St. Maarten - December 18-23

St. Maarten is an island half Dutch and half French. We sailed into Simpson Bay Lagoon where many sailboats are anchored and many more megayachts are docked. We had a number of repairs to make on our boat as the crossing from Norfolk the previous month took its toll. One of the most important things to do was to get a new dinghy. The glue holding the pontoons to the base of the boat has been working loose and can no longer be repaired. However, it turned out that there were no dinghies to be had--sold out--of the size we needed. We were stunned. With Ray & Lou, Mike's brother and sister-in-law, arriving for Christmas we surely needed a decent "car" to get around in. Fortunately, two were due in shortly after Christmas, so we put our money down not wanting one to be sold out from under us.

We also needed things like batteries, so we spent the days before Christmas mostly getting our boat "fixed." On the 23rd, there was a dinghy drift where 25 dinghies hooked up to float in Simpson Bay Lagoon singing Christmas carols. Great hors d'oeuvres were passed around too. We ended up at the cruisers' hangout for food and drinks. Lots of fun.

Tortola/Virgin Gorda - December 14-17

We stayed at Norman's Bight a bit longer than we'd planned because of the threat of Olga. Moved on to Tortola's heading to the west end for continued protection just in case. Spent several days there renting a car one day to see the island. One day on advice we hitched a ride with a neat couple--yes, there was a Colorado connection. It turned out Betsy currently living in Montana and Rick from Seattle could tell we were yachties when they saw us materialize out of the mangroves with our backpacks...What does that say??? Anyhow, they gave us a ride to Road Town, the main city on Tortola and filled us in on how things work on Tortola. Later we rented a car to see for ourselves. Tortola is a beautiful island with an interior of mountains and spectacular views. Although we could not get to Cane Garden Bay, an old haunt, by boat because of the weather, we drove there and were surprised to find that it had not changed a great deal. Stanley's Welcome Bar, the scene of a lot of partying, thirty years ago, was still there as was the local rum distillery--now basically a museum for tourists.

From Tortola, we sailed to Virgin Gorda to prepare for the crossing to St. Maarten, which would take approximately 14 hours. We joined forces with 4 other boats heading there on Monday, December 17. Steve, on Clear Day, hosted a net so that we all communicated at regular intervals to ensure all were safe. We had been hearing Steve over the SSB radio checking on the weather for the crossing. We were happy to see him pull into Virgin Gorda shortly after we did.

Our crossing on the 17th and 18th was okay, but the wind and waves were on our nose the entire making it less comfortable than we would have liked.