We motor sailed the 105 miles from Cruz Bay across the "O My God A Passage" also known as the Anegada Passage. The trip took us 25 hours and we arrived at noon the next day. We anchored for 5 hours until the bridge opened to let us into the Lagoon. We travelled to the French side as they we less expensive to both entering the country and for anchoring.
The check in was the least painful that we had experienced to date. We went to the Marina and typed in our information and handed over 7 U.S. dollars (5 Euros would also have worked).
As is was off season many of the boats had left Saint Maarten and headed to better protected areas to hopefully avoid hurricanes. Those left were a shabby collection of private boats and charter boats. The locals seemed to be mainly pot smoking males and kept to themselves.
We met the local net controller who also owned a Laundry service and small bar for locals and cruisers. Shrimpys is owned by Mike and Sally Glatz. With Wi Fi at $3.00 and beer at $2.00 it was a good place to go to get up dated on world activities.
We also spent a day in Phillipsburg which is the Capital city on the Ditch side and the destination of many Cruise ships whose passengers enjoy the islands tax free status and purchase liquor, jewelry and clothing. We took advantage of the deals and 3 one liter bottles of SKY vodka for $7.00 U.S. each.
While in Saint Maarten we enjoyed the best pate we had ever had and some great French baguettes.
This Island has a severe theft problem due to a large drug industry which is mainly crack. As a result we had to lock everything up and stay on the boat at night.
Again we were in a well-protected anchorage as the winds were running 20 to 25 knots and gusting to 30 knots.
Finally a weather window opened up and we planned our next leg of the trip.