleen a few days later they witnessed a charter catamaran shearing off the port side chain plate as they motored through the narrow bridge channel. The guy was alone and either misjudged or got stuck in the current and lost control of the boat. He didn\’t realize the extent of the damage and a few minutes later, amid the sound of a heart rendering crack, the guys carbon fiber mast fell and hit ‘The Drink’. I\’m sure afterward he had one too!… Think VERY expensive and that lovely Catana 47 is done for the season. At least no one was hurt.

A few weeks later when we would arrive in Culebrita, Puerto Rico in the Spanish Virgin Islands, we met the US Catamarn \”Muse\”. \”Muse\” had a similar experience there last season. He had the right of way going through the bridge and a chartered mono hull didn\’t look. They collided at the same bridge. It caused \”Muse\” to shear her chain plate and lose her mast as well.

Like we said, glad we didn\’t go through that way! Boy it\’s tempting as it saves 2 hours.

The next morning, we upped anchor and headed across the 6 mile channel to our last \”Leeward Island\” – Anguilla. It\’s affiliated with the UK and as such, we knew we\’d be in for more pleasant folk \”mon\”….\” 🙂

That Blog will be a short one and then on to the BVI! (British Virgin Islands).

KIT,
Scott and Nikki (posted en route to Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos … yeah, we\’re still a bit behind)….:-)

March 23rd – March 25th 2014 (-4 on UTC)

Dear F&F,
We sailed the 33 nautical miles from Montserrat to Nevis with the genoa and full mainsail. A great downwind sail and the first (downwind) since we left Trinidad at the end of last season. This allowed us the first chance this season to use the spinnaker pole; \”wing and wing\” or as Nikki says, \”goose-wing\”. We passed close by the west coast of the small island of Redonda (which is connected politically to Antigua). This mile long scrubby and very steep sided island was once a mining facility for the extraction of phosphates. The mining was abandoned in the 1930s and the island has been uninhabited since then. It didn\’t look very inviting, there are no anchorages and its coastline is nearly 1000 ft of sheer cliffs.

An interesting side story was that an Irish Montserrat merchant, claimed Redonda for his son in 1880. His son was 15 at the time. He landed on the then uninhabited rock and declared his son \”King Filipe I – King of Redonda\”. Along with the Bishop of Antigua and some other friends, they all had a good time and consumed much in the way of \”Caribbean Spirits\”. Believe it or not, eventually Parliament in the UK actually approved of such a move as it kept the every changing alliances of the islands of the Caribbean more to their liking.

We arrived off Neviss main town, Charlestown and anchored at Pinney\’s Beach. This is a long stretch of sandy white beach with yet another up-market – Four Seasons -resort. At that end of the beach, the \”yachties\” are not encouraged to frequent! Pinney\’s beach has a couple of famous beach bars, one of them being Sunshines home of the Killer-Bee cocktail. No we didnt get there, the walk from town was too long and the steep wet beach landing was enough to keep us away, so we enjoyed a G&T on board \”Beach House\” instead and listened to the music from the beach – we must be getting old! For those who follow in our wake, the dinghy ride is almost a mile to the dinghy dock – each way.

Next morning we went ashore to check in and explore. Nevis has a history of sugar plantations, most of which have been converted into high end boutique hotels with good restaurants attached. The island is also famous for two of its former residents; Fanny Nesbit married Lord Horaito Nelson here and Alexander Hamiliton was born here. Hamilton left at the age of 9 and was mostly raised into his teens on Jamaica before emigrating to the colonies. The rest is history. There are two museums on the island giving a piece of both Lord Nelson\’s and Hamilton\’s life stories. Neither \”museum\” was much to see, but it was interesting nonetheless to read about both nations heroes of a bygone era.

We decided to go and visit the Golden Rock Plantation up in the foothills of Nevis Peak. Nevis is an English bastardization of the Spanish – \”Nieves\”. Nieves means snow! When Columbus first sighted the island on his second voyage of discovery in 1493, it appeared covered in snow and hence the named it after his favorite Cathedral – \”Nuestra Senora de las Nieves\”.

We negotiated an (expensive) taxi ride for the 25 minute drive into the hills. Nevis is a pretty island and seemed unspoiled overall with locals who welcome the recent expansion of the airport and the big hotels coming to town. The water front seemed to have been tidied up over the last few years and the entry facility definitely geared up to receive the smaller cruise ship crowd. Thankfully on this island, they have maintained most of the Caribbean style architecture from the original. The Golden Rock Plantation had been renovated and was looking very good. The food was good but cold. The service strictly \”Caribbean\”. The views to the north of St. Barth\’s and St. Maarten\’s were fabulous. A day ashore was all we felt we needed to do some justice to Nevis so we headed on to her big sister, the island of St Kitts the next morning.

St. Christopher (St. Kitt\’s) – 25 March 2014
The islands are almost joined together so we motored the 6 miles into the main anchorage – Basseterre which means \”lowlands\”. It didnt look very tenable and so we hailed the local marina and they replied that they had space for a 51 ft. Catamaran inside. Unfortunately their idea of space was the end of the main dock. We side tied along a small cargo pier which was 5ft higher than the deck. As we were on the \”outside\”, we couldn\’t reach the water and power, but it did have security at the gate and we were able to walk into town. Oddly, despite St. Kitt\’s and Nevis being the same nation and only a quick trip from each other, we had to check in and out with Customs and Immigration from both islands. As we were adjacent to the main cruise ship dock, this was fortunately easy.

Port Zante, Basseterre is really a duty free stop off for the large cruise ships. We found some decently priced wine and the cheapest Bombay Sapphire gin we had seen since we bought it (also) duty free in Darwin Australia two seasons ago. It took us two years to drink two & half bottles, so we stocked up….and bought two…:-)

The big attraction on St Kitt\’s in the Brimstone Hill Fortress. This fortress gives the island it\’s nickname,The Gibralter of the West Indies\’. We had the afternoon left and decided to get a taxi and have a look round the restored fort. The view from the top was of St. Eustatia (Statia) and Saba to the northwest with St. Barth\’s and St. Maarten to the northeast. We learned about the history and conflict that the English and French had here in the late 1700\’s and a bit about how the various wars and lands were divided up in a few important European treaties which are for the most part, still in effect today. St. Kitt\’s also has a train which does a few hour tour. We would have done it but couldn\’t get tickets as the cruise ship had it fully booked.

We came back and bought some (likely locally produced) DVDs. The guy who was selling had Nikki in hysterics. We thought he must have got his college degree in marketing. He told us the plot of every film we picked up off his stand. He kept pulling more must see before you die\’ movies from under the counter it was pretty funny! We finished off looking round \’The Circus\’ in town, a small area designed with Piccadilly Circus London in mind. Apart from a derelict red London phone box – we could really get the connection! We decided to go by the guidebook, (famous for misrepresenting restaurants; especially those that advertise in their guide). We had tea at the Ballahoo Restaurant. The food was pretty mediocre but a pleasant setting to watch the world go by around \”The Circus\” roundabout below. The waitress at the restaurant was right out of the 1970\’s film, \”Five Easy Pieces\”. She couldn\’t imagine that we would ask questions and actually expect her attention. We were one of two tables seated in the restaurant. She clearly couldn\’t be bothered. Unfortunately, some of the locals are quite jaded (especially to the cruise ship crowd which she assumed we were from). After our lovely experience we met an American chap in the marina who said we should go to the \”All American Bakery\” the next morning…\”it was to die for\”, he said. The next day, I went early and found the place. It was clear that – first, the waitress from last night\’s experience had a daughter who was working the counter and second, the product was in effect..Winchell\’s Donuts.

The island has it\’s strong points, but don\’t ask me for them. Let\’s say, it wasn\’t one of my favorites. The other funny experience we had at the Marina was running into a very stuffy Brit and his wife who were a bit too posh for Nikki\’s taste. The \”chap\” told us that he sailed his (very nice) Benateau 50 over \”on the ARC don\’t you know\”! For those of you who don\’t know, the ARC is the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers which leaves the Canary Islands with about 200 mostly European boats heading to the Caribbean for the season. He was all about knocking down catamaran\’s. He asked how we \”pointed\”? Pointing is how close to the wind a boat can sail and cruising cats (which he knew ahead of time), are notoriously bad at it. It\’s really our only weakness. So I told him essentially \”not very well\”. I used my analogy, which sailors will appreciate. I said, \”as well as a 50 foot shipping container with a mast could…:-)\” I did my best not to \”get into it\” with him and fortunately succeeded. The highlight of this experience was when the next day we set sail together. There was no doubt that from his perspective, \”the race was on\”. I\’m quite sure the chap thought he\’d sail right past us \”pointing\” to St. Barth\’s. We flew right by him, arriving almost an hour ahead in the 22 mile journey. When he got to Gustavia (the main port of St. Barth\’s) he somehow kept avoiding us….:-) Funny, we saw him again the other day at Norman\’s Island Bight (BVI – where we are now) and yet again….he didn\’t say a word….:-)

Next…St. Barth\’s! This would be one of our highlights to date in the Caribbean.
Stay tuned,
Scott and Nikki