French Territory

French territory …

 We are in wine, cheese and baguette heaven. We have arrived in St Martin.

So great to be able to speak, read and understand French. Did love to practice Spanish but sometimes when it was technical it could be very challenging.

But let’s back it up a little…..

It’s been a busy month or so…. We left Puerto Rico after being there for over  2 and a half months. It was great but definitely time to move on.

We then went to USVI. Still US territory but very interesting. The island of St Thomas used to belong to Denmark and was sold to the USA for a mere 25 million dollars in 1917. 

The buildings have retained the beautiful old European architecture and all the streets have Danish names. We spent a few weeks there and just a few days on the island of St John. We decided to skip the British Virgin Islands because it is very expensive and also time is running out. We have to be further south for the next hurricane season. It’s coming up again. Seems like it just ended a few months ago. Time really does go quickly. We must be in or around Grenada by June. 

We had a perfect weather window to cross the Anegada passage. We did a 100 miles overnight sail, motor/ sail, then after the winds died down just motored. It took  25 hours. Really not a fan of nighttime crossings. We had no moon until 3 am and when we did, it was just a crescent moon. 

Luckily we have an AIS (Automatic Identification System). The AIS both receives and transmits our position as well as the boat information. Unfortunately some boats don’t have this equipment. It’s so crucial to have one especially at night. Some fisherman or the occasional boat prefer not to show their position …makes you wonder 🤔!!

We missed a boat that was right on our starboard. He was slightly ahead of us so we didn’t see his navigation lights. We had just checked on the AIS and saw nothing …only because he radioed us to say hi did we see him.  He had heard us previously on the radio and knew were coming behind him. It’s a family that we’ve met many times.Freighters are the scariest Make sure not to be in their path. They’ll run you over and won’t even know it. 

St Martin is actually divided into 2 countries. You have the French side called St Martin, then the Dutch side called Sint Maarten. The island is only 7 miles long and 7 miles wide but they are both using different currencies and if you call to one side from the other, it’s a long distance call rerouted to Europe. Crazy!!

The story about how  the island was parcelled out is that a Frenchman walked with a glass of wine, while the Dutchman walked with a glass of gin. Where they met was to be the dividing line for both countries. The gin being the stronger liquor made the Dutchman walked slower, hence the French side is bigger than the Dutch side. 😳🍷.🥃 Love that story.

It’s quite a beautiful island and it’s also where you can stand on the beach by the airport and experience the hot blast of the plane engines when they’re taking off. It’s something else. The sand whips you, the heat and sound is out of this world. I had sand in my hair, nose, my ears were full… our friend’s hat flew in the water and saw sandals, towels floating. People flock to the beach just to get the thrill….and so did we. 

It’s very busy in St Martin. We hadn’t seen so many catamarans in a long time. We’re also surrounded by so many Canadians. The nice part is that at one point in St Martin we were 8 or 9 boats that all knew each other from the last hurricane season in Luperon . We will probably all end up in Grenada for the next one.

In a few weeks, we’ll be saying goodbye to our Danish friends. The are returning to Denmark for a while. It will be very sad to see them go. We’ve been together since September. Hopefully we’ll meet up again. They’ve taught us so much about sailing and much more. Hardcore sailors. 😊

Cheers

Mike and Pierrette

Our last anchorage in the USVI

Showering with the horses Vieques Puerto Rico

Our favourite dock bar 

Laundry day

Enjoying cigars on the golf cart - rented for the day

Great cactus and view 

King Palms

Plane landing by the beach St Martin

Leaving PR for USVI

Wild horses at the showers 

Aloe plant with Christmas decorations 

Heading out

Fort in town of Isabella Segunda Vieques PR

Sunrise

Driver and tour guide with the golf cart

Charlotte Amelia St Thomas USVI

View of Isabella Segunda Vieques PR

Cute Geckos 

Plane landing St Martin

Another favourite bar. We love our IPA

Charlotte Amelia St Thomas

Charlotte Amelia, St Thomas

Charlotte Amelia, St Thomas

Mike new passion…baking bread

Evening view from our cockpit 

C