Two days ago, we were getting ready to go snorkeling when a dinghy drove up and the couple inside it introduced themselves. They were Steve and Dee from S/V La Mischief, at Lagoon 421 that was anchored a bit inshore from us. They said they saw our boat when then came into the anchorage and just had to come over to introduce themselves. As it turned out, they are long time blog readers and Steve wanted to thank us for the Techno-Tip manual we have available. It was very nice of them to do this.

We invited them onboard and spent a short time getting introduced. They invited us to come over for sundowners this evening but we had to decline since we had already accepted the invitation made to us for sundowners with Wayne and Ali of Blue Heeler. I suggested that we talk to Blue Heeler to see if we could all get together. Steve is from Australia, as are Wayne and Ali, so his comment was: "No problem, they are Aussies so I am sure it will be alright!" Of course, as it turned out, he was correct.

After Steve and Dee left, Mary Margaret and I donned our snorkeling gear and spent an hour enjoying the reef that is along the shore. Once again, we saw tons of sea fans, lots of healthy coral (soft and hard), sponges of various sizes and shapes and lots of fish. It was a wonderful dive.

Around 1600, armed with a plate of goodies and a nice French Gamay, we headed over to Blue Heeler. We had told Wayne and Ali that we would be leaving the next day for Sint Maarten and they had suggested we get together one last time before we leave. About an hour or so later, Steve and Dee arrived, having just finished a dive off Pelican Island in the Cousteau Marine Reserve.

We ate, drink and chatted away the evening until it was time to say fond farewells. We wanted to get a good night's sleep since our sail the next day would be an overnighter.

Our sail to Sint Maarten started leisurely around 0800. It was just 135 nm passage and I did not want to arrive too early in the morning the next day. The sun was out and the breezes were light and from the ESE. Since our initial heading was to the NE, the first 50 nm we had a deep beam reach and made 6.5 to 7 knots with 12 to 13 knot winds. We had a reef in the mainsail. The reef was in to keep our speed down since we did not want to arrive in Sint Maarten before the sun was up the next morning.

Once we passed Montserrat with its smoking volcano puffing away, we changed course and now were heading to the north. This brought the winds more to the stern of the boat and the apparent wind now dropped to between 6 and 8 knots. Thus, through the night, we just ghosted along making between 4 and 5 knots of speed. At times the winds shifted a bit, forcing us to modify our sail plan and change to a wing and wind configuration.

It was a beautiful night sail with the stars glowing and the lights of the various islands twinkling as we sailed by. We could see Antigua, Barbuda, Nevis, St. Kitts, St. Eustatius, Saba and St. Barts as we coasted by. We entered Grand Bay at the southeastern end of Sint Maarten around 1000 and tried calling Booby's Marina using our VHF radio. It never ceases to amaze me how many times we call a marina using the VFH only to have no one answer. After about 6 hails during a 30-minute period we decided to drop anchor and I would take the dinghy in to see about our slip.

Grand Bay is a large, shallow bay that sits in front of Philipsburg. It is a beautiful anchorage with sugar white beaches, colorful Dutch styled restaurants, beach bars, and hotels lining the shore. Scenic hills rise behind the beaches making it a delightful place to anchor.

Soon I had the dinghy down and motored into the marina. Before I had the dinghy tied to the dock, the dock master came out to greet me. He said he never heard our hails. We had hailed using two different VHF radios so I knew the problem was not on our side but just let the issue pass. He did confirm that he had a slip for us but that we would have to move to a more permanent slip on Sunday. I shared with him that I felt it would be better for us to just spend the night anchored in the bay and come in tomorrow to our permanent slip. He was fine with this suggestion.

Upon return to Leu Cat, Mary Margaret and I spent the day resting from our overnight sail. It usually takes us two to three nights to adjust our sleep patterns when we do long passages. Short passages, like the one we just finished, are harder on us as we only get a few hours of sleep. Thus, with a margarita in hand, I spent the day in the hammock, dozing, reading and listening to music. Mary Margaret did the same but in her favorite spot, the couch in the salon. Life is good...