9. Saint Martin

Crossing the Anegada passage overnight, my biggest fear was being hit by a cruise ship. I had lots of other medium and small fears. I set off Thursday morning, and it was painfully slow all day. The wind was fairly light, but the waves and current against me were strong, so even though my sails seemed quite full, and the boat was smashing up and down, when I looked at the water I was moving forwards only very slowly. 3 maybe 4 knots at most. A dolphin came along side and cheered me up, but I think it got board with how slow I was going.

I sailed through the first night without sleep, and then all through the next day. I was tacking southeast and northeast, trying to get east – but I just wasn’t going make it. I arrived off the coast of St. Martin in pitch darkness, so I decided to heave-to overnight, try and get a couple of hours sleep and try again tomorrow. So I just bobbed around until dawn, with my lights on, anxious of cruise ships, tankers and other boats.

The next day it was another hard slog, so I aimed for Long Beach, which looked easiest to get to. I tried motoring, but my engine packed in, so I would have to moor and anchor without it. Eventually I anchored and managed to get ashore for a pizza and a beer.  After 2 days and nights of sailing, I had kind of made it – at least I was on St. Martin. I would get a good sleep and then set off for Marigot Bay – just a few miles along the coast. But it was incredibly hard. It felt like St. Martin was blowing me away from every angle. The strong current and waves through the Anguilla passage meant it took me another 5 hours. I need bigger winches I think! And self-tailing ones. I would later meet a couple that took 5 days, and then eventually they asked a fishing boat for a tow.

Philipsburg

After a couple of nights in Marigot Bay I finally motored through the bridge into Simpson Lagoon. To keep costs down, I used Sandy Ground Bridge which opens twice a day and is free, unlike the other bridge on the Dutch side. Mooring on the French side of Simpson’s Lagoon is also free. 

St. Martin is one island split in two: half Dutch, half French. When I first went there I stayed on the Dutch side, thinking that would be most fun. But actually the French side is much nicer. The Dutch side is more Caribbean, but full of casinos and cruise ships. The French side is very French, cheap breakfasts of croissants, coffee and orange juice, and cheap cheese baguettes for lunch. Marina Port Le Royale is a beautiful place to moor your dinghy and go shopping for provisions.

At first I anchored near Marina Port Le Royale, and on the very first day someone dingied up and asked me ‘is this an Elizabethan 31?’ So I met another really nice guy, ex merchant navy, who’d wanted to buy one in the 1970s but hadn’t been able to afford. On New Year’s Eve I had a great view of all the fireworks, and imagined they were for me celebrating my arrival.