Adventure is Southbound!

It's a 90 mile trip over open ocean from the British Virgin Islands to our next stop, Sint Maarten.  In fair weather, this trip should take about 12 hours and is often done overnight so that when you arrive you can check in to customs and immigration the next day.  Typically the wind is in your face for the entire journey and there are many horror stories of sailors pounding into big winds and huge waves for 15 to 20 hours or more. This often happens in December due to what is known in the Caribbean as the "Christmas Winds".

Our original plan was to stay in BVI until after New Years, as our friends Dave and Lorrie would be there on a charter boat starting New Year's Eve.  We had purchased everything to make a big spaghetti dinner for the whole crew.  However, some will say that the most dangerous thing on a sailboat is a schedule.  We ended up having a perfect weather window with low wave heights, a full moon and light winds in what should have been a reach.  So we made the difficult decision to change our schedule (and maybe save our livers?) and we left BVI at 4 pm on Wednesday Jan 27th.  We exited Virgin Gorda sound via the West end, leaving Richard Branson's Necker Island to port and out into the open ocean. The trip was magical with a beautiful sunset over BVI as we were leaving, low winds and only low rolling ocean swells. 

 

After dark, in one comical moment, Roger saw an extremely bright yellow light appear on the horizon, and startled said "What the hell is that!?!".  It turns out it was a massive beautiful full moon rising. 😂 

As the moon rose, the moonlight was magnificent and made the passage so much easier with light reflecting in the sky and on the water. 

Unfortunately the predicted medium reaching winds did not materialize and it was light upwind, so we motored the entire way.  We arrived arriving in Simpson Bay in Sint Maarten (the Dutch side) around 2:30 am on Thursday Jan 28th. Inching our way into the dark boat filled mooring field, we dropped the hook and turned in for a few hours of much needed sleep. 

Years ago we had completed long overnight crossings like this before, sailing from Toronto to Kingston, but never in the open ocean.  This time we had technology that was not available back then. We equipped our boat with AIS (Automatic Identification System) which identifies boats and their location by VHF and satellite.  Commercial vessels are required to have AIS.  You can track the vessel's identity, real time position, course and speed, which is a godsend in the middle of the night with all the freighter, mega yacht and cruise ship traffic between the islands. With this technology you see the other vessel on your chart plotter long before you can see their lights in the distance.  We also have radar, and can double-check the location and distance of the other vessel and it will even warn you if you are on a collision course. Several times during the night we had to adjust our heading as we were on a converging course and we had no desire to challenge 700'+ freighters. 

For an additional level of safety, Roger and I both wore inflatable PFD's (Personal Flotation Devices) and harnesses, equipped with personal AIS beacons which activate in a man overboard situation.   When we were in the cockpit, all of us, including Pirate, were each attached to the boat at all times with a tether which is attached to your harness and you clip this on to the boat. We also have an EPIRB (Emergency Position-indicating Radiobeacon) which is bolted to our main companionway. In an emergency you can trigger it manually or if you experience a catastrophic failure it will automatically trigger when it is submerged. This is a world wide safety system that will immediately summon the cavalry of the nearest countries. 

After a few winks, we were up by 6:30 AM to do customs and immigration. Tama was especially concerned about Pirate as our early departure meant her import permit had not yet arrived. The routine is that the captain takes the passports into the office while the vessel and crew stay outside and fly a yellow quarantine flag. Once you are cleared in, you lower the quarantine flag, hoist the flag of the country you are entering and proceed into harbour. Roger took the dinghy over to to the immigration/customs office with paperwork in hand. It was quite busy with many mega yacht "agents" signing in their passengers and of course, only one, not so friendly, immigration person working. After filling out more paperwork and waiting in line for what seemed like an eternity, the passports and ships papers were stamped. Roger enquired about our dog's paperwork and was directed to the customs window. All good except the customs officer was 45 minutes late for work. Most in the room took it in stride and one exclaimed, "welcome to the islands mon". When the officer did show up, she looked over our ships papers, hammered down more official stamps, charged Roger $65 for entry and for the use of the bridge and said you are good. When Roger asked if she wanted to see the dog's papers and she said, "no, you are good, who is next in line.". Our big concern was all for not, so Roger returned to the boat, the Sint Maarten flag was hoisted and Pirate was taken to shore for much need relief after her 16 hour wait. (No success yet on the artificial turf 🤷) 

Meanwhile Tama prepared the boat for the 11:30 bridge opening into the inner harbour of Simpsons Bay were we would spend the next few days. "Spend" is the key word as back in 1939 when the island was in decline due to the collapse of the  sugar trade, some smart politician decided they should make the island duty free. They did and St. Martin became the Caribbean's number one shopping mall. There are two massive ships chandlery's which Roger intended on donating heavily to for many spare parts and upgrades to Adventure I. 

The picture below is taken just as we are going through the Simpson's Bay bridge from the Bay to the Lagoon.  On the left you can see the dinghy dock which is used to arrive at customs and immigration.