On Sunday we got a nice weather window and head off at 1600hr from BVI to St Martin. It’s about a 14-15hr trip so that would put us in at either 0600 - 0700 in the early light. We left with our buddy boat Moma Cal with just Doug aboard since Cherry has gone back to Puerto Rico to tend to family matters. During the night we see that we are not at all alone. Donna counted at least a dozen navigation lights of boats behind us.

We’ve been to SM before and it’s one of our favorite spots since there’s so much to do and see here. This time we are looking forward to taking in the Heineken Regatta on from the 6th -9th. As we anchor early in the morning we already get a sampling of some of the ‘go fast’ boats that have arrived especially for the event. In fact one of the boats coming over from BVI with us called Zen is a Swan 48 who are participating in the racing. Their crew will be flying in from England to meet with them.

One of the first things we do on Monday afternoon is to go to Maho Beach to watch the airplanes landing. They come right over the beach. Our friend Doug hasn’t seen this before. Later in the afternoon, from our perch at the SMYC to, again, watch the big boats coming into the lagoon through the lift bridge. This time it’s lots of race boat coming in as well. The yacht club is decked out with Heineken banners and they even have an ‘official Heineken Regatta’ dog. Everywhere you see crews getting last minute supplies, etc. This morning from our boat we see about 20 boats going out for practice sails.

We’ll meet up with some friends from other boats who have come to watch the racing as well. The place is definitely buzzing and it’s only Tuesday. We think this will turn out to be a very interesting week.