December 2009, back to Sint Maarten

Timing for the overnight passage from BVI was good - as long as you're ok with 14 hrs of motoring. There's very little wind, but the sea is calm and its a starry sky.
We have sunrise over St maarten and arrive off Simpson Bay at 6am. Anchor off Kim Sha beach. Do the clearing-in stuff after breakfast. Then we reprovision. Worked out that its an easy walk up from the Port de Plaisance Marina to the Grande Marche store on the highway - so the best option to reprovision, if you don't have a vehicle, is to dinghy over there and then do the short hike.
A few more odd jobs to do, mixed in with some beaching and swimming, then we're ready to sail again.
Just a short hop around to Phillipsburg. The anchorage is back to normal, calm and sheltered - bit different than our abysmal last visit. More beaching and swimming, and some shopping - its a chance for Hil to add to her Pandora charm collection. Also a chance to do a good wifi catchup with the family.
Next day we return to Simpson Bay, enjoy some Lebanese food at Aldawyns. Then we clearout and move to the French side, clearing in to Marigot, before moving around to Grand Case.

Its the once-a-week market day in Grand Case, so the streets are busy with stalls at daytime and busy with music and revelers at night - its a fun spot.

We're enjoying some decent weather, so we head out and do some snorkeling off Creole Rock, before heading around to Tintamarre.
Its our first visit to the Park island of Tintamarre - another nice spot, lovely beach and some trails to walk along. Its only a short visit though. Our plan is to overnight in Orient Bay, so we cross over and check out the anchorage options - everywhere is a bit rolly - so plans change again.

We do a dinghy visit to the little island of Caye Verte, check that out, then back to the boat and a return to the more sheltered waters in Grand Case.


And time is running out on sailing in 2009.

We head back to Simpson Bay, clear in, move thru the bridge, into the lagoon, and on to the dock at Island Water World.
It's only a partial pack-the-boat-up, we're headed home to Calgary for Christmas and a dose of winter weather.