Blogs from Sint Maarten, Central America Caribbean - page 2

So this had two names after it the normal island title and frankly could have been equally BOAT WORK or TRANS-ATLANTIC PROVISONING. Both Gill and I were not really looking forward to this part of our trip, but as with all things, it was absolutely essential. St Maarten has two halves – one Dutch and one French, which obviously creates two very different styles of island. After a strong wind forecast and a rolly few nights in St Bart’s we decided to go into the Dutch side and the safe anchorage of Simpson Bay Lagoon. This was a wonderful change as the boat didn’t move and we could get a peaceful night’s sleep, or so we thought! We eventually rolled into bed about 11pm and were awoken at midnight with the biggest and loudest music we ... read more

Hola Hermana, Thought I would try my hand at sharing my adventures with you, as I suspect you will be the only one reading, which is just fine by me. In any event, we made it, and I am writing to you under a spectaculary bright moon from Mt. Vernon. I don't know if the moon seems closer because we are closer to the equator, but whatever the reason it seems that if you had a very big ladder you could climb your way to it in just a few hours. The clouds roll by in the evening and most of them are thin and wispy and the light diffuses through the clould much like the light through a chinese paper lantern. The wind has blown non-stop since we arrived, and it is the nice pleasent ... read more

I hope that everyones summer is going well. Life here has been full of interesting things! Conning the ship: Every arrival and departure we have a briefing on the bridge; for departures we cover the expected weather over the next leg, the distance and the required speed, engine configuration (as we’ve got 6), the current, tide, and present weather, and lastly who’s doing each of the jobs on the bridge. This includes who is going to do the maneuver. Departing St Maarten a couple weeks ago, the captain let me take the ship off the pier! With the Staff Captain and Chief officer giving advice I took the controls. Using just a fraction of the 80 000 horsepower on tap I gently lifted her off the pier and navigated the ship out to sea! Void Space ... read more

May 10 – May 24, 2011 The distance between St. Thomas and the British Virgin Islands is a matter of an hour sail. We saw a lot of charter boats from the British Virgin Islands visiting several of the anchorages we were at in the American Virgin Islands. We never planned on spending much time in the BVI’s as we had explored the area before when we did a bareboat charter with Bob's sister Eugenia and brother-in-law Rick. We had such a great time on that trip that it was part of what made us decide to do this trip after retirement. We did make it to a couple of the same stops as last time – Foxy’s Beach Bar & Restaurant has been an institution for years on Jost Van Dyke so we checked that ... read more

Priscila (Spanish) and I went out to St. Maarten, we wanted to go to the beach but it was drizzling. We quickly went to the store, and then to a bar called La Taverne, we had a St. Maarten cocktail. We then met Oscar (India) for lunch… so good to eat something other than the ship's food!!! Went to the beach after that, and then had to head back to the ship. ... read more