So sad

First of all, we are safe and Rhapsody is safe, we are well south of the dangers of Hurricanes Irma and Jose. But we are sad. Watching the devastation in the islands north of us. Islands that we know well. Islands that we have friends in, or islands that our friends have boats in. We have heard from or about most of them, they are safe,and their boats are safe, but we have a few friends that are still waiting on the news of their boats, their homes. And now Irma is headed north, towards more family and friends. Sadness and worry. 

Night Passage

This is a blog post I wrote but never posted. It is about about our first overnight passage, from BVI to St. Maarten back in January. 

5 PM We release the mooring lines to begin our trip to St. Maarten, the Dutch portion of St. Martin /St. Maarten.

6:00 The sun is setting off of our starboard stern. We are rewarded with a bit of a green flash to celebrate our journey.

The Lagoon

Simpson Bay Lagoon, on the west side of St. Martin /St. Maarten, our home for almost two weeks. We anchored at the end of the runway and next to the causeway that cuts across the lagoon.

Windy Day in the Lagoon

When we arrived in St. Maarten we anchored in Simpson Bay. It is a beautiful blue. The bottom was clearly visible and littered with sea stars. The problem was, it was very rolly.

A rolly anchorage is a problem for several reasons.

 1) It makes it difficult to sleep

 2) It becomes difficult to function on the boat during the day, cooking, eating, moving about all with a constant side to side motion

3) getting on and off the boat from the dinghy can actually be dangerous if the swell is large enough.

All of these reasons sent us out of the bay and into the Lagoon.

Evening picture taken on the "Hike from Hell"
Simpson Bay in the center of the picture, Simpson Lagoon is at the bottom

Sint Maarten

Our first impressions of St. Maarten  (the Dutch side of St. Martin) were through groggy, sleep deprived eyes having motor sailed through the night from the BVI. We arrived on Saturday morning, checked in and did a bit of exploring. The streets are narrow and crowded, the shops are small and close together. This is the section that we have arrived in, and I certainly don't want to judge the rest of St. Martin /St. Maarten by one section of one town. We found a wonderful Indian restaurant for lunch, but as seems to be the case with most restaurants we go to in the Caribbean - when the bill comes it is a bit of sticker shock. I know that this is something that we had figured into our budget,  but that does not help that sinking feeling when the bill is presented.

The next day was Sunday. A very quiet day. We took our dinghy over to the French side of the island. When taking a cruising boat from one side to the other you have to check out of the first side and check in to the second. If you are on foot, in a car or in a dinghy there is free movement between the sides, no customs, no border checks, no fees. We did not spend much time that day on the French side, just long enough to get some wonderful baguettes, soft cheese and chocolate croissants. At this point we were wondering just what Sint Maarten had to offer us.

The dinghy dock on St. Martin (French side)