Going Home

Well the trip to Anguilla was certainly eventful and a reason to return to St Martin. Our trip over was quite good with a following breeze. We passed the SW tip of Anguilla and headed up the West Coast to Road Bay to clear in through immigration. The swell had been predicted to swing to the north which was going to make the anchorage a bit rolly but we were OK with that. We were anchored in the corner of the bay just off the beach and in front of the Customs and Immigration office. We unfortunately arrived just after they had closed so we wandered next door to "Dad's Bar".. Yep and I have a souvenir T-shirt as well. This was a spectacular spot and we sat and watched the sun set over the boat and the bay. A few Rums and G&T's were disposed of followed by Ribs and BBQ Wings. What a way to finish the day.
The next day saw us complete formalities and head off into town. The northerly swell was playing havoc at the pier with the surge. We three Musketeers in the form of Mez, Mick and myself headed off into town to look around "The Valley" as the capitol is called. A short taxi ride and $20usd later. Well the town was quite surreal and nothing we had come across before. There was virtually nothing there save a couple of government buildings and a sort of mall which consisted of a few we arrived amongst some scattered buildings. We walked around a bit and found a local eatery and managed to get a drink to quench our respective thirsts. In this establishment we met "Hayden" a local character and Rasta. In fact I think he was the Al Capone of "The Valley" he arrived in the café with a beer and a shot glass of Cognac. Very friendly and wanted to take us around and see the sights, at least he would of if in his words "was a driver of a car" but as he wasn't we left him to his beer, Cognac and (some weed we suspect) as he told us he was the boss and while he was talking to us he was "Makin Money Mun". With that experience behind us we headed back toward the beach and Dad's Bar. We walked for a while until we were picked up by a local Canadian guy who had been living there on and off since the 1970's and got some great history on the Island. He dropped us at Sandy Ground ie "the beach". While we were wandering toward the jetty and the bar I could see an older couple on the beach at the edge of the water. The old guy was at the edge of the water and a bit unsteady on his feet, with swell running the way it was I commented to Mez that he did not look like he should be there and I thought we may need to assist him. Just as I said this he got bowled over and upside down in the water. He could get up and had swallowed a fair bit of water. We got up to him and he was looking a bit grey we helped him out of the water and got him settled, he must have been in his 80's and glad of the help. His wife said they were visiting their son on the Island. Another one racked up for VMR International (sort of).
We continued on toward the bar and then saw the RIB at the jetty. It had been washed around the pile and punctured on an exposed bolt. We were left with a 3" rip in the front tube so decided to check out with the authorities there and then and head back to St Martin as we did not have any patches or Hypalon Glue to make a repair. It made for an interesting trip back out to the boat with the swell running and no front on the boat. Mick held the tube up in the air so we didn't just nose dive. We spent the next couple of days in Marigot eating French Baguettes waiting for the glue to cure. (side note: we have now added Hypalon Patches and Glue to the list of spares we carry on the boat).

The trip up to Anguilla was our northernmost point on this trip and we prepared for the trip southward back to St Kitts via St Barths and St Eustatius. We left Simpson Bay in Sint Maarten and with an overnight stop in the anchorage in Gustavia on St Barths continued onto St Eustatius or "Staysha" as it is called. The Island is quite small but has a large fuel storage facility on it. on approach we could see probably 10 tankers anchored on the western or leeward side of the island with tugs and workboats chugging all over the place. We made our way through the anchored tankers and into Oranje Bay and the Capital Oranjestad. As it was Sunday afternoon, Immigration and Customs were closed so we did the only thing possible and wandered into a beach bar for a drink and watch the sun go down. It is quite an interesting town with a history dating back to the 1600's and the usual fortifications associated with that era. It is also a dormant volcano and has a crater 600m high and 300m across. The crater rim is accessible via a track up through the temperate evergreen canopy which was a nice walk. The view from the top was Magnificent. On the way up through town we acquired a self-appointed guide in the form of a local dog that adopted us and came with us to the top and back down. It was an absolute scorcher of a day and we had one drink bottle between us, half of which ended up being given to the dog as he was panting more than us and we were puffing like steamtrains. He followed us back through town and right down to the docks. We waited till he was distracted and jumped into the RIB and pushed off. He came bounding over to the edge and just looked at us with what we thought was a disappointed look as if we had deserted him. We honestly thought he would jump in the water and swim after us but he just turned and wandered back up the pier. Probably ready to guide the next lot of tourists up the mountain.
While we were in the beach bar/dive centre the previous day the lady commented that most yachts just sail past on the trip between St Kitts and St Martin and don't normally call in. Most of their tourists fly in and out for the Diving, we saw a few other tourists at the dive centre as they have a considerable amount of wrecks in the harbour to dive on. Mostly sunk there as artificial reefs. We however did meet one other couple on the trip up to "The Quill" as the crater is called. It turned out he was a Kiwi and she was from Perth WA.

Mick had three rods out and a hand line tied to the lifelines from the time we left Simpson Bay until Statia, we had managed to catch a couple of fish each leg, a few Tuna (the tuna were not the eating variety) and Couta but nothing of the Dorado or Wahoo we were hoping for. We only had one leg to go from Statia to St Kitts so the box of lures came out and we changed often to see how things would go. Apart from a large couta the only thing we managed to catch was a Craypot on the rudder but stalled the boat upwind and it dropped off luckily.
We closed on the coast of St Kitts and down to Basseterre where we are now with no further luck with the fishing. We have to go about 7 miles back up the coast to St Kitts Marine Works in the next couple of days to haul the boat and prepare to come home and that will be our last chance to catch something.

We are tied up in Port Zante Marina at the moment getting jobs done ready to haul. Our RIB has had an overhaul on the dock next to us, Mick has been busy filling and fairing some of the scars on her belly. Mostly from her previous life as a charterboat dinghy not from us I might add. Mez has been cleaning out the cupboards and rearranging things.

This will be our final post for a while. We will be on the hard now for the next 12 Months and making plans to return and continue the journey next year. We have plans to go straight to Sint Maarten to have some work done, including dropping the mast to replace a missing sheave on the topping lift that I discovered in St Vincent while I was attending to the wind instrument.

Thanks for coming on the journey with us. Some feedback would be good to know someone is reading this.........anyone????

Anyway cheers from Rick and Mez and from Bob and Mick as well. It was great having them along for the ride and to share some of the adventures with, we hope you enjoyed coming with us on our first journey. As our connections are limited and we have trouble loading the blog updates let alone the photo's I will upload some on our return to Oz 