Yesterday we were up with the frigate birds, and at first light headed out through the narrow cut in the reef to start the final leg of our trip over to Sint Maarten – a journey of about 80 miles to the south east, with no workable alternative routing. Humph. A weather window they said; 12-15 kts they said; from the northeast they said! Well, it started with us having to punch head on into 15-20 kts with lumpy seas. In the afternoon it did ease a bit and move into the north a very, very little bit so we did have some more comfortable conditions to bring us in; but overall it was a slow, boring and uncomfortable 17 hours, and it was nearly midnight by the time we dropped anchor in Simpson Bay. But hey ho: we are in and we had lots of good reading time on the journey over.

This morning we slipped into the Cole Bay lagoon and dropped the hook, aiming for a no-work day; but we did sneak a trip into Island Water World and Budget Marine, the two big chandleries in town, to start our shopping. We also managed a visit to our favourite patisserie (yum). Back in the world of European coffee!

So: reflections on the ‘Thorny Path’ down from the Bahamas. Good to have done it, but would not choose to do it again. We ‘worked’ the weather windows and were reasonably lucky to be able to sail a fair bit of it in good conditions. Loved getting to know the Bahamas better; probably one of our favourite areas that we have ever sailed in. Really pleased to get to spend more time in Puerto Rico and would happily go back there again. Would give the Turks and Caicos a miss in future unless we really needed to re-fuel. Sorry we did not get to Cuba or to Samana on the DR; we will hold those for another trip, perhaps without a boat. Saw two very different sides to the BVI – busy bays and quiet bays – and would plan another visit around the quiet ones. Had some of our best actual sailing in the BVI, with flat seas and glorious surroundings.

Our arrival in St Maarten reinforces the fact that we have just changed gear on our sailing area. European voices on the radio, a very international fleet of boats around us, the aforementioned coffee, and, best of all, no more thrashing to windward.

We are also starting to get back to the world of the superyacht, so here are two photos of boats we saw this morning. Firstly, our old favourite “Le Grand Bleu” which has featured in previous issues of Barracuda’s Blog; clearly she has just been killing time here, waiting for our return. She is 374 feet long and can be seen sporting a 73 sailing yacht on her port side deck. An interesting story; worth a Google. Secondly, the very futuristic “Sailing Yacht A” - 468 feet long. Also worth a Google for those into yachtie porn.