We planned the 80 nautical mile crossing from Leverick bay, Virgin Gorda to the Dutch territory of Sint Maarten, with our friends on Blue Mist. This crossing is the longest and most difficult crossing on the way to Grenada from the Virgin Islands. The difficulty lies in the fact that it gets wild in poor weather conditions, and takes more than one daytime period of time to cross. So we watched the weather carefully and decided to leave in the afternoon and arrive in the morning instead of leaving in the morning and arriving after dark.
We left Leverick bay at around 2PM on the 30th of January, with plenty of time to get settled into Sint Maarten before Doug’s sister arrived on February 11th. We would have liked more time in the Virgin Islands, but we have learned that with larger crossings you should take your weather windows when you get them, because you never know when the next one will come. On our way out of the bay we sailed past WIndsurf, the largest sailing vessel in the world. It is a cruise ship that augments its motor use with several huge sails.
Soon after leaving we got a call on the radio from our buddy boat Blue Mist that there were whales breaching behind us! We got a little glimpse of them, and we were really excited. Sadly no pictures though! The rest of the trip was very uneventful as far as weather goes, no real wind or waves to speak of, and the boat actually behaved itself. However in the middle of the night we passed a lot of boats that were not on AIS, and a few came pretty close. Myself and our buddy boat worked together to try to figure out where all the boats were and what other weird lights we were seeing. It is crazy how distance gets distorted in the night time, and how your brain can do funny things when you are tired.
We ended up reaching our destination at about 4 AM, yes before sunrise as had been the plan. That is how most plans go in sailing life though. We could have burned off time slowing down, but that is always a hard decision to make when you are tired and just want to rest. So we ended up anchoring at the edge of the outside anchorage in Simpson bay far away from anyone else in about 30 feet of water for the rest of the night. We were probably asleep within 5 minutes.
The next morning we got up early and went into immigration to check in, then walked around and found breakfast, before heading back to the boat for more sleep. We stayed there that night, but decided to move to the protected anchorage inside the bay the following day when the bridge opened at 9AM. We anchored in about 9 feet of water with a soft muddy bottom. It seemed okay, but later that night the wind shifted and popped our anchor out which for the first time ever, did not reset on its own and left us dragging towards a very shallow section. We got it pulled and reset, but then the wind switched again and it became apparent that in about 2 more degrees of wind shift another boat would be over our anchor. So as the sun was coming up we pulled anchor and headed to the fuel dock since we needed to fuel up anyway. After all that excitement we found a better place to anchor in a little more water and with a solid bottom.
We then started to explore the area by renting a car with our friends on Blue MIst for two days. We traveled around the island on day one, checking out several great beaches, restaurants and cool little towns. The second day we went to Loterie Farms, an eco-type touristy place with cabanas around a nice pool, a hiking trail and a zip line. Mostly we just relaxed around the pool, but Gab and Douglas did the zipline and Douglas and I did the hike. It was very nice to be around trees and get a break from the boat!
Also in Sint Maarten we met a lot of cruisers at the Soggy Dollar happy hour every day, watched a lot of rugby and in general just hung out waiting for Doug’s sister to arrive so that we could explore more of the island. We also made several trips to the French side of the island, which is called Saint Martin. The french side is very different from the Dutch side, with a lot more pastry.
