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We're back from our two-week trip south with Capt. Jay, Debbie, Sweet Christine and I. It was a fun trip with some new islands for us. Pictures to come when we get them sorted. Jay, Debbie and Sweet Christine would have more and different things to say. We hit St. Thomas, St. Martin/Sint Maarten, Anguilla, Virgin Gorda and St. John.

We decided to head straight to St. Martin from Lindbergh Bay, St. Thomas based on the forecast of favorable winds. We would have been better off setting off from Virgin Gorda. Well, except we landed two Kingfish just outside Buck Island. It was an upwind motor sail for 22 hours in short period swell and a bit of a bang. The crew did well and it was fun. Lesson learned, more protein items for crew to eat underway. We stirred up our diesel tank and the engine cut out as we came into sight of Marigot harbor. Jay was ready with spare diesel jugs and we anchored running off the jugs. The fix was to clean off the fuel pickup with acetone and Jay removed the fine mesh screen from the fuel pickup to allow the 10mm Racor fuel filter to… filter the fuel.

Marigot St. Martin check in was easy. They want you to check in at customs/port authority so that they can collect the Marigot anchorage fee. I was check in boy and I did not need my rudimentary French. Fun island and a good place to land. It’s not worth taking the boat in the lagoon there as it is quite shallow and you need local knowledge to navigate the unmarked channel to the Dutch side. Good cruisers net at 7:30am on channel 14; Mark from Shrimpy’s Laundry runs the net and provides a dinghy dock on the canal. A day trip by taxi (Guillermo (721) 554-9996) to Orient Bay was fun; grilled whole fish at Pedro's was great.

We headed up to Grand Case for a night and a big feed at Oceans 82 on sail2wind's recommendation. It was great town and we’ll be back to eat at the LoLos. We checked out for Anguilla at Anse Marcel Marina and filled up on water. The only hard thing about check in/out on the French customs computers is the French keyboard.

Road Bay Anguilla was an easy check in with paper forms and friendly customs/immigration staff; they chatted and made recommendations. The bay and beach here had a Cane Garden Bay feeling with friendlier people and more fisherman. Lots of good bars and restaurants on the beach. We rented a car from the market for $40 cash, didn't even ask my name, and did an island tour. Great place and a favorite of mine.

Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten was a bit more work for check in. They closed early on us and I checked in early the following morning. This is the only customs where I have been asked to product\e a bill of sale. Luckily I was able to use my smartphone to email her a PDF from dropbox. They also tried to ding us for the previous owner’s (formerly Solignac) amount due from bridge openings, but it was just a similarly named boat after we had renamed De Life. Simpson Bay had a large empty anchorage in the off-season with dinghy access to the big chandleries and restaurants/bars. We did a dinghy tour for Capt. Jay's birthday and we found Lagoonie’s bar near Budget Marine with $2 English pints of draft Heineken for happy hour. Birthday dinner was at the busy and well run Skip Jack's.

We planned on heading to St. Barth's, but weather and winds made us decide to head up to Oliver's marina at Oyster Pond for the night and jump off to St. Barth’s from there. It was a very off-season experience with little to no staff and no management. The Moorings and Sunsail base is here. The entry to Oyster Pond is exciting and serious surfing location - next time the dinghy will be on deck. With weather we ended up skipping St. Barth's and spending two nights in the marina. It was rough enough in the marina that we popped a fender. Renting a car was easy and cheap and we hit Orient Bay again. The Dinghy Dock bare here has an American owner and a very good craft beer selection with decent food.

The sail back to Virgin Gorda from Marigot was much easier. We stocked rotisserie chicken from Simply Grocery for the hungry crew. A 3am wakeup and 4am anchor up put us at Leverick Bay by 4PM. It was a nice downwind sail and we ran into a pod of pilot whales that swam with us for a long time.

Back in Leverick Bay was very nice. It was Friday and we did the Jumbie BBQ for the first time. I hit the rack at 8PM before the Jumbies were out, but after more than my share of great BBQ. Leverick really feels like our BVI home base.

On the way back to St. Thomas we stopped in Spanishtown to check out the new big travel lift. They are still working to finish getting the travel lift operational. There were a dozen concrete trucks from St. Thomas pouring the special high PSI concrete required for the dock and lift basin. They hope to have it completed by July.

On to the USVI, we took the southern route and decided to spend the night at Salt Pond Bay at St. John. Check in via LBO/SVRS revealed that you cannot have a mixed marriage. We did LBO for Jay & Debbie and Christine and I had to report to the Charlotte Amalie customs office on the way to the airport. The ladies at Charlotte Amalie customs were quite funny in describing the need for family counseling across the LBO/SVRS family. LBO is easier, but membership is closed.

Lessons learned:
- The French islands are basically closed on Sunday.
- Groceries and beer are cheap on St. Martin/Maarten, but the grocery stores are placed for driving convenience. There are smaller markets close to dinghy docks that are still cheaper than the VIs.
- Eating out is much cheaper on St. Martin. We finished the trip with a lot of shelf-stable food in the pantry.
- St. Maarten has cheaper chandleries with bigger selections. We got a new chartplotter cursor at Budget Marine after our rubber broke off.
- Renting a car on St. Martin/Anguilla was cheap and easy.
- The boat is stronger than her crew - 22 hours upwind was a good bit of work.

It was a fun trip with great friends. I would do the Virgin Gorda to St. Martin passage again with just Christine and I. The longer passage from St. Thomas to St. Martin? Probably not. But, we still need to sail to St. Croix!

Cheers, RickG

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />Glad to hear a fine time was had by all -- been looking for you all at HLS to hear about it.
The boat is stronger than the crew is a lesson well pondered.

Great report and glad to hear of your adventures. We are so stinking excited to be getting our boat down to the BVI we can' hardly stand it. What adventures are to be had.

Sorry we missed you guys this time, Rick. We'll definitely see you in Oct.

Sounds like a fine time! curious...we've watched boats navigating Oyster Pond when it's choppy, describe what you mean when you said you would have preferred the dinghy on deck? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the report! St Maarten/St. Martin has a lot to recommend it, even on a sailboat! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Smile.gif" alt="" />

great trip Rick, we love SXM. The food is amazing there.

Great trip report. Took me back to the times when I did the BVI - St Martin bash to windward regularly!

St Croix can be a very good option for the trip to Marigot. Much better wind angle if the wind is due east or preferably a bit south of east and also a nice ride down from St Thomas to start with.

Yes, thanks for the report. This route has been on my mind so I appreciate the insight!

I promised photos when I got them sorted. Here's a link to a SmugMug photo album.

https://rickgvi.smugmug.com/2016/2016-De-Life-to-STMAnguilla

Video of our encounter with a pod of Pilot Whales - https://rickgvi.smugmug.com/2016/2016-De-Life-to-STMAnguilla/i-cQbgjj4/A

Here's the blog version of the trip report - https://dinghylife.wordpress.com/2016/08/11/usvistmanguillabvi-trip-15-days-june-11-june-26/

Cheers, RickG

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />Great blog Rick!

Great post. The French keyboard reminded me of our checkin at Deshaies in Guadalupe. For residence or registration country, can't remember which, I was looking for USA in the drop down list, nope, then America, nope, then Etats Unis, nope; finally had to ask - it was North America (nord) something or other. This may have changed, I hope but I did like the computer check in procedure!