Aboard Lady

Lady arrived in Hampton

Hampton, VA

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

We (Charlie, Jenny, Nina, Bob) arrived safely in Hampton, VA at 1000 this morning.
Two and a half days of no wind, where we had to motor, then another two and a half days of great wind.
We will stay tucked up here until Tropical Storm Beryl has passed.
Will post pictures once we have the bodies and the boat cleaned up, fed and rested.

Lady has left Bermuda

Sunday, May 27th, 2012

At sea

After a wonderful few days in Bermuda, we spent Friday getting ready for our next passage. While Jenny and Nina did laundry and provisioning, Charlie and Bob mailed cards and took Lady to the fuel dock for diesel and water.

The dinghy returned ashore to clear us out of Bermuda customs, as we were planning on departing before they opened on Saturday.

Saturday we got the anchor up about 0800, and after securing the anchor locker for the passage, Charlie hailed Bermuda Harbour Radio for permission to exit the harbour. Permission was granted, and off we went.

As expected from our wonderful weather reports from Chris Parker, the ocean was flat and there was no wind. We motored all day, heading east. We decided to change the watch schedule around. Our noon position was 32 31N 064 57W.

Nina fixed us a delicious dinner of yellow rice with chicken and a salad.

Jenny used the SSB to talk to the Doo Dah Net at 1700 (8152 USB). Very light copy on Bellamy, but we were able to pick up Sapphire's position and relay it and our own position to Saint Jude in New Bern NC. We also reported that Windward had left Bermuda and was in front of us somewhere, also heading to Hampton.

The only traffic we have seen was a tanker early Sunday morning on Nina's watch.

Charlie talked to Russ on Windward this morning, and Jenny relayed their position to Saint Jude during the 0830 Cruzheimers Net.

We have tried to unfurl the jib a couple of times, but the light airs are from dead astern, so the sail gets furled back up and we continue chugging along with the reliable Yanmar doing its job.

Our noon position toady was 32 46N 067 43W.

The big activity this afternoon was transferring diesel from the jerry cans on deck to the main engine tanks. Bob donned life-jacket and tether, clipped himself to the port jack-line and went forward to untie the four cans, one by one, and slide them back to the cockpit. After they were all in the cockpit, Charlie attached a hose to one of them, lifted the can up as Bob directed the hose into the open fuel deck fitting. Even though there is no wind, there are some swells, so we are moving from side to side quite a bit. As you might imagine, it was quite a chore.

Wildlife report: Yesterday we saw a number of Portuguese Man-O-War jelly fish sails. At dusk four Greater Shearwater birds were patrolling our wake. Today we have seen a lone Greater Shearwater a few times, and also a pair of White-tailed Tropidbirds. We plan on reporting our bird sightings to the Sea Bird Count.

Arrival in Bermuda

Lady arrived in Bermuda this morning after a 5 day passage from the BVI's. All well. Will wait for weather window before continuing on the Chesapeake Bay.

Lady's passage back to USA - Day 3

Friday May 18th, 2012

At sea

The wind had died a bit, presently we are coasting along at 5.7 knots in 10-12 knots of air.

The big excitement at 0245 last night was a crossing situation with a freighter. Nina was on watch and saw her light before she showed up on AIS and woke the captain. We altered course 20 degrees so we would be sure to take her stern. Foreign captains whose first language is not English DO understand "port to port sir?".

Fishing report: The pink lure did not work any better than the green lure.

Two of the vessels in our little rally, Sapphire and Jot For All have had to return to Tortola because of steering issues. Another, Windward, also has reported some steering problems, but they think they will make it to Bermuda OK.

Although the weather reports have bee modified, it still looks like a low pressure system over the Bahamas has the possibility of developing into a tropical storm, so we are continuing to head for Bermuda, where we will wait until it looks good to head back to the USA and cross the Gulf Stream near Hatteras.

Our noon position today was 27 25N 065 11W. 175 miles in the past 24 hours.

We think we will arrive in Bermuda on Sunday.

The crew welcomes messages to our sailmail account! Thanks to all those who have already sent us encouraging notes.

Lady's passage - Tortola to USA - Day 2 - weather may change our destination

Thursday May 17th, 2012

At sea

Another pretty uneventful day. Winds out of the east at 15-20, Lady rolling along at around 8 knots. Wind on the beam. Course 012M. Autohelm (Bob has renamed Otto to Brenda) performing well.
Fishing report: no bites on the green lure yesterday, we are using the pink lure today.
Chatted with Salty Dog group at 1700 and 2000 and again at 0800 this morning on SSB.
Our weather expert, Chris Parker, has strongly advised that vessels bound for Hatteras (that includes us, as the Gulf Stream is narrowest there) should divert to Turks and Caicos, Southern Bahamas or Bermuda as a large low pressure system is forming off the Carolina coasts and will bring nasty weather to the areas offshore USA in that area. We are heading generally towards Bermuda, and will stop over there this week-end (may arrive Sunday) unless/until we get a better forecast.
Nina has advanced her diet from ginger snap cookies to ginger snaps with peanut butter.
Bob fought off a rather big whale - he won.
Charlie our captain is his usual cheerful self.
Jenny is enjoying the ride.
Our noon position today was 24 33.29N 065 11.05W. that's 198 miles since noon yesterday a new Lady record!

Totrola to USA passage - Day 1

Wednesday May 16th, 2012
Nina and Bob Huether joined us last week. We've been busy preparing Lady for the passage home: showing them the boat systems and getting them comfortable aboard, provisioning, filling tanks with fuel and water, making friends on the dock. We decided to participate in the Salty Dog Rally, a very informal group of a dozen or more cruisers returning to various ports in the USA from various ports in the islands, mostly Tortola to Hampton, VA, but some will be stopping in Bermuda on the way.
After a lovely farewell dinner - a Caribbean Beach barbecue - thanks Nanny Cay, RiteWay grocery, Bamboushay pottery, Mount Gay rum, BVI tourism and s/v Sapphire for organizing it all - we dropped the dock-lines at 1015 yesterday and headed out of the harbor. The winds were light from the east in Sir Francis Drake Channel, so we motored around the West End of Tortola and left Jost Van Dyke to starboard.
The wind filled in and soon we were moving along under full sails.
Everyone was feeling good. Lots of rest in the afternoon, ready for our first night.
After dinner of beef stroganoff, while Charlie stood watch, Jenny chatted on the single-side-band radio with the rest of the fleet, recording positions and winds before heading to sleep. Nina took the 2100-midnight watch, relieved by Bob at midnight. They encountered three items of traffic, and woke the captain to negotiate crossing situations with a tanker, a couple of freighters and a sailing yacht. By the time Jenny took the 0300 watch all was quiet, and the only item of note was the rising of the moon.
We have been moving quite well. Our noon position today was 21 16.8N 065 06.9W. Our speeds have been mostly over 7 knots. Charlie calculates that we were 172 miles from Jost Van Dyke at noon.

Springtime in Tulsa

Tulsa, OK

This is why we like to come to Tulsa in April:

Anna Louise McNamara with her "Princess" face paint at the Easter-egg hunt.

 

 

Anna Louise after hunting for eggs in our garden.

 

 

We'll be here through May 7th.

 

Honeymoon cruise continues despite arrival of child

USVIs and BVIs

March 10th to March 18th, 2012

Our youngest son, Mike, came with his girl-friend Meghan Johnson to visit us last week.  They arrived in St. Thomas after a little delay on the afternoon of Saturday March 10th.  We met them at Crown Bay Marina, where we had taken a slip the previous day which gave us a chance to clean Lady, fill the water tanks, do laundry, purchase provisions and get the VIP guest suite ready for them.  

We departed the marina as soon as they arrived, and motored to weather as far as Francis Bay, St. John, where we picked up a National Park Service mooring, and enjoyed home-made shrimp, scallop and spicy sausage paella for dinner.

Next day Charlie and I were up early, moving Lady to Jost Van Dyke, by which time where Mike and Meghan were awake.  Ashore Charlie visited Customs and Immigration to clear in to the BVIs, while the rest of us waited and visited with folks staying ashore visiting from LA (Lower Alabama).  We strolled through the village of Great Harbour, had a coffee at Corsairs, where Vinnie, one of the proprietors took care of us, looked for bread, but the bakery was closed on Sundays, and walked through Foxy's restaurant, where we said hi to Foxy, and heard his island dog story (can not repeat it).

We moved on, stopping for lunch and a swim at Monkey Point on Guana Island.  

Our destination was the anchorage off Saba Rock in North Sound, Virgin Gorda, which we reached at 1645 - plenty of time to get ashore to the Saba Rock Resort to take advantage of the half-price painkiller drinks for happy hour before returning to Lady to grill steaks and chicken with Mrs. Z's potatoes for dinner.

Monday morning we were ashore in time for Mike and Meghan to start the first kite-boarding lesson at 1000.  The lesson covered inflating and rigging the kite.

Rain started, so Charlie and I sought shelter at the pub, and after
the lesson, Mike and Meghan joined us for lunch. We walked around the Bitter End Resort, and purchased a few groceries at the Emporium before returning to Lady.  Charlie and I rested while Mike and Meghan took Bimbo the dinghy and went exploring on their own. (See Meghan's pictures) 

We had a delicious dinner together at The Fat Virgin in Biras Creek - burgers and chicken rotis for some, barbecue ribs for another. Thanks for picking up the ticket Mike!

The next kite-boarding lesson wasn't until Tuesday afternoon, so in the morning we were able to go ashore and hike along of the trails leading from the Bitter End along the shore of Biras Creek and up through one of the Biras Creek resort trails to a view of Deep Bay on the other shore of Virgin Gorda.  

The afternoon kite-boarding lesson covered flying the kite, starting with a small trainer kite, and finishing with the big kite.  

Dinner aboard featured grilled ahi tuna with Caesar salad and buttered parslied potatoes.  

Wednesday morning's kite-boarding lesson saw the students and instructor depart by boat, with the kite already inflated.  They headed out past all the other kite-boarding activity near the beach and Mike learned how to ride the board with the kite towing him. Meghan went along to take pictures. I couldn't see what what happening, but they reported that Mike was doing great and having a super ride until the kite crashed down and tore, deflating the ribs, and the lesson was over early.  I hope that he had got far enough with the kite-boarding experience that he knows enough to tell if he wants to invest in his own equipment before persuing it further. It sure looks like a ton of fun, but Meghan was the only woman I have ever seen trying it.  You can see all of Meghan's pictures on her Picasa site.

We pulled up the anchor after lunch, and moved Lady to a mooring at Leverick Bay.  Ashore for happy hour, we enjoyed pirate Michael Beam's show and more half-price painkillers.  Dinner on the boat was Zippy Chicken Casserole, a family favorite since the 1970's.  

Thursday we dropped the Leverick Bay mooring, but stopped in at the marina for our "free" water (100 gallons included with the $25 U.S. mooring fee).  Outside North Sound, there was a maxi-yacht event,so we watched the start of the pursuit race.  We sailed downwind past island after island until we reached Norman Island, where we took a mooring and then dinghied over to The Caves, where we had a good time snorkeling.  We went ashore for dinner at Pirates Bight, but we were informed around 6:00 that the earliest we could get dinner was 8:30 pm, and after sitting for twenty minutes at the bar trying to get over-priced drinks and mediocre also over-priced dinners, gave up and returned to Lady for delicious left-overs from previous meals.  There are still pirates in the Caribbean, and the owner of this restaurant is a member of the group.

Next morning we dropped the mooring and motored about a mile to the Indians, where after hovering for about half an hour waiting for a park-service mooring to become vacant, we had a wonderful time snorkeling around the large natural pillars.  We motored over to West End, and not finding any available moorings, launched the dinghy and sent Charlie ashore on his own to clear us out of the BVIs, while Lady slowly cruised Sopers Hole Harbour waiting for him.  Then, on to a mooring off Caneel Bay St. John, where we found a vacant National Park Service mooring which we took, and then all went to Cruz Bay by dinghy to clear in to the US Virgin Islands.  After completing the official business, we strolled around the town for a bit of a walk and then returned to Lady, dropped the mooring and went back to Francis Bay, where we had spent the first night.  Not only does Francis Bay have nice snorkeling, it is also the home of the Maho Bay Campground, a private eco-resort, which opens their dining room to other visitors besides their campers, and Friday night is Prime Rib night! With 20 percent food discount for seniors!  We climbed the 200 steps up the hill and enjoyed a yummy dinner with a lovely salad bar.  Thanks Meghan for treating us to such a nice meal!

Other cruisers have been reporting seeing huge manta rays in Francis Bay for the past month.  We snorkeled the next morning, but no luck on the manta rays, although three turtles were sighted.  Time was running out for Meghan and Mike, so after a stop at Christmas Cove, St James Island for more snorkeling and lunch, we returned to Crown Bay Marina for a slip for their final night.  The fun was not quite over, as the date was March 17th(Saint Patrick"s Day for the ill informed)'  After working all afternoon (boys cleaned decks and cockpit, girls did laundry) we spent a very fine final night enjoying Irish music, dancing and food at Tickle's Grill.  They gave us silly hats and necklaces to go with our green clothing.  Lots of fun.  See Meghan's pictures. Thanks Mike for picking up the bill again!

Sunday morning gave us time to re-provision as Mike and Meghan packed up their stuff.  By noon they were off to the airport, and a wonderful week was over.

Honeymoon Cruise Continues

Caneel Bay, Saint John, US Virgin Islands

Sunday, March 4th, 2012

We have been cruising in fairly remote areas for the past month.  Internet connectivity has been spotty - enough to retrieve and send necessary emails, but tough to try to upload pictures and stories.

We departed Lindberg Bay, St. Thomas at 0900 on Wednesday, February 1st and motor-sailed in light wind to Dewey, arriving shortly after lunch after winding our way through the reefs of Culebra.  We were able to check in by phone to Puerto Rican Customs and Border Patrol using our US Local Boater Option numbers.  

A nice walk around town allowed us to purchase a fresh baguette, and a few other grocery needs, and we stopped of at Mamacita's for drinks  and to check out the location of their television in anticipation of a sporting event Charlie wanted to see on the coming Sunday.  

The following day we moved Lady over to Culebrita, a small uninhabited island to the northwest of Culebra.  We had some nice snorkeling and a hike ashore over to Baia Tortuga, where we followed the beach around to the northerly part of the bay and clambered over rocks until we saw the rock pools where the waves came crashing through gapes in the cliffs.  We seemed to have forgotten our swimsuits for the hike, so since there was nobody else around, we took off our clothes (except our shoes and sunglasses) to finish the last wet part to get to the most delightful pool for a dip.  It was such fun soaking with huge waves slashing us around.

We made friends with a neighboring yacht, Walkabout, and met up with John and Robin, who met us again on Sunday at the Dinghy Dock Restaurant back in Dewey where there were lots of TVs around for the cruisers to watch the Super Bowl.  

We had to stay another day in Dewey as the generator stopped, and Charlie had to service it and replace an internal impeller.  We were pleased to meet up with other friends, Linda and Bill Knowles and dog Brie aboard Sapphire, who sailed in the Caribbean 1500 Rally with us in 2009, and they have invited us to join the "Salty Dogs" rally of a group of cruisers returning to the USA later this year.

We left Dewey on Tuesday (Feb 7th), and moved around to a mooring in Tamarind Bay, on the west side of Culebra.  More lovely snorkeling there.  On Wednesday we sailed around Luis Pena Island and picked up a mooring there for a while, but after more good snorkeling, decided to move on the north western bay off Culebra.  All these wonderful moorings are provided by the Puerto Rican Department of Natural Resources and are FREE for boaters.  A lot of the area is a park area and as fishing is prohibited, the reef life and fish are plentiful.  Much of the time, we were the only boat in the anchorage.

On Thursday we dropped the mooring early and motored  against the easterly wind back to the US Virgin Islands.  Charlie attempted to catch us some supper on the way, but although he hauled in a barracuda, which he released, the other bite got away.

We dropped our anchor off Crown Bay, and dinghied ashore to dump the trash, do laundry and purchase provisions.  Charlie also took me out to lunch at the marina bar-grill.  

We moved down a couple of bays, and spent the night at anchor off Honeymoon Beach in Druif Bay on Water Island, which has become one of our favorite St Thomas spots. 

Next day, after taking our propane gas bottle ashore by dinghy to Antilles Gas in Krum Bay we picked up the anchor and went in to the Crown Bay Marina for fuel and water, managing to depart well before lunch, and navigated out the East Gregerie Channel between Water Island and Hassel Island, ending up at Caneel Bay off St. John.  

We had a good couple of nights there, and visited Woody's in Cruz Bay (infamous place who published my picture from Charlie's birthday on their website) where we made friends with  other cruisers who had come to St. John by ferry from St. Thomas for Saturday evening. You can tell that these are all retired bank executives, can't you? 

We dropped our NPS mooring late Sunday morning, and navigated around the west end of St. John headed out to sea and set course for Sint Maarten/St. Martin just barely south of east and 100 miles distant.  Headwinds all the way so the reliable Yanmar diesel did a great job.  We took turns standing watch throughout the night.  

We arrived at Simpson Bay and dropped anchor at 0415 Monday (2/13).  We woke up just before the 0900 out-bound Dutch bridge opened, which was a good thing, as although we were out of the channel according to our charts, the channel markers had been moved, and we were within the deep channel.

 We quickly got the anchor up and moved out of the way for the out-bound traffic, and joined the line of inbound traffic for the 0930 opening and got the anchor down inside the lagoon on the Dutch side. Charlie took the dinghy ashore and checked us in and paid for Lady to stay in the lagoon on the Dutch side for a week.  It's a great place to do boat maintenance as there are a number of chandlers and all kinds of yacht services available.  There are very good grocery stores, with "duty free" liquors and food.

The Sint Maarten Yacht Club welcomes cruisers, and one of the fun things to do is to meet friends there after work, and watch the inbound traffic coming through the 1730 bridge opening.  You cannot see the boats in the channel until their bow comes through the bridge, and there are sailing yachts, catamarans and very large super-yachts all coming through one after another to the welcoming cheers of the happy-hour crowd on the deck of the yacht club.  I walked across the road to take this picture about half an hour later as the sun was setting.  

Being anchored out in the lagoon is like being anchored in the a lovely lake in the middle of a very nice town.  The traffic may be bad at times, but not nearly as bad as St. Thomas.  

Sunday we spent at the beach.  Have you noticed that Charlie's lost a little weight? Don't you think that I look good in my new white swim suit?

 

 

Monday (2/20) we had planned on moving Lady over to the French side, as anchoring there is free (Dutch side charged us $40 a week), but we heard on the morning Cruisers' radio net that everything on the French side was probably closed for the next three days because of the holiday - no, not Presidents' Day but Mardi Gras.  

We quickly decided that instead of going there, the weather was good for a trip to Saba, so we hopped to it, went to the marina for water, cleared out of customs, and made the 1100 out-bound bridge opening and had a great sail to Saba, about 25 miles away.  

Saba is an island that is the top of an old volcano.  The water around it is deep.  There are no harbors.  The few local boats are moored at Fort Bay on the south side of the 5-square mile island.  We checked that our when we arrived, but the swells were from the east, and it was very bouncy, so we went back to Ladder Bay, and picked up a park service mooring there.  

Next day, we went in by dinghy to Fort Bay, cleared in and out of Saba at the customs office (no charge), and paid the Saba National Marine Park $12 each to stay for a week on the mooring.  We met a guide, "Crocodile James" and booked a hike with him  James gave us a ride up from Fort Bay through The Bottom (administrative center of the island) up to Windwardside, the main village.  

We walked around the lovely village, all houses white walls and red roofs by tradition and were able to shop at lovely gift shops, and had a good lunch at "Scouts Place".  

 

Jobeam's Glass Studio had glass fish, hearts and other charms embedded in the cement in the road outside the house.  When we left Jobeam's a very modern fire truck  (thanks to the people of Holland) came by to rescue a truck that had become stuck on a curve in the narrow road.

 

After lunch we visited the museum (a traditional single-storey three- room house), where they also had a statue from the government of Venezuela to the people of Saba to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of the liberator Simon Bolivar - December 1983.

When finished walking around Windwardside, we decided to walk back down the Island to the other village.  

 

As we walked along The Road, originally hand-built by local residents in 1943 and designed by a local, Jesephus "Lambee" Hassell, who took a correspondence course in road engineering, we could see the island of "Statia", (Saint Eustatuis), another Dutch island.  

It seemed like it should have all been downhill, but it wasn't.  

We heard lots of goats in the fields and woods, and passed the island's school.

The Bottom is home to Saba University School of Medicine, and the 300 or more students compose about a quarter of the island's population.  We took a taxi the rest of the way back to Fort Bay.

 

We had to set an alarm in order to be ashore to meet "Crocodile" James at 0730 on Wednesday.  

The weekly mail boat of supplies for the island was unloading as we waited for him.

We rode with him up the mountain along The Road to Windwardside, where we picked up another couple, Cliff and Tracy, and then rode on to the Sandy Cruz Trail trail-head outside Upper Hell's Gate.  

The trail was quite strenuous, a lot of up-hill and seemed at times more like mountain climbing than hiking.  

We hiked through dense forest, lots of ferns, big trees, an occasional spectacular flower, and sometimes an amazing view - see the airport - see St. Barthelemy - see Sint Maarten - see Diamond Rock - see Lady at anchor down there.  

 

       

After traversing the top of the island, we ended up after about four hours at the Queen's Gardens Resort just above The Bottom, where beer and lunch were most wlecome.  

A taxi took up back to Fort Bay, and we collapsed on Lady for the rest of the day.  My legs ached the next day - we really to need to get more walking in.

The swells changed direction, and the Saba anchorage got bouncy, so we gave up the idea for more hiking ashore and snorkeling off Torrens Point, where we had been informed at the Park Service Office that we could use a dive mooring for our dinghy (have to save that for the next visit to Saba).  We had a tough time getting our lines off the mooring - they had tangled around so much.  Charlie struggled with the lines for over half an hour.  Then a marine patrol boat came by and took the mooring and our lines and were able to untangle and get the lines back to us.  

Although it was 1040 before we were underway, we had a grand sail back to Sint Maarten/St, Martin, and went through the 1730 inbound Dutch bridge opening to the lagoon, and spied Connie and Jim from Plane to Sea cheering us through the canal from the Sint Maarten Yacht Club deck.  

We motored across the lagoon to the French side, and found a spot to drop anchor in the crowd of a hundred boats anchored on the other side of the airport runway.

We took the dinghy in to Marigot the next day, and spent euros at French Customs, Serafina patisserie and the street market.  

Charlie also made arrangements for a rental car, and we welcomed Lynne and Paul on Beaudacious to the anchorage after they arrived from the Virgin Islands.

On Saturday, we picked up Lynne and Paul, picked up the rental car, and drove via Phillipsburg to Orient Beach.  We walked along the clothing optional beach; although it was interesting to see so many totally tan and totally naked bodies, we felt more comfortable settled under an umbrella in the part of the beach where total nudity was prohibited (topless is OK, thanks! Charlie) .  It was fun to have a day at the beach with them, and we had a delicious French lunch at one of the many little beach restaurants there.  

By the time we had toured the rest of the island, stopping in Grand Case, where we met up with Lynne and Paul's friends on Tasman, again stopping in Marigot for a baguette for breakfast, it was pouring with rain, so we parked the car and waited at Barnacles, one of our favorite little waterfront bar/grills (near where we like to tie up Bimbo when we are ashore) for a drink waiting for the rain to stop.  It was dark by the time we got back to our boats, but between the four of us we managed to hustle up some food for dinner together.

Everyone had other plans for Sunday, so Charlie and I took the car for a day in Phillipsburg.  We had wanted to get movie DVDs, but as there was a single cruise ship in port and it was Sunday, most everything was closed.  I purchased a new sarong from a lady at the local market, and we found a bar open at the beach and had a good time that afternoon.

Monday (2/27) was a day of work - laundry, search for lost sunglasses, purchase boat parts, clean boat, etc. etc, ready for a Tuesday departure.  

We were able to get going early enough and had good luck in that nobody was at the fuel dock, so we watered up and made it through the 1100 outbound Dutch bridge, and moved around the island to Baie Grand Case, where we anchored and met up with Tasman, Beaudacious and Plane to Sea, who came there by road for the evening.  Every Tuesday the village of Grand Case, a village full of restaurants and bars, closes the street to traffic, and the restaurants, both up-scale and low-end set up additional tables in the street outside the restaurants and street vendors set up tables, sometimes there's a band.  Paul made reservations for us all for dinner at Le Tastevin, and we had another wonderful evening. 

Leap Years Day was another work day for us.  We didn't leave the boat but got a lot of cleaning done, emptying shelves and dusting places that don't get dusted very often.  We ended up with a number of "treasures of the bilge" that are looking for a new home - a cordless drill, a flashlight, some cushions, lots of books and magazines and some small lampshades.  We sang our "Happy Sails to You" song to Lynne and Paul as they motored past us on their way back to Marigot.  They are headed south after their next groups of visitors, and we are headed back to the Virgin Islands.  It may be a while before we see them again.

March 1st was our last full day at St. Martin.  More work in the morning, a nap in the afternoon, and a delicious dinner ashore at a Creole restaurant.

Friday March 2nd,  we  watched the boats participating in the Heineken Regatta as they sail clock-wise around the island from Simpson Bay to Phillipsburg, and then moved Lady to Marigot, where we cleared out of French customs.  

Saturday, we departed Marigot in the dark at 0300, and picked up a mooring in Caneel Bay, Saint John at 1740, after a lovely downwind 14 1/2 hour passage.  Full sails and over 8 knots much of the time, only using the engine to pick up the anchor and catch the mooring. 

Caribbean 1500 - Lady on her way to Victory

Just got this video from Steve Ormond: