So we left Virgin Gorda in a hurry to take advantage of a great weather opportunity to make the crossing to St. Maarten. It turned out to be a great decision. The weather and seas were close to be perfect. We could have wished for a little more wind in a more northerly direction but we made the crossing in less than 15 hours so we can’t complain. Soon after we left Virgin Gorda we saw on the AIS System that two boats were following us and we called them on the radio and we agreed to keep in touch during the night. That is a great feeling in a dark night without any moon that you are not alone and if you feel a need to talk to someone another boat is close by. It turned out that we were not alone at all. The sea looked like a crowded interstate. Boats were everywhere on their way from BVI to St. Maarten and vice versa. We met Waterman a boat sailed and owned by a Dutch couple we met in Jost van Dyke. They were sailing at a speed of over 7.5 kn. and passed everyone else. It was nice to have all these boats around us but sometimes confusing since many boats do not have AIS like we have and you only see their lights and image on the radar. For non-sailors: AIS is an Automatic Identification System that shows and/or broadcasts at a VHF frequency information about ships. Commercial ships are required to have such a system. So you can see if you have such a system all ships who also have such a system on you chart plotter with all their information including name, heading, speed, ship information and if applicable collision time and distance. This allows you to take evasive action or call the other ship and agree on a solution to pass each other safely. The other way is to see ships on the radar, but you do not have information about the ships. But of course you also need to watch and that can be very tiring during a night with a lot of traffic.

The trip was about 84 miles and we saw the lights of St. Maarten and Anguilla about 20 miles out. Anguilla is about 10 miles north of St. Maarten and their fees are very high so we decided to skip the island on our trip. But the island is so close that we are seeing the island day and night from our anchorage in Marigot Bay in St. Martin. Yes, St. Maarten has two parts one part although now independent and part of the Dutch Kingdom is Dutch and is called Sint Maarten. The other part is French and is called St. Martin. In 1977 when I worked for KLM Aerocarto, the mapping subsidiary of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, we did the mapping of St. Maarten, St. Eustatius and Saba and I spent close to one year one these islands. I was stationed in Suriname but I was the Area Manager for South America and the Caribbean. During the work on St. Maarten we stayed in the Sea View Hotel in Philipsburg in the Front Street which still exits (see pictures), but when I wanted some real good food we drove to Marigot to have some great French meals. And now we are anchored in Marigot Bay and all these great restaurants are only a minute dinghy drive away; we spend too much money on the delicious food, but we have a great time.

In 1977 I purchased my first professional slalom ski in the only marina in the lagoon called Simpson Bay Lagoon. The lagoon is connected on the Dutch side to a small channel underneath a bridge to Simpson Bay and on the French side to Marigot Bay. Now the lagoon has numerous amounts of marinas, repair and maintenance facilities and hundreds of anchored boats and ships and since no pump-out service is available the lagoon is now a much polluted piece of water and I cried when I saw this destruction of what used to be such a beautiful area. The Dutch side of the island is over-developed with a lot of uncontrolled development and even the French side has this problem. We are having a great time and really enjoy the island, but my memory of the past is clouding my view of the current status.

We explored the island by dinghy, bus and rental car and visited all the places I knew from the past and a lot is still the same, but a lot has changed and to my opinion not always for the best. The Front Street, Back Street and the new boulevard in Philipsburg along the bay are definitely an improvement, but I miss the beautiful courtyard of the Sea View Hotel where we used to have lunch and the restaurant is now a small casino.

We are now over 10 days at this location and this is the longest stay in one place since we left Miami Beach, but it was not all having fun, we also had to do a lot of hard maintenance and repair work. Our warranty replacement fresh water pump came in together with the windlass control unit in repair since December and both needed to be installed. The bay is great but swells are coming in from the north, the ferries and boat traffic are making some high waves and during one of these high waves our dinghy was pushed under the swim platform, got a big tear and I had a lot of problems to fix it. Our generator starting battery did not recharge and working to get this fixed in the small locker area was hard on the old man’s body. But it looks like all the repairs are done and we are making our plans to move to the next island of St. Barth.