I hope the title got your attention, and perhaps made you chuckle. Normally we eat local dishes when we eat out during our cruising season, but every now and then we crave comfort food, and we’ve needed it over the past seven days.
If you’ve been following along this year, you know we set out for Guadeloupe from Nevis on January 29th and had to ditch at Montserrat due to generator issues. It had been a rough ride, and two stopped generators didn’t improve our mood. Lunch in Montserrat was cheeseburgers and fries. (We solved the generator issue fairly quickly, but you can read my last post on 2/1 for the details if you missed it.)
It was a bumpy ride to Montserrat on the 29th, and it was an equally bumpy ride to Deshaies, Guadeloupe on the 30th. We thought we might hang out on the west coast of Guadeloupe for about a week and a half. The weather gods had other plans. If we were going to make it to Dominica in time for the Salty Dawgs Rendezvous, we needed to take an early weather window on February 5th. Yes, that’s today. It was going to be another of those “least adverse” windows, which means bumpy and salty. The second cheeseburger and fries lunch was consumed in Basse Terre, Guadeloupe yesterday in anticipation of today’s bumpy ride.
Yup, the crossing from Guadeloupe to Dominica today was bumpy and salty. In fact, it was bumpier and saltier than the prior two. We left Guadeloupe just after first light, about 6:15am. We arrived at Prince Rupert Bay at Portsmouth, Dominica around 11:45am. At least it was a fairly quick (for us) ride, averaging about 5.25 knots. The seas started out about 3-5’, building to 4-6’ and then eventually more like 6-8’. They were anywhere from just off our port bow to on our port beam. There were two notable waves. One washed over the port bow, up the galley window and onto the cabin roof (not all the way to the cockpit), but it did deposit some water on our stovetop. I closed that hatch firmly afterward. The other notable wave washed over the port bow up onto the solar panels on the solar roof, depositing a puddle in our “rain gutter,” which then proceeded, in the wind, to drip all over Dave at the helm for several minutes. There was a lot of splashing sea water, in fact, during the 28nm trip- over the bows, up the port side, splashing up through the teak slats on the rear walkway, and up from the sugar scoops at the stern. Indigo Lady and her crew were quite salted upon arrival. Dave would say we’d been “a-salted.” You can go ahead and groan now. Today’s lunch was the third cheeseburger and fries.
All that said, we are happy to be here in Dominica. We were greeted at the harbor entrance by one of the PAYS guys (Portsmouth Association of Yacht Safety). The association was created by a group of local tour guides to help cruisers enjoy their stay in Dominica and keep them safe. They do a lot. They greet arrivals, provide inexpensive moorings, help with boat issues, provide water taxi rides, do tours, and patrol the mooring field at night for security. Alexis was the one who met us at the harbor entrance, and his cousin, Kelvin, showed us to a mooring. We got to customs before they closed for lunch and then found immigration easily. We paid our mooring fee at the PAYS office and then enjoyed those cheeseburgers and fries right behind the office. One more quick trip into town got us a Digicel SIM card, so now we have data. We relaxed in our hammocks when we got back to Lady. We will start to listen to the Bruins game tonight, but we might not make it through the whole game.
Tomorrow we don’t have to get up at any particular time. We don’t have to check the sea conditions. We don’t have to go ashore. We’ll probably rinse Lady with fresh water if tonight’s rain doesn’t take care of that. We’ll dub around with boat chores and spend time resting up. We are here for about three weeks. Happy sigh of relief.
At some point, I’ll catch you up on what we actually did while in Nevis and Guadeloupe. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!
We are safe and happy in Guadeloupe. Our trip here did not go as planned, however.
We departed Nevis at midnight on Wednesday, 1/29, as planned. Conditions were rolly, as predicted, and we had to hold onto things to move about the boat, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. We wouldn’t normally choose these conditions, but since we decided to attend a scheduled rendezvous, it had to be. I guess I’m getting a little saltier with experience.
Being dark at midnight, we started the trip with both generators running. Starboard had been struggling to start up, but Dave did get both going that morning and we set off. Somewhere around 5:00 AM, both generators shut off. Fortunately, Dave was able to restart the port generator right away. As he worked on trying to restart the starboard generator, we let the starboard motor run on battery. When that got down to 35%, Dave turned off that battery bank, turned on the cross ship cable, and let the port generator run both motors. This was not a new situation for us. We spent an entire year with the starboard generator not working and had to use this approach. All was well.
Just around sunrise, we accidentally shut off the port generator (stupid buttons are too close!). Only this time, the generator display/control panel went blank. So Dave hooked up the computer to the generator controller in the port engine room to restart the generator that way. No dice. Okay, now my anxiety level is through the roof. One battery bank is at 35%, the other at 100% and we’re only halfway to Guadeloupe. If we don’t have at least one working generator, we are not going to make it. (Those of you who have been following me from the start of our journey, know this is my worst nightmare. If you don’t know the story, you can read it here. Dave tried for a good 15-20 minutes to restart port to no avail. The only reason this event wasn’t quite as scary for me as 2019, is because we were only 8-9 nm from the anchorage on Montserrat. We turned to head for that anchorage. That put the seas behind us, giving us a good push (6 knots speed instead of 4.5 knots), and the sun was getting higher (happens pretty quickly down here), so we knew we’d make it with battery power to spare. We did. Phew! My stress level dropped significantly.
Dave was pretty sure what the problem was. I told you in my January 15th post that we had to change out the 12V batteries that start our generators, run our anchor windlass, hoist our dinghy, and a couple other things. The only 12V batteries we could find on St. Kitt’s were car batteries. They just didn’t have enough juice. We needed something more robust. We got lucky at Montserrat. It only took 2 phone calls for Dave to find a place ashore that had 12V truck starting batteries with the cranking capacity to start our generators. Sweet!
I did our preclearance online (can’t go ashore until you clear in with Customs & Immigration, and in this case, pay a port fee). Dave went to lower dinghy – winch wouldn’t run. Not a peep. Are you kidding me?! It took Dave about 5 minutes to find a blown fuse in the port engine room, where the dinghy winch is also wired. Turns out that same fuse also prevented the helm station generator display/control AND the computer from communicating with the port generator. That’s why we couldn’t restart it. (It had been starting okay, even with the weak 12V batteries). Fortunately, Dave had spares of that fuse onboard.
By the time we finally got ashore and cleared in, it was time for lunch, so we grabbed that first. Then we set off for the car park where we’d seen some taxis. En route, a gentleman asked us how our day was and where we were heading. When we mentioned a taxi, he said we could borrow his car. We asked how much. He shrugged and said, whatever you want to give me will be fine. Wow! He handed us his keys and we set off for the auto parts store. It was closed for lunch, but it was the end of the lunch hour, so we waited. The owner came by and saw us and let us in, apologizing for our having to wait. We found the batteries, and the nice owner helped us order them via his website (the live location is really a wholesale/online place) and pay for it with Paypal because we didn’t have any local currency with us, and he couldn’t take US money and he wasn’t set up to take credit cards because the local bank is difficult about that. He was very patient, helpful and kind. By the time we were done with that purchase, we popped one door down to the retail side of his business where the salesman was back from lunch where we purchased the post connectors Dave also needed. The salesman told us he noticed we’d borrowed Moose’s car (so that’s his name! Why didn’t we think to ask?!), and told us he is a very kind man. Yes he is.
Back we went to the dinghy dock to unload the batteries and me to stay with them while Dave returned the car to Moose. He thanked Moose profusely and paid him only slightly less than a taxi would have cost us for the trip. Once we were back on Lady it took Dave about 30 minutes to connect the two new batteries up to the two old batteries. Both generators purred to life immediately. Thanks goodness!
I want to note now that we had been considering stopping at Montserrat if it worked out, but it wasn’t a top priority for us. After our emergency stop of less than 24 hours, we’ve decided that we will definitely come back, if not later this season, then at the start of next season. The people are wonderfully friendly and the island is gorgeous! We look forward to being able to spend more time for a proper visit.
Before we’d gone ashore, I’d emailed Chris Parker, the weather routing guy we use sometimes, telling him about our trip interruption and asking for a forecast/route suggestions for Thursday, 1/30. Conditions were going to be similar, but possibly deteriorating late afternoon/early evening. He suggested we leave as early as possible to arrive by mid-afternoon at the latest. Since we’d been up since midnight and stressed/busy most of that time, we were in bed by 7:30pm. We slept well, knowing our generators would work properly and that we hadn’t entirely missed the weather window to get to Guadeloupe before conditions became inclement for at least a week.
We were underway by about 6:15 am on 1/30 and were moored at Deshaies, Guadeloupe by about 3:15 pm. It was a bit saltier than the day before, but that was mostly between the south end of Montserrat and the halfway point to Guadeloupe, otherwise it was about the same as the prior day’s trip. We opted for a mooring ball instead of anchoring, partly as a treat, because they’re easier than anchoring, and partly because we still don’t have depth data, which makes it more challenging to decide how much scope to put out when anchoring. We had a good night’s sleep.
We’ll be here in Guadeloupe for a little over a week, exploring the west coast between here in Deshaies and Basse-Terre to the south. We’ll look for a window between February 8-12 to make the 5-6 hour cruise over to Dominica from the Basse-Terre area.
So there’s our two-day Nevis to Guadeloupe saga. Maybe next time I’ll actually get to catch you up on our two weeks in Nevis and the start of our time here in Guadeloupe.
Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!
Well, I was in the middle of writing a post to update you about our past two weeks here in St. Kitt’s & Nevis, but I got interrupted by a potential weather window, which turned into a real (albeit not ideal) window we’re taking to go to Guadeloupe.
So…we’re leaving at midnight for what will hopefully be not a horrible passage that will hopefully land us in Guadeloupe before sunset Wednesday. I’ll post sometime later this week to let you know how the passage went, and to fill you in on our past couple of weeks.
We’ve been back in St. Kitt’s for a week and the boat is still not in the water. The boat work we’d asked to have done started the day before we arrived. We told them what we needed done last June when we dropped her off for storage, and again in November, and December, and earlier this month. Last January, the boat work we’d asked for started on the day we arrived, so I suppose this year is an improvement. Island time.The big job that needed doing, which Dave and I could not do, was the bottom copper coat. Dave is extremelyallergic to the hardener in this epoxy-based paint. Before we launched last January, Dave spoke to the then yard manager about the job and learned there is a guy on the island who does it as an outside contractor. We’d buy the supplies in St. Martin and bring them back with us in June, which we did. Dave met the guy in June, at the boatyard, to discuss the job; all seemed good. When November rolled around, nobody could get in touch with him. When we still hadn’t heard anything after Christmas, Dave contacted the yard owner who put Dave in touch with another guy who could do it, I’ll call him Bob. Dave and Bob texted back and forth and Dave said it sounded like Bob knew what he was doing, so told him to go ahead.
We’re pretty sure our boat is the first one Bob has copper coated. First, the hull needs to be sanded and smooth and any pits that don’t sand smooth need to be filled. Our hull is still pitted in places. The time-sensitive, epoxy-based copper coat requires a crew of 3-4 to do it well. Bob had one other guy working with him who was less than dedicated to the work. Finally, the hardened copper coat needs to be sanded smooth. Bob and the other guy showed up Monday with one battery powered sander, no way to recharge it, and not enough sandpaper. By Tuesday morning, with only about one quarter of the final sanding done, Dave suggested buying electric sanders and more paper. Away Dave & Bob went and returned with the needed supplies. That helped, because the sanding was finished this afternoon. In speaking with Dave daily, Bob has acknowledged throughout the process what he should have done differently. If he ever does this type of job again, we’re sure he’ll do it even better. Bob is a good worker and learns from his efforts. The other guy did a lot of sitting and half-hearted sanding. It stinks to have to pay $45/hour/person for amateur work, but pay we shall.
On the upside, Dave and Bob bonded a little. On Friday, Dave had given Bob a spare solar panel we’d gotten for free but couldn’t use. When Dave bought the sanders, he told Bob he could keep one after the work was done. During their drive, they discovered a shared love of hunting. Bob hunts wild boar on the island, a lot of wild boar. He gifted us with 8 pounds of boar meat! We do meet some mighty nice folk on our travels.
That was just one bump in the road.
Our windlass needed attention. (For you non-boaters, the windlass raises and lowers our anchor and chain). Dave came prepared with a rebuild kit. The job took longer than anticipated. Dave not only did the anticipated rebuild, but also a lot of correcting of things that were poorly done when it was initially built. The windlass had also been installed poorly, so he improved that before reinstalling it. I even got to play a role in this, doing a small epoxy repair job on the mounting base. Monday night, just after sunset, it was reinstalled and we tested it. As Dave punched the up and down buttons, the lights inside Lady flickered on and off. In addition, the anchor went down, but not back up. It also made some unfortunate, complaining sounds. There’s also a way to crank the gypsy (the part the chain links sit in) manuallywith a handleshould the motor die, and that wasn’t working. Ack! By early Tuesday afternoon, Dave had it sorted. Our windlass works now!
The flickering lights during our windlass test, were the result of another bump in the road. Our 12V golf cart batteries run the house load of fridge, freezer, lights, stereo, dinghy lift and windlass. Their capacity was basically non-existent, so the windlass calling for all that power tanked them, causing the lights to go off. Dave had purchased two 12V car batteries last year, so he switched the wiring to those. They’re temporary, because their capacity is not as high as a that of healthy golf cart batteries. Unfortunately, nobody sells golf cart batteries on this island, so we’ll probably have to buy those in Guadeloupe.
Still with me? I have two more bumps to go.
Bump #4 was our replacement multifunction display (the chart plotter that allows us to set routes and navigate, see our speed and depth). The original started delaminating last year, which turned out to be a warranty issue. So last June Dave removed it, lugged it home, and shipped it back to Garmin who sent us a new, bigger and better replacement for free! Too bad they sent us the wrong model. We have front and side scan sonar transducers and a depth sounder. The multifunction display they sent does not have the proper ports for these. Depth is an important thing to know, especially when traversing or anchoring in shallow areas. Dave was able to connect the front scan sonar which can also serve as a depth reader. It’s not ideal, but if Garmin can’t (or won’t) ship the correct display to the Caribbean on their dime, the exchange will have to wait until we’re back in the U.S.
The final (for now) bump in the road was the theft of the gas can out of our dinghy. Had we not stupidly left the gas can in our dinghy, unlocked, it wouldn’t have been stolen. Mea culpa. Fortunately for us, the local Budget Marine store had one in stock. Off we went to Basseterre today to purchase said gas can and requisite attachments, as well as a couple of unrelated items we needed. This trip also provided us with the opportunity to eat at one of our favorite local restaurants, El Freddo. It wasn’t a bad way to spend a few hours today.
Upon our return to the boat yard this afternoon, we learned that the bottom work is finished, the power wash has been started and will be completed in the morning, and they can launch us tomorrow, although they have to schedule us around two other boats being launched. Bob needs about 2 hours while Lady is in the lift slings to copper coat the areas where she was resting on the jack stands. They won’t be able to be sanded smooth afterward, but it’s better than not having those areas coated at all. If all goes well, we should be in the water by late afternoon. They have an open slip at a rickety old dock that we can stay at for a night or two while we do our provisioning runs.
Perhaps by the next time I post, we’ll be someplace more interesting. This season we hope to visit, in no particular order, Nevis, Montserrat, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Antigua. I will, of course, keep you posted.
Until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!
Howdy folks! Sorry I’ve been silent for so long. My life on land does not inspire me to post about cruising very often. We’ve been spending a lot of time on land, and also taking friends and family out on Dumbledore for day trips. No big New England cruising plans for us this season. But now I have something to share that I didn’t have to create. So here you go.
One of my favorite parts of cruising is meeting new people, both the locals in the countries we visit, and other cruisers. Dave & I enjoy meeting cruisers of all ages; it gives us different perspectives on cruising and just living life in general. I also follow a lot of cruisers on social media, and occasionally we run into one of them. That happened this spring when we were anchored in Brewers Bay on St. Thomas in the USVI.
One afternoon, a young man dinghied over to introduce himself. He’d seen our boat before in the Bahamas and had been curious about it. Turns out that the young man was Adventureman Dan, whom I follow on social media. He chatted with us a bit, then asked if we’d mind if he interviewed us for a full boat tour and discussion about our solar electric setup. Of course we said yes. So here’s installment one, the boat tour. In the next week or so he’ll be posting a second video where he talks with Dave about the details of our solar electric system.
The video is a little over an hour, but if click to watch it IN YouTube, Dan created a clickable table of contents that allows you to choose to watch certain segments of interest. The table of contents is in the description under the video (click …more and scroll down a bit).
Since Dan posted the video yesterday, Dave has received about 20 requests for information. We’re looking forward to seeing more solar electric boats out there!
That’s right folks, we are land lubbers once again, at least until shortly after the end of hurricane season.
We’ve been home for just over a week and working on getting our house, yard and Dumbledore (our small trawler) back in shape. I think we’ve finally gotten to the point where we can start spending time visiting friends instead of working on said house and boat. If we don’t get to you first, give us a call and we’ll get together. We are so looking forward to it!
While we’re home on land, I will irregularly post to this blog. I still have some things to share from our cruising season, and we will be taking Dumbledore out this summer, mostly on day trips and an the occasional overnight. Keep your eyes peeled.
Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!
Okay, folks, this is our last day on Lady this year. Tomorrow we will pull into the boat yard’s harbor and move ourselves into the guest house. Lady gets hauled out for hurricane storage sometime in the next few days. We’ve been busy getting her prepped, and there’s more to do before we fly home Thursday, so I don’t have time to write much of a blog post. Instead, here’s a video in which I share the recipe I use to make granola onboard (complete with a blooper). If you want to know why I don’t just buy granola, you’ll have to watch the video. 😁
I will continue to post when I get home, because I have a bunch of stuff from this cruising season that I haven’t shared yet. Guaranteed I’ll post as consistently as I’ve been doing thus far this year. 😂
Until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!
For me, this cruising thing is part lifestyle and part vacation. This week I’m posting about one of the vacation aspects- taking a tour. It is very hot and humid in June here in St. Kitt’s, and we really feel it as soon as we step onto land to do something. Still, we don’t want to sit around on the boat all day every day. We want to get to know the island and its people. When we picked up Indigo Lady in January, I read about the St. Kitt’s Scenic Railway tour. We thought we might give it a try when we returned in June. They have air conditioned cars, perfect for a hot June day. When we ran into our friends on Seas the Moment last month, they told us they’d done the Scenic Railway tour and that it was great. That sealed it for us.
Our timing was fortunate. This is low season with far fewer cruise ships and land-based tourists, so they don’t run many train tours each week. There were exactly two dates for tours in the timeframe we’re here, on days when there was a cruise ship in port. We booked our tour for this past Wednesday.
Remember, we’re on a boat, so we can’t just jump in a car and go where we want. It takes some planning and effort. We were anchored in White House Bay, ~5 nm south of the harbor at Basseterre. We got up at 6:45am Wednesday, turned on the coffee pot and hauled anchor. We had to slow down a bit as we approached the harbor so as not to interfere with the incoming cruise ship. We were anchored by a little after 8am, having eaten breakfast underway. We got ourselves ready and dinghied ashore. We paid our $5 USD dinghy parking fee at Porte Zante Marina, then went in search of a taxi. Given that there was a cruise ship in port, we found one quickly, and $20 USD got us to the Needsmust Train Station about 45 minutes early for the 10:00am tour. There was a lovely breeze and shade, and passed the time chatting a bit with the gentleman who sold us our tickets, and then with some of the people who would be our fellow travelers on this excursion. St. Kitt’s Scenic Railway, though privately owned, is a partnership between the government and private enterprise. The tour is a 30 mile loop done 1/3 by bus and 2/3 by train.
We boarded the air conditioned bus at the Needsmust Train Station and headed north. Our driver pointed out various historic edifices along the way, including the two oldest Anglican Churches in the Western Hemisphere, and various sugar mill ruins. She described each of the tiny towns we passed through. She shared some of the history of the island as well. Just past the town of Sandy Point, we arrived at the portion of the train tracks from whence the next leg of our journey would commence. We bid our driver farewell and boarded the train.
We opted for the covered, open-air top deck, rather than the air-conditioned lower car. There was a lovely breeze up top, the roof kept the sun off us, and the views were unimpeded. We traveled at about 10mph along the 18 miles of track that took us from the NW corner of the island, around the north end, and along its east side to just north of Basseterre, ending back at Needsmust Station across from the village of Conaree.
We were not short on scenic views or entertainment. The train part of the tour includes free rum drinks in various forms. It was a bit early for me, so I indulged in a virgin piña colada and then a soda. The tour guide was in the first car with her voice piped through a sound system to all cars. She was very entertaining and informative. At one point, two young men performed a traditional dance for us, moving from one car to the next. One convinced me to get up and dance with him. I was impressed by their ability to dance without falling over on a moving and swaying train! We passed through many a tiny village. It’s obvious that the train makes regular rounds, because every school we passed had children waving at us and shouting greetings. We waved back, of course. Many a local waved from their porch, yard or the road, and our tour guide greeted many by name.
The views were spectacular! This is a truly gorgeous island. We passed through fields and farmland, where current crops are grown and livestock grazed. Remnants of sugar cane sprouts up among other grasses and vegetation. Occasionally, branches of almond and other trees encroached upon the airspace of the passing train and we had to lean our heads forward to avoid getting hit. We traveled around the north side of Mt. Liamuiga, meaning “fertile land.” At just shy of 3800’, it is the highest point on St. Kitt’s and Nevis. It is an extinct volcano, with the last verified eruption about 1800 years ago. We were treated to views of St. Eustatius, a dozen miles off the NW point of St. Kitt’s. We gazed down the steep slope to the black sand beach of Dieppe Bay at the northernmost point of the island (sadly encroached upon by a gigantic mat of sargassum on this day). There were also signs of difficult, hard-lived lives. There are abandoned and crumbling buildings, run down homes due to poverty, cars and other abandoned or dumped items on slopes and alongside roads, slowly being swallowed by nature. The last part of the trip took us through the “industrial” end of the island, including the dump where both household and industrial garbage is burned. It is not a wealthy island, but the people are strong and proud of their beautiful homeland.
Both our bus driver and train tour guide shared history about the island. Like all the Caribbean islands we’ve visited thus far, the Europeans arrived, killed off the locals, started plantations and imported slaves to work them. As the European settler population on St. Kitt’s & Nevis expanded through the early 1600s, the native Caribs became enraged and plotted to drive them off the island. Unfortunately for the Caribs, the Europeans discovered the plot and massacred over 2000 of them, at what is now known as Bloody Point. Some of the surviving Caribs were enslaved and the rest relocated to Dominica. In general, the French and English duked it out for control of the pair of islands until Britain was granted control by treaty in 1713. St. Kitt’s & Nevis were granted their independence from Britain in 1983.
Sugar was the primary industry on the island, although there was a brief stint very early on with tobacco. The first sugar plantations went into production in 1643. Because of that industry, St. Kitt’s was once the wealthiest British possession. The abolition of slavery, the need to bring in migrant workers, and the introduction of the global sugar beet industry were a few of the contributing factors to a steady decline in the sugar cane industry on St. Kitt’s (and elsewhere). In 1912, a group of investors who believed that St. Kitt’s sugar industry could be profitable again if scaled properly, built a modern (at the time) central sugar factory near Basseterre and a narrow gauge railway, completed in 1926, to bring the sugar cane in from the outlying fields where it was grown. As a result, sugar production continued on the island, eventually being bought and run by the government with production nationalized in the 1970s. It wasn’t until 2005, after 350 years of production, that the government finally shut down the sugar industry entirely and started to focus on tourism. The sugar train continues to run today, giving these tours.
We have a week left on Indigo Lady before we check into the guest house. We’ll entertain ourselves a bit for the next few days before we go into hurricane storage prep mode ahead of Lady being hauled out of the water. Enjoy the photos from our Scenic Railway tour. Until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!
Get comfy; this one is long. I threw in a few subtitles so you can scroll to pick & choose what you want to read.
It’s hard to believe we’ve been in St. Martin almost three weeks. As I wrote two weeks ago, our friend Ian was with us the first week here. Since then, time has been doing that thing where it seems to be racing by and slowly ticking along simultaneously. You know what I mean?
We stayed anchored in Marigot Bay for nine nights. It’s a busy harbor, so there’s lots of rolling during the day due to boat wakes, but it sure is convenient for getting places ashore. There is an excellent public dinghy dock on the bay side and another on the French side of the lagoon. From either, it’s a short walk to numerous stores and restaurants. Sometimes it’s a little too convenient, because we’ve eaten a lot of easily accessible croissants and baguettes. This country is not good for my waistline, but oh do the French know how to do pastry and bread! From where we anchored in Marigot Bay, it was also less than a 3-mile dinghy ride to the Dutch side. Visiting the Dutch side from the French side by dinghy or land transport does not require a passport nor clearing into the country. Convenient.
Our time in St. Martin has included some socializing with cruising friends, a little snorkeling, several shore excursions, and a lot of boat tasks, especially for Dave. The convenience of Marigot Bay made it easier for us to do the shore-based things we wanted and needed to do. When those items were ticked off the list, we popped up one bay to Friars Bay. It’s quieter, not busy, and less the 3 miles by dinghy back to Marigot should the need arise.
Shore excursions fell into the categories of meeting friends for meals, making purchases, and touring. We got in two dinners with our friends from Seas the Moment before they had to continue their journey to the Dominican Republic. Running into and spending time with them has been something we’ve looked forward to each cruising season. St. Martin boasts 4 very well stocked marine stores- Ile Marine on the French side, Budget Marine on the Dutch side, and an Island Water World on each side. We have made several stops for a variety of items we’ve needed for specific installation or repair jobs, plus some upgrades and replacements. We made three tourist excursions on the French side and two on the Dutch side, which I will write about separately.
Fort Louis
One day we made the less than ½ mile walk from the Marigot public dock up to Fort Louis for some great views of the surrounding area. Shore excursions like this always involve food ashore as well. After the fort, we went to our favorite bakery (photo at top of post). We split a scrumptious cinnamon roll and availed ourselves of their free WiFi to update apps and operating systems. That always takes longer than we think it will, so of course by the time we were done it was lunchtime and we “had to” eat ashore. We ate at one of the small restaurant stalls down at the Marigot Market. There’s a boardwalk of sorts lined with a dozen or more of these, each capable of seating maybe 30 people, all serving local fair with a variety of influences including Caribbean, Creole and French. It was a delicious way to conclude this trip ashore.
Pic Paradis and the AMuseum
Our second shore excursion on the French side required a rental car. We picked up our car around 9am. It was a bit of a beater, but perfect for the first part of our day when we took it up some precarious roads to within a ½ mile of the peak of Pic Paradis, the highest point on the French side of St. Martin. We hiked the last ½ mile to the summit for the views. Our first view was of two pairs of radio & cell phone towers surrounded by fencing with both razor and barbed wire. The nearer set was that demolished by hurricane Irma in 2017, the second set was the replacement. Hmmm… not very scenic. A narrow path around the fencing brought us to a small overlook of part of Marigot Bay to a bit north. Surely there was more than that? There was. A trail perpendicular to the pair of defunct towers led us to a better overlook. That view extended from Ile Pinel on the north end of Baie Orientale to the eastern part of Philipsburg on the Dutch side, on gthe south end of the island. If it had been a clearer day, we would have been able to see all the way to St. Bart’s. As it was, it was lovely, and we were thankful for the partial overcast; it kept it cooler. From Pic Paradis we drove around to French Quarter on the east side of the island to the Amuseum Naturalis, a free outdoor museum highlighting the nature and heritage of St. Martin. We had briefly visited it with Ian, but Dave & I wanted more time to explore it. It is well laid out with engaging signage that is both informative and succinct, and includes excellent photographs. The exhibits include local/endemic and invasive animal and plant species, a beautiful and well-labeled general garden, plus medicinal garden and more. We enjoy these kinds of exhibits and spent about 2 hours exploring. Unfortunately, the cloud cover was gone and it was ridiculously hot and humid. We were dripping sweat standing still reading signs. We ran out of energy partway through the medicinal plants exhibit and didn’t even get to the local poetry display. We dragged our soggy bodies back to the air conditioned car, sucked down more ice water, and went in search of lunch, which we found at a small place near Orient Beach. Nothing fancy, just paninis, but there was a breeze from both the sea and ceiling fans. Relief from the heat! Restored to full charge by lunch and more cool drinks, we set off back to Marigot and then on to the Dutch side to make our final provisioning run of the season. It was an enjoyable, productive and thoroughly exhausting day.
Excursions to the Dutch side
We made two land-based excursions to the Dutch side that did not involve marine stores. Our destinations were not accessible by dinghy, and were too far to walk to from the closest dinghy dock on the Dutch side. We could have taken a bus from Marigot, but had read that some of the buses, which are really 12-15 passenger minivans, were not all air conditioned. Marigot to Philipsburg, with traffic and stops, would have been about 45 minutes. That would be too long on a packed bus with no AC. We opted, instead, to dinghy just under 3 miles through the lagoon to the dinghy dock we’d used before in Simpson Bay (the town, not the actual bay). Then we asked a nice local which bus we should take to Philipsburg. Oddly, it was not one labeled Philipsburg, go figure. So, we crossed the street and flagged down the next bus labeled ‘Maho.’ It was air conditioned, and only a 15 minute ride- Yay! The ride was also cheap, just $2 USD per person each way, significantly cheaper than a taxi. Learning how to use public transportation on the islands takes a bit of work and tapping into local knowledge, but we find it more than worth the effort. Where were we heading? Keep reading.
This first Dutch side trip was to The Yoda Guy Movie Exhibit, created, curated and still run by Nick Maley. Nick worked on 50+ movies during his career doing creature creation and actor prosthetics before retiring to settle in the Caribbean. This is a specialty exhibit that pre-CGI SciFi movie geeks like me and Dave enjoy. Enjoy it we did! The exhibits mostly had to do with creatures and prosthetics created for movies Nick worked on, and models used in movies (some actual, some Nick recreated). There were also similar items from movies on which Nick did not work. But there was so much more- pages from scripts, samples of old contracts, comics based on movies, photos from movie sets, etc. It’s amazing how much he fit into such a small footprint. Nick also interspersed a few DVDs of himself explaining exhibits, plus interviews with others. The first big movie Nick worked on was Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. It is because of this work that he refers to himself as “The Yoda Guy.” He was one of a team of four whose job it was to create the Taunton, the Wampa, and, most importantly, Yoda. His favorite movie he worked on (we asked him) was Krull, which we now want to watch. The two things I most enjoyed about this exhibit were 1) we got to talk with Nick for quite a while, not only about movies, but also about cruising, because he used to do that too, and 2) the stories interspersed throughout the exhibit that only someone who was there could tell. Oh my goodness, I could go on and on about this place! I won’t do that, though, because I’d bore most of you more than I already do. Instead, here’s a link to the official web page for The Yoda Guy Movie Exhibit and Nick’s own web page. Moving on…
Another day, we repeated our dinghy/bus ride to Philipsburg, this time to visit the Sint Maarten Museum. This is a small, one floor, two room museum in a nondescript setting in what is otherwise a shopping and eatery area for cruise ship people. It was a gem, if, like me and Dave, you enjoy museums that tell you stories about the local history and culture. They did a nice job collecting and displaying items from various time periods- from the original Amerindian inhabitants through Dutch settlement of the area, the plantation period & industry of the island, abolition of slavery, plus a little about the natural environment and geology. I would have liked to have seen more individual items labeled, but there were informative signs that gave a general overview of each display. It didn’t take long to go through, and we followed it with lunch at a little restaurant on Old Street before our return trip to Lady.
A brief snorkel at the Arch
After nine days in Marigot Bay, and all of that land stuff, we needed a change of scenery. We hauled anchor one morning and cruised a mile south to Baie Rouge to snorkel through ‘The Arch,’ a natural rock arch at water level, and the surrounding point. Always hopeful, we’d heard there was great snorkeling. It wasn’t. The reef must have been amazing when it was alive, but all that remains now is the base structure, a bunch of algae growth and very little else. We swam out to a rock a little further out where we did see some coral regrowth and more fish. Maybe there’s hope for that reef yet. We did enjoy snorkeling through the arch, and we enjoyed lunch aboard Lady in the pretty anchorage. After lunch, we cruised back north to Friars Bay, one bay up from Marigot, where we have been for four days as I write this on Wednesday, May 22nd.
Boat tasks
Finally, boat tasks; they seem never ending. Many are the typical chores of laundry, cleaning and cooking. I do most of the laundry and cleaning; we split the cooking. Repairs and installations fall to Dave; I occasionally play a supporting role. Two such tasks were tended to since Ian departed.
First, for those of you who read my post about our holding tank woes, I am happy to report that we finally resolved the issue. As you may recall, our holding tank was backing up into our bilge when it got to just shy of being full. If you need more detail than this, you’ll have to go back and (re)read that post. According to the original Voyage boat drawings, all the hose connections Dave needed to see should have been accessible under the port aft companionway deck plate (that’s the removable floorboard at the bottom of the stairs on the left side of the boat). They weren’t. Even down on his belly with a bright flashlight Dave couldn’t see the connections well and certainly could not access them. They were under the floor of one or both port side heads. In each head there is a shower grate (big rectangle with draining holes) over a recessed area just above the bilge with a collection drain leading to a sump pump that pumps shower water overboard. Dave cut a 12” x 14” hole in the recessed floor of the port aft head so he could see into the bilge. Well, that gave him access to all the connections to the holding tank, but they weren’t the problem. Dang! Then he cut a similar hole in the forward head, our head. Bingo! There was a 5” or so crack in the ¼” thick fiberglass layer that creates the top of the holding tank. How the heck did a crack form inside? We’ll never know for sure, but some stress or sequence of stresses over time resulted in the crack forming and/or enlarging to the point where we noticed it this year. This is where I come in. Dave has become highly allergic to the hardener in 2-part epoxies, and this allergic reaction occurs in his lungs resulting in pneumonia-like symptoms. When diagnosed seven years ago, he was told that if he continued to work with epoxy, he would either need a lung transplant, or he’d die. Okay, time for Lisa to learn to work with epoxy. Dave routed out the area around the crack and set me up to do the epoxy-fiberglass work. I was nervous, because I’d only ever used epoxy alone to fill small holes. Under Dave’s tutelage, and his inspection of my first two layers of fiberglass (on a held breath) I knew I was doing okay. I put on a third layer, then set up the fan to blow from the companionway into the head and out its porthole so no fumes got inside while it cured for the next seven hours. Dave stayed in the cockpit until dinner time, at which point even I couldn’t detect any smell anymore (my nose being much more sensitive to such odors than Dave’s is). Two days later we filled the holding tank with sea water and watched. No leaking into the bilge- hooray! Dave took the opportunity to replace sixteen rusty hose clamps with brand new ones, installed an access plate in each hole he’d made in the heads, and replaced the shower grates. Now he has easy access to that area, should it be necessary in the future.
The next big task was/is an installation. Our freezer has always been inefficient and is now on its last legs. We ordered a new one from a store in Martinique in December and it met us in the USVI in late February, having been back ordered for a while. Since it was going to be a multi-day project that ended with our shutting off the freezer for at least one of those days, Dave opted to do it near the end of our cruise and in St. Martin where it’s easy to get the plumbing and wiring pieces he needed to do the installation. Buying the “freezer” included only the condenser, compressor, thermostat and cooling pump. Over the past three days, he has done some of the prep work by installing most of the plumbing and wiring elements. Sometime in the next week or so, once there’s less food in our freezer, he will finish the installation, which requires a new through-hull for the drain (through-hull = cutting a hole in the hull, this one above water line), and installing the condenser, compressor, thermostat, and cooling pump. That’s a lot of work in cramped, hot spaces for Dave. He’s a trooper. It’s just fortunate that he can do all this stuff, because if we had to hire someone to do the work, yikes $$$!
Sometime within the next two weeks we need to get to St. Kitt’s. We’re hoping for a good weather window but may have to settle for a less favorable one. Our one firm deadline this cruising season is hauling out in mid-June because we have stuff to do back home the latter part of the month. Our move to St. Kitt’s could happen as soon as this weekend, Memorial Day weekend.
UPDATE: We are in St. Kitt’s! A weather window presented itself yesterday, Saturday 5/25. It took us 12 hours from anchor up to anchor down, 2am-2pm, to travel the 60 nm. It was a decent passage. My apologies for posting this so long after I wrote it. Cell signal in St. Martin is abysmal and I couldn’t even upload a picture, let alone the slide show. Great signal here in St. Kitt’s, though, so I finished up today, Sunday 5/26.
Until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!
Sorry for the 2 week delay in posting. The day of my last post was also the day our friend Ian arrived, so I haven’t been in the mood to write blog posts.
We had a lovely time with Ian. We spent a lot of our BVI time relaxing onboard and did a little diving and snorkeling as well, plus had several meals ashore (most, courtesy of Ian). The weather (both atmospheric and sea) wasn’t cooperative for good diving or snorkeling, but we got some in anyway. The dive-able days followed days of wind or rain, which stirs up the water and decreases visibility. Still, we all love dubbing around in the water whenever we can. We ended up back in Benures Bay on Norman Island a couple of times. One time we launched hookah and dove the eastern point of the bay, something Dave & I had not done on our prior stops there. There was a lot of turtle grass strewn with boulders that had some healthy coral and sponges growing on them, and plenty of fish. It’s fun to look for little fish among the grass and in the boulder crevices. As a bonus, that side of the bay had good visibility. Always nice to be in the water.
We were eyeing a weather window for the weekend of May 4th to cross to St. Martin. Ian assisted us in our preparations by helping us clean our hulls. It sure goes faster with three people and the hookah. Earlier in the week I had posted in the USVI and BVI Cruisers Facebook groups, asking if anyone was heading to St. Martin on the same weather window. Wild Rose responded; they’d been thinking of making the same type of post. Indigo Lady worked her way over to Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda and cleared out of the country just before lunch Saturday. Then we moved up to Gorda Sound on the northeast end of Virgin Gorda and laid a track out through the reef, which we were going to have to navigate at night, before backtracking and anchoring next to Wild Rose on the west side of Prickly Pear. They dinghied over to meet us in the afternoon and we planned our departure time and radio check-ins. Then we each set about our night crossing preparations and napping.
Indigo Lady and Wild Rose hauled anchor around 12:00 AM Sunday. Wild Rose opted to go around the north side of Virgin Gorda while we passed through the reef following the track line we’d laid earlier. In hindsight, we wouldn’t go out through the reef again at night. It is a very well buoyed channel, and the buoys are lit, but they also flash at different times. It was distracting. We successfully got through the reef and out to the open ocean just as Wild Rose was coming around the corner. They hailed us shortly thereafter to let us know that there were fish pots around and they had narrowly missed one. Yikes! We kept as watchful an eye as one can in the dark. I’ll spare you the suspense; we each had a close call, but neither of us snagged a fish pot. Phew!
The crossing was quite rolly/bumpy, but there wasn’t a lot of slamming, for which I was thankful. Other than fish pots and rolling, which smoothed out a bit as we neared St. Martin, it was an uneventful crossing. I enjoyed starting out at midnight knowing we were cruising into daylight, and it was comforting having another boat with us. We were anchored in Marigot Bay (French side of St. Martin) around 3:30 PM Sunday afternoon, 15.5 hours from anchor up to anchor down. Wild Rose was anchored shortly after us. We’d arrived too late to clear into the country that day, so we ran up our yellow Q-flag, tidied up the boat and rested. Monday morning we met up with Wild Rose to clear into the country, then we went to a fabulous breakfast spot they’d found on the Dutch side last time they were here- Zee Best. It was delicious! We chatted for quite a while, taking the chance to get to know each other a little better. Eventually we each headed off to tend to our own things. Hopefully we’ll hook up with them again before they continue their trek south to Grenada for hurricane season.
Shortly after our arrival in St. Martin, we had another “small world” experience. I received a text from our friends Roxanne and Craig on Seas the Moment. It was a picture of Lady at anchor in Marigot Bay. They are here, too! We met them in Bimini, Bahamas in 2021 and have run into them each cruising season since. We arranged to have dinner together at a restaurant in Marigot. Joining us would be Tom on Imiloa. We met Tom in Charlotte Amalie in January. Turns out Roxanne and Craig know Tom because he was the broker who helped them buy their first catamaran years ago, which was a Voyage 440 just like Indigo Lady. Tom, himself, had also owned a Voyage 440 in the past. We enjoyed a lovely dinner and a lot of conversation. Again, we will hopefully hook up again before they each head off to their hurricane season locations.
One day, we rented a car so Dave, Ian and I could drive around the island, which doesn’t take very long. It was a very rainy day, so touring by car was better than sitting on the boat playing ‘hatchlisthenics’ (jumping up to repeatedly close, and later reopen, the hatches). It was a lovely drive until we hit traffic in Philipsburg, the capital of Dutch St. Maarten, and in Simpson Bay (cruise ship port. It was crazy! We managed to find a fabulous lunch spot slightly off the beaten path with a parking spot to boot. Score! The circumnavigation of the island took us less time than we’d anticipated, so we had time to kill. We visited the Parotte Ville Bird Sanctuary where we fed the birds as they landed on our arms and heads. It was worth the $10/person. After a failed attempt to have drinks at a local brewery (closed!) we ended up at the Dinghy Dock Sailors Bar, then poked around in Budget Marine where we finally found security chain for dinghy at a reasonable price. (Dinghies are frequently stolen in the Caribbean, so we lock her to the docks we park her on during the day and hoist her into her lift each night back at Lady. We wanted to replace our thin cable and lock with a more substantial chain.) After our wonderful dinner that night with Roxanne, Craig, and Tom, we unloaded our purchases at the dinghy dock where Dave had to bail out shin-deep water. Told you it rained a lot. Thankfully, Ian found a 5 gallon bucket nearby, which expedited the task. We parked the rental and returned to Lady.
After we returned the rental car the next morning, we hauled anchor and headed up to Creole Rock for a snorkel. The leeward side (away from wind & seas) was uninspiring, and it was too rough on the windward side to swim around to that side. Alas! We crossed the channel to anchor in Grand Case Bay where we had a less than satisfactory BBQ dinner. Well, my chicken was fine, but the boys’ pork chops & ribs were tough and not very flavorful. The rice and beans were dry. Sometimes things just don’t pan out the way one hopes. We did spend a quiet, calm night in the lovely anchorage, though. After breakfast on Friday we hauled anchor and popped down to Friars Bay for a snorkel. Again, not scenic, but there were lots of boulders and canyons between them to poke around in and we had a lovely, long swim. From there we passed Marigot Bay to check out Baie Rouge (Red Bay) seeking ‘The Arch’ and ‘David’s (aka Devil’s) Hole.’ Red Bay would make a lovely day anchorage, but there was too much surge this day to safely snorkel The Arch and Devil’s Hole. Dave and I will try to come back another time before we leave. We turned Lady around and headed back to anchor in Marigot Bay. We had a lovely final dinner ashore at a restaurant on the French side of the Lagoon, again, courtesy of Ian. (Thanks for all the meals ashore, Ian!) Ian enjoyed St. Martin enough that he’s thinking of taking his wife, Linda, here for a vacation.
Yesterday morning we all went ashore for a light breakfast and then Dave & I walked Ian to the taxi stand and bid him farewell. We then walked around Marigot Market, an open square market with many tent stalls set up. Most sell tourist kitsch made in India or China, but hidden among the kitsch are some real local delights. We purchased, from the artist herself, an African face made of painted coconut fiber on wood. It will look very nice in our living room back home. We continued on to walk through the farmers/fish market, picking up some local produce, and we enjoyed a live performance from a well-known local band called Remo and the Barbwire Band. We returned to Lady for lunch and an afternoon of relaxation.
As I conclude writing this, I’ve just finished the 6th and final load of laundry. Dave has spent the day making water, attaching our new security chain and lock to dinghy, and troubleshooting our leaky holding tank (still no solution, but he thinks he’s getting closer). It’s hot and humid. Thank goodness for the breeze! We will take a dip in the ocean to cool off, then likely retire to our hammocks for the rest of the afternoon.
I’m not sure if my next post will backtrack to some stuff we did in the USVI that I haven’t written about yet, or if I’ll continue writing about our time here in St. Martin. It will depend on my mood this week. Until then, stay safe and take care of each other!
Life on Lady 