St. Eustatius (Statia)

The beach and anchorage of Statia

We left St. Maarten on Easter Monday to sail to Statia. It was a calm day and a beautiful sail! When we approached the island we were surprised to see all of the oil tankers around the bay. This is because Statia has a huge fuel loading dock and apparently is a storage and supply terminal for much of the Caribbean.

When we were anchored and settled in we noticed quite a party going on at the beach. It turns out that the locals were having a huge "Jump Up" for the Easter weekend. Tents, music, food, contests....you name it and they had it going on. Statia is a tiny island with only 3400 inhabitants, and it looked as though just about everyone showed up for the party.

The next day we decided to hike to the volcano. We left from the beach, climbed the steep trail up to the main road and walked to the trailhead which was about two miles...THEN we started the climb to the volcano. We climbed from sea level to 2000 feet to the edge of the volcano. We did not climb down into the volcano, but inside was like rainforest.

Coming back down we wandered through town and down the old cobblestone slave road to the beach. The town was quaint and quiet and we were surprised to learn of it's rich history. Statia was a free port trade center for all countries during the years all of the European countries were fighting each other and England was having trouble with the American rebels. Statia became an officially approved smuggling center for all of the Caribbean.

Our Sixth Wedding Anniversary in St. Maarten

Looking cozy on the bow of our boat anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon

Whoa.....does anyone notice that hand? Where did it come from? Where is it going?

Woo Hoo!! Is this an amusement ride we're on??

We just celebrated our 6th Anniversary on the Spring Equinox....March 21. We took these pictures ourselves (obviously!) before going to the French side of the island for breakfast and browsing through their street market.

St. Maarten....Again!

Leaving St. Maarten through the Simpson Bay Bridge

Getting towed back in through Simpson Bay Bridge.........keep reading!!

We stopped in St. Maarten after leaving Anguilla to top up provisions and then head south. As we sailed out we decided the wind would be taking us to St. Barts, so off we went. There is a tiny, uninhabited island that is part of St. Barts called Ile Fourchue and since we didn't stop there on our way north we decided to stop there this time. We sailed into the tiny bay in late afternoon and found one mooring ball open so we approached it slowly to pick it up. Shortly after we tied up to the ball, things were looking so perfect........until we wrapped a line in our prop! Ouch!!!



Jon quickly jumped into the water to assess the damage and release the line from the prop. He was busy for a long time and things didn't look so good when I suddenly saw fuel floating all around him in the water. He came on board and opened the engine compartment to reveal the real damage. We found that we were taking on water and we knew the engine was out of commission. Just about that time, here comes Peter Pan! Actually is was Chris in his boat "Peter Pan" whom we had met while in St. Maarten. He anchored in the middle of the bay, and after he was settled, we called him on the radio and asked him to come help us assess the damage to our boat. After some discussion, we realized that we would have to sail somewhere to get our engine repaired and we knew that it had to be St. Maarten where the services were available. So.....all night long we timed the bilge pump that was removing the water leaking into the boat....every 8 minutes it went off.....every 12 minutes......every 10 minutes.....It was a looonnng night.



The next morning the wind was blowing from the Southeast. That was perfect for sailing back to St. Maarten, but without an engine we had to be towed out of the bay so we wouldn't be blown into the rocky shore. Here comes Peter Pan again! He towed us out and once we were clear of the bay and rocks awash we headed back to St. Maarten. It took 2 1/2 hours to get back with the brisk wind. Once back, we sailed into Simpson Bay, dropped our anchor, and sat for a bit while trying to figure out what to do next. The wind driven waves were huge and every time one came in, our bow sprit would dip into the water (not good since our bow sprit is about 5 feet up out of the water!). We knew we could not stay out in the bay that night with no engine. We could easily drag anchor and end up on the beach behind us.



So, our next step was finding someone to tow us in through the bridge, into Simpson Bay Lagoon and to Bobby's Marina where we would have our engine repaired. After a few hours we were connected with someone and they came out shortly before the bridge opening and towed us in....Whew!


The next morning the people at Bobby's boat yard lifted our boat out of the water to be repaired. We found all the right people to do the necessary repairs but it quickly became obvious that staying on our boat while the work was being done was not going to work out. We were told we might be able to rent a room at the Red Cross next door to the boat yard, so off we went to check it out. They had one room available so we were able to stay in it while repairs were taking place. The rooms are primarily used for volunteers or staff, but when not in use they rent them out. We were so grateful to have this room...it even had air conditioning!! Eleven days later we were back in the water, anchored, and floating.

We have been watching the weather and preparing to leave again and it looks like the time has come. The nasty cold front off the Eastern Coast of the U. S., and a stalled frontal trough has been making it difficult to leave, but it appears that it may be settling a bit. Now the winds have shifted north/northeast so we will be sailing to St. Eustatius (Statia) next, then St. Kitts and Nevis. Carol is in search of some wild monkeys!!!

Anguilla

Sandy Island

One of the most gorgeous beaches in the world!

The sail to Anguilla was perfect....that is until we reached the northern tip of St. Maarten. After passing islands, the wind gets strong and the seas get big, so things were a bit "active"! After we rounded Anguilla heading to Road Bay where we were going to check in and anchor, we were sailing directly into the wind so our little Aldebaran pitched up and down each wave and collected a good deal of sea spray! Once we arrived, you can see from the pictures above what was waiting for us.

Anguilla is a quiet, laid back island with more gorgeous beaches than we have ever seen. Road Bay is where we checked into the country and where we anchored for 10 days. There is not much there, just a nice beach and top notch restaurants all along the beach. No stores, no banks, no buses, just restaurants and bars. In back of the beach is a salt pond that was once used for producing salt for export and is now used as a fish hatchery. We took a walk around the salt pond and came upon Pyrat rum factory that is owned by the people who own Paul Mitchell hair products. It is a small factory, but the rum is delicious, even though we sampled it at 9:00 AM, or especially since we sampled it at 9:00 AM!

On one of the last days we were there we toured the island with friends we met, who have a boat just like ours, and discovered as many beaches as we could. We ended the day with a Roti from the local Roti Hut (an Indian style burrito filled with potatoes and chicken with curry). Yummm...

Anguilla had the most beautiful, clean water, sea turtles and friendly people. Visit if you can!

Holidays in St. Maarten

Thanksgiving

Carol, Niki (from another boat), and Elli (restaurant owner) prepared a traditional American Thanksgiving feast for other cruisers staying in St. Maarten for the Holidays. We had over 35 people show up and we prepared more than enough food to feed them all. Jon was the official turkey carver among all the other things he did to help make this meal a success.

Christmas

Carol and Jon on Aldebaran II.....all lit up for Christmas!

Diana and Elaine (Carol's sisters) flew to St. Maarten to spend Christmas with us. What a treat! Diana, Carol and Elaine pose on Aldebaran next to our Christmas tree.

Spending the Holiday season in St. Maarten was great! We were able to have our Thanksgiving dinner since we prepared it for other cruisers, and that meant a lot to us. The funny thing was that most of the people who joined us for the dinner were from countries other than the United States. They were curious about our Thanksgiving holiday and the food we traditionally prepare. It was fun watching them try to figure out what everything was!

Both the French and Dutch sides of the island celebrate Christmas in a big way. Since Diana and Elaine joined us here for Christmas we rented a car for the week and explored the island. As we drove around at night, we discovered several houses all lit up. Some were beautifully decorated and others were a mishmash of decorations and lights. It made your eyes buggy trying to look at all they had in their yards and make sense of the "theme" but at least they were in the spirit of the season! One night while we were driving around Marigot, on the French side, we came across a group of people singing Christmas Carols (Caribbean style) as they wandered the streets, and then on the Dutch side we discovered a Kazoo band playing Christmas Carols! Now THAT was different! It seems they love their Christmas Carols as much here as they do in the United States....in fact, they are STILL playing them!

The best part of the Holidays was having Diana and Elaine visit us. We were missing everyone at home, and having family here made it truly feel like Christmas. They brought homemade Christmas cookies, a little tree, and lights for our boat. It could not have been better. We packed the week with going to the beach (even in the rain), looking for shells, taking a dinghy ride, going to the beach at night to watch a giant fire ball, shopping in Phillipsburg, going to the street market in Marigot, playing games at their hotel, and so much more. It was a Christmas we will always remember.

Now it is 2010. On New Year's eve fireworks were going off everywhere...in Marigot, in Phillipsburg, and several places in Simpson Bay. You could see them all from where we were. At the same time when 2010 arrived at midnight, the Mega yachts were blowing their horns and flares were being shot into the sky. It was a great way to bring in the new year!

St. Barths

The time finally arrived in October when we decided that hurricane season had to be nearly over and it was TIME TO LEAVE ANTIGUA! So on the evening of October 9, we left Jolly Harbour Marina where we were making our preparations for departure and headed out to anchor in Mosquito Cove at the mouth of Jolly Harbor. We were planning on having dinner and then resting until it was time to sail out at 1:00 AM. but we were too tired to really sleep. When it got dark we couldn't believe the sight that awaited us as were greeted by tons of jelly fish in all sizes glowing from the phosphorescence as they circled our boat. It was amazing to watch small fish swimming towards the jelly fish and then getting caught by them. You could see the fish swimming inside of them! So cool.

We left the cove at 1:00 AM as planned and headed towards St. Barths. It was beautiful as we sailed out, the sky bright with nearly a full moon. We were told it would take 12 hours to get to St. Maarten, so we figured we had time to get to St. Barths (an hour south of St. Maarten) by afternoon the next day. As we sailed north the wind died down to nearly nothing and we realized we could not make it by dark the next day without motoring, so we had to motor-sail the entire way…….Yuck! The seas were rough and without wind it made for a tough night and day of sailing. To add to the difficulty, when it got light we realized we were sailing through fishing grounds and we had to maneuver constantly to miss the nets.

We finally made it to St. Barths at 4:30 the next afternoon. We knew we were going to love this place when we were escorted into our anchorage by hundreds of yellow butterflies fluttering around our boat as we anchored in the most gorgeous water I have ever seen. Ahhhh........

St. Barths became a favorite of ours very quickly. We anchored outside of the harbor in a little bay called Anse de Corrosol (pictured above) in blue raspberry colored water. It looked so yummy I just wanted to drink it! The island is what I describe as the “ooh la la” island because this is where the rich and famous hang out. They even have the over-the-top stores there like Hermes. Since it was off season when we arrived, the ritzy stores were closed, so we had the great fortune of hanging out with the locals and not the rich and famous. I say good fortune, because boat people don’t really own clothes nice enough to rub elbows with the rich and famous, besides our sea-crusty elbows wouldn’t appeal to them!

The people of St. Barths were unbelievably nice even though they all spoke French and we didn’t. We found a French bakery where we had coffee and croissants every day – yum – and after spending all summer in Antigua we didn’t care how many pounds we were putting on by indulging. For the Jimmy Buffett fans out there, St. Barths is also the island where he wrote his song “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. After Jimmy sailed to St. Barths and found a little bar/hamburger place called Le Select he wrote the song and the place is now world famous. Of course we had to have a cheeseburger and a beer at Le Select!

After spending nearly a week anchored in Anse de Corrosol, we decided to move up the coast to Anse de Colombier. We had no idea we were about to discove a treasure. Oh my gosh, what an incredible place. It is a tiny bay protected as a Marine Park and filled with sea turtles and crystal clear water. We spent our days watching the turtles and snorkeling right off our boat. We could hardly tear ourselves away from there, but after four days we knew we needed to get to St. Maarten since our water and food supplies were getting low and we had things we wanted to do there as well. As we sailed out of St. Barths we promised ourselves we would definitely be back……….SOON!

Antigua

We arrived in Antigua in June 2009 ready to begin our adventure of a lifetime. Our original plan was to get aboard Aldebaran and head south for hurricane season, which had already begun. We soon learned that we had many preparations, repairs, and adjustments to make and it became clear that heading south wasn't going to happen this summer. After checking with our insurance agent, we knew we could stay near Antigua for hurricane season as long as we had a safe plan in case a hurricane came our way.

So, Antigua became our home for the summer. The biggest adjustment we had to make was living in the intense heat and humidity. We never knew we could sweat from the backs of our hands and tops of our feet! It took a full two months before we began to feel a bit normal again - whew! Another adjustment was learning to live with the claustrophobia of tight living quarters on the boat – definitely not the farm! Eventually this subsides, even though we still think about our big bed at home in storage!

As time went by we found more and more things on the boat that needed a repair, so we made it our mission to get these things taken care of before we left this area in October. Thank goodness Jon can do just about anything! He took the toilet apart - yuck, yuck, yuck; replaced the bilge pump - yuck again; replaced the old and stinky fuel fill hose (I helped a little); ground down screws on the pulpit; made stop locks for the stove; took out the old, leaky hot water heater; made new cabinet bottoms from a discarded coffee table we found on the road, and the list goes on. Then I came out of my heat induced coma to help with rust removal, cleaning the teak down below and varnishing! We will never be done, but we are close enough to take off on the next leg of our adventure in a few weeks.

In the midst of all our repairs and beautifying projects we had tropical storms to bow down to. First came Tropical Storm Ana and right on her heels was Hurricane Bill. Preparing a boat for a storm is no small feat. Once you get into a spot at the Marina you still have about 7-8 hours of preparation. Take down the sails, remove the bimini, bring in the fenders, tie every possible thing down so it can't blow away, tie lines from the boat to the dock and pilings - doubled and tripled (about 14 in all), put away all instruments, cover the permanent instruments, lock everything up and then help anyone around who needs it. Then you wait......We were so lucky when those storms passed by with only rain and light wind. A few days later, we reversed the process and spent as much time putting everything back up, only to do it again when Erika came around! Again, thankfully, Erika moved north and we only got a few days of constant rain and light wind. Then Fred cruised by and fizzled out, and now we are watching a few more Tropical Waves coming off of Africa. Soon the hurricane season will be behind us – ahhhh.

While in Antigua we thought we should explore the island on land, so we rented a car one day to go check it out. They gave us a map from the Hertz office (one desk, one employee, and nothing on the wall). Off we went! It turns out the map is only a rough tourist map and only one major road that went around the entire island was shown on it. We bumped along the roads, trying to miss all the potholes (not successfully), finding as many “attractions” as possible, all while remembering to drive on the wrong side of the road and not hit anyone walking along the road which is only wide enough for one car. We never really knew where we were, but we saw a lot of resident goats and people sitting on the side of the road selling mangoes. Mangoes, mangoes, mangoes everywhere! I never knew there were so many varieties of mangoes, but we tried them all and we liked the Grafty and the Julie the best. The kidney mangoes were so full of fiber you spent the day with a toothpick and dental floss – not worth it!

While we are in Antiguan waters we still have to deal with the same things as people who live on the island. Since we wanted to stay longer than one month we went to the customs/immigration office in Jolly Harbour to renew our visas. The horrendous experience that followed really opened our eyes to the government practices on the island. The story is too long to tell here, it would take a book to tell the story….or you could read “Caribbean Time Bomb”! That book explains everything.

We have met some nice people and we feel especially blessed to have met Renee and Dwane on RedJack. They took us under their wing and taught us everything they could about weather, web sites, best products, and any sailboat related thing you can imagine before leaving for Virgin Gorda. One by one boats came in and were hauled out of the water, their owners leaving for “home”. Once the middle of August came around, the place was deserted and we really wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. Then along came a nomad or two, still sailing around, and it felt like we would make it after all!

Life on a boat is certainly different than anything we knew before. Everything is harder and takes more time, but we are forced to be patient and slow down. We are connected to Mother Nature, who by the way is definitely in charge, and we are reliant on each other like never before. It is important to like each other, games, books, working on the boat, and adventure. It is amazing to see sea turtles swimming around us and the views are so incredible they cannot be captured in a picture or described.

We hope you enjoy our blog as we continue on our adventure!