St. Martin, St Barts, Anguilla Cruising, 2007

By Brian and Marilyn Smith,

Sailing with Ray Jelesky.

A dark and stormy afternoon greeted us in St. Martin, Oct 27, 2007. Circling the Princess Juliana Airport, the plane waited 20 minutes for rain and winds to subside, then landed. Caribbean rain storms don’t usually persist. A taxi driver sent by Sunsail waited for us to clear customs. On the way to home base (Oyster Pond), we stopped at le Grande Marche, a grocery store. We needed only a few provisions - mostly water, beer, juice, and some food for the next couple of days. St. Martin is famous for fine French cuisine, and we wanted to take advantage ot it. Not being sure of our itinerary, we wanted to be prepared.

The weather at Oyster Pond was still tentative, rainy and windy (see photos)

http://www.datasmitty.com/gallery/St-Martin. In fact, there were torrents of rain with deep runoff rushing through the parking lots. But the temperature was delightful, making the bad weather not so awful. Between rain showers we began exploring the boat, a Beneteau 393 (actually a Sunsail Oceanis 393). It was a nice boat, named Big Foot, and with better finishes than we have chartered locally. Oyster Pond Marina was pretty nice. Temps were okay, humidity low, and no mosquitoes. Also there are adequate restaurants (expensive) and a neat “Dinghy Dock Bar” with great food.

We had read several cruising blogs that described the potential difficulties of exiting and entering the Oyster Pond Marina. At times, there are breakers all the way across the channel entrance. That evening we could see that was the case, but the breakers were not very big, just a couple of feet in the center of the channel. It turns out that Sunsail sends you out with one of their staff (and a chase boat), and will meet you at the outer buoy on return if the weather isn’t just perfect.

Next morning we did our own checkout of the boat, measuring anchor rode, lines, etc. Then we’d know how much chain we had let out. At the normal chart briefing and boat checkout with Sunsail staff we discussed some possible itineraries. We considered going around St. Martin to Auguilla, as suggested in some blogs, or straight to St. Barts, as suggested in others. We decided on the latter. Sure enough, they put a local staffer on the boat with us, and he took us out the channel, though the breakers had actually subsided. Depth was very shallow until we cleared the marina.

We had arrived on St. Martin at the end of several days of rain and bad weather, and winds just were never from the normal directions, frequently gusting to 20 knots on our first day out. St. Barts was close enough and visible on the horizon. In between were several large rocky islands. The ever-fickle winds kept blowing us sort-of in the direction we wanted to go. Tired from the trip and with seas 4-feet, it was quite a sail over to St. Barts. All the things we had read led us to expect a beam reach across to St. Barts, but it took us a couple of tacks before we made it! It was an exhilarating sail, giving us time to get accustomed to the boat and rigging. We anchored for the evening at Anse de Corossol – a cove near Gustavia, capital of St. Barts. It was pretty scary because the winds were blowing directly toward the rocky cliffs. We were so tired from the sail, that we elected to remain on board and eat our meager provisions – Brie, salami, jambon, and a couple of rum punches each.

After several hours of being at anchor in the boat, we felt somewhat (66%) confident that the anchor was holding despite the wind and swells. Would we roll out of our bunks during the night? No. No one was seasick, nor did the boat creep closer to the rocks. Sometimes Big Foot paralleled the other boats, and sometimes he rocked his own direction.

Day 2 – the sun woke us up the next morning (yeah!), so we dinghied in to the port to pay our fees and register. We walked around Gustavia, had a café crème and croissant, oogled the one mega-yacht in port. It was your basic touring day – shopping a little, taking pictures, and scouting out a place for dinner. We lucked into a bistro on the 2^nd floor across from the Post Office. It had local food and fish – and a real French chef. The weather was clearing up even though there was always a chance for a 2 minute shower. After another rolly night, we decided to set sail for some snorkeling spots and then on toward St. Martin.

Day 3 – We motored around to Anse de Colombier for morning coffee – our previous anchorage was too rolly to boil water safely. About 10 turtles greeted us in the new cove; snorkeling showed up only 30 starfish. The water was pretty sandy because of all the rain. Other parts in the Caribbean (Dominican Republic) were experiencing a tropical storm that turned into a hurricane) otherwise the snorkeling would have been excellent. Bypassing Ile de la Fourche, we set sail for Grand Case, St. Martin. The seas were about 4 feet, but with a long period – better than some sails on the San Francisco Bay. Brian and Ray were delighted with the sailing conditions. Marilyn was content to navigate and look for turtles. Fun!!! The winds were such that we went outside of Tintemarre and around to Grand Case. Excellent sandy bottom for anchoring in Grand Case! The spot we chose had the additional benefit of being close to the airport flight path and a couple of night clubs with live bands (good music). The planes stopped flying over after dark and the club quit at a reasonable hour.

Grand Case’s reputation is the Gastronomic Capital of the Caribbean. Well … it doesn’t quite match up to San Francisco restaurants. However, we did have a pleasant dinner at the Fish Pot.

Day 4 – where is the boulangerie or patisserie? We walked from one end of the beach to the other before Ray spotted le Paname – a darling café with expresso, home made pastries, and fruit smoothies. Our next destination was Marigot, capitol of the French part of St. Martin. We called in to the Marina and were able to dock at E7 (perfectly) with only a little – “whoops, the dinghy’s on the wrong side, and the fenders are not at dock height”. Their docks were stationery (unlike SF), so the fenders needed to be high and not at water level. We paid for showers, and went into town to explore the market and other shops. Some of our favorite shops were air-conditioned! It’s breezy by the water, but a couple of feet inland it becomes quite warm. Perfume, sunglasses, soap, and more rum were some of our bargains! Ray had gone off restaurant scouting and found a second marina with restaurants all around – terrific place to which we returned for dinner at La Belle Epoque brasserie, Marina Port la Royale.

Day 5 - more croissants at the Boulangerie, Patisserie la Sorciere. Darling terrace – self service, with lots of tempting items. We purchased a ham and a roast beef sandwich for lunch (looked yummy!) - We were tired of Brie and salami. With no time to spare, we set sail for Road Bay, Anguilla. The island is British, and it’s necessary to clear customs, pay fees before one can visit the Marine Park. Our goal was to reach there by 3pm; the office closed at 4pm. It was a fast sail (broad breach, to a down-wind run) around the west end of the island near Anguillita), but Road Bay was dead into the wind. We did some tacks, missed Sandy Island with its dreaded shoals, and finally motored into Road Bay at 3:15, dropped anchor, hit the dinghy, and spent the next 45 minutes with the charming ladies in Immigration. Passports stamped, many, many papers filled out, we decided it was time for some liquid refreshment at Roy’s Beach Bar at Sandy Ground. We posed in front of the beach cam for a good 4 minutes. When we returned to the states, we found out that storms had not out their server, so it was a lost 4 minutes on tape! That evening we dined at the Barrel Stay – one of the best of the whole trip – we met Jill and Graham, owners and chef mentioned in the cruising guide.

Day 6 – off to Prickly Pear Cay and the Marine Park – pretty windy trip, rolling seas, and a couple of mooring balls where we could tie up. As described in the cruising guide, you anchor or moor in one place and dingy around to the other side of the island for the protected beaches, white sand, and snorkeling. The water wasn't too clear and there weren’t many fish, but the beach bar was excellent! Allen, the tender, became our good buddy. We also met some of the other boat captains who had day tours to the island.

Eventually, we went back to the boat, had some snacks and sailed back to Road Bay. There are other anchorages nearby on Anguilla, but no restaurants. That evening we dined at Roy’s (where Allen turned up again). The fish cakes at Roy’s were spicy and a pleasant surprise. The anchorage at Road Bay was really noisy – battle of the bands and lots of amplification. They rocked until 2-3am in the morning. The noisy music was annoying, but the stars were quite spectacular. On the boat, it was open hatch to let the breeze in, close hatch when it sprinkled, but by the time all the hatches were closed, the rain had stopped.

Day 7 – back to Marigot arriving around 1pm. We called in for another dock in the marina, but there was NO answer. Little did we know that on Saturday, they closed at noon. So, we anchored just outside the marina and had a lovely spot. We dinghied in for more beer, more water, and cleaned up for another lovely dinner at Marina Port la Royale. We ate at a different place this time.

Day 8 – up bright and early for more croissants, tarte au pomme, and cappuccinos. Figuring we had a long sail back to Oyster Pond, we set sail, after plotting our course. One funny thing about nagivating is that the winds have no clue what course you plot. They just blow whichever way they please. This forces some difficult decisions – go with the wind, or try to sail your course. Usually following your course is darn near impossible – so you go the way the wind blows and make adjustments. Around the north east tip of St. Martin, there’s a rock lurking under the water. We carefully avoided it and sailed between Tintemarre and St. Martin. Oyster Pond was difficult to spot because we could never find the abandoned Club Med buildings with their pastel ruins as described in the cruising guide. Fortunately, Ray found the rusty green marker with binoculars. We waited for Sunsail to call us back so they could guide us in through the channel. They never answered (lunchtime), so we just did it ourselves. Not a problem. Inside the harbor, Sunsail waved us over to the fuel dock. We docked – cleaned up, got back in the dinghy and went to the other side of Oyster Pond. There we found one of the sailors whom we had met on Anguilla (Prickly Pear Cay), and strolled along Dawn Beach. It’s lovely and we decided to return to Big Fish for dinner. It was an excellent choice (hurricane shrimp).

Last Day (Day 9) – Ray was up early, going off to the airport. Brian and Marilyn stuck around to finish the checkout from the boat and one last taxi into town to see the planes landing and taking off right near the Sunset Beach Bar – located at the end of the runway. To get back to the airport, we walked to the main road (since no taxis arrived), and flagged down one of the local buses. For just a $1, they took us to the airport. What a bargain!

Wonderful trip! Let’s do it again – somewhere.