We had already cleared out of St Barts yesterday and we were ready and raring to go when we woke up this morning, but we were still feeling a little out of sorts so we had a bit of a lazy morning instead.

And so, a tad on the slow side, and a little later than we'd hoped, we finally found ourselves sailing out of Anse de Colombier and pointing our bow towards Sint Maarten, but first, wait, what's this big rocky object right in our way??

Île Fourche. Fork Island? And you just KNOW what Dave was thinking? "Time for lunch!"



We picked up one of the free mooring balls in the horseshoe shaped bay and breathed in the quiet and tranquility, the clear waters below us, and the steep red-clay hills decorated with arid looking brown type of vegetation interspersed with tall cacti, beside us.



From Doyle's cruising guide we learned that the island is privately owned, however you are allowed ashore, as long as you stay respectful of the environment, which, is IMHO, just a bit of common sense, n'est ce pas?

The only inhabitants here used to be some goats, who ate all the greenery and "ate themselves out of house and home" which made me laugh.

Water made, Banyan's bottom scrubbed, lunch eaten (not necessarily in that order), we dropped our lines and headed towards our next destination, Sint Maarten.

As we sailed past Phillipsburg, we noticed that there were 6 cruise ships in town,



along with some seriously dark skies behind us, with some intense rain showing on the horizon, and this sailboat going right into it.



We were glad that we were sailing past here a good hour before the 5:00 departure time of Six Cruise Ships !! But, wait, what's this traffic in front of us?



Not one, but a whole fleet of them?



Ok, maybe not a fleet, but we did count 5 of them heading right into the weather behind us.

If you were a 12 Meter Yacht, and had raced in America's Cup, and were now ready to retire, this is where you would come, and live out the remainder of your days, showing visiting guests what exactly it all feels like.



We got an extra couple of waves and smiles from the passengers who noticed our identical red and white flags.

Stars and Stripes. This is True North.



and I believe this is the Canada II.



We managed to beat the weather by a smidgeon and only a few raindrops as the worst of it passed us by and entered Simpson Bay lagoon, circling around looking for an anchoring spot, wondering just how "rolly" it was all going to be, when we noticed a few boats doing the same as us. We looked at the time and noticed we were just mere minutes away from the 5:00 bridge opening. Serendipity and the fates showing us the way, don't you think?

Despite some initial anxiety about making our way into the Lagoon at this late hour, and with no bridge openings to "get back out if there's no anchoring spots", we chose to just live a little, go for it, hmm, throw caution to the wind, and picked our spot in the lineup, circling around, and when the bridge opened, we bravely headed in.