From Nanny Cay, we sailed to North Sound, Virgin Gorda to retrieve some boat parts that a fellow cruiser (Bob on Minoxi - thanks!) had brought down for us from the States. We were still looking at the weather and hoping for a window to make the jump from the BVI to St Martin. Winds for the last week had been 20-25 kts from the east pretty steady. Chris Parker was saying we might see 12-24 hours of 15-20 kts on Friday into Saturday, but then more of the same for the following week and beyond. We beat our way up Sir Francis Drake Channel to Virgin Gorda. The going was slow, with a double reefed main and staysail, but the boat was comfortable in the gusts and waves. This helped build our confidence for the trip to Saint Martin. We arrived late in the afternoon and anchored off the beach at Prickly Pear. In the morning, we picked up a mooring at BEYC. Ginny and Cary headed to the Pub for WiFi and school, and Tricia and I headed to the market for perishables.
After taking care of some last minute preps, we got underway from the Bitter End Yacht Club mid-afternoon. Although we never seemed to be heading towards our goal, the distance remaining slowly diminished through the night. Cary stood a 4 hour watch with Tricia, and Ginny stood watch with me. They both did very well steering at night fairly strong winds and not too small seas. Yes, we were hand steering again, as Maria, our Auto Pilot was on vacation again.
The wind dropped off in the morning just as the weatherman said (surprise), and we soon had a full genoa to go with the double reefed main. Despite our best efforts, we didn't make it to the waypoint off the Dutch side entrance to Simpson Lagoon until after dark. Not wanting to anchor in an unfamiliar harbor after dark, we rolled up the jib and sailed back and forth for the rest of the night with just the mainsail. Sometime during the night while Tricia and Cary were on watch, Tricia spotted an unlit power boat zooming toward us. Before she could yell for all hands, or raise the idiot on the radio, the center cockpit 25' boat with lunatics on board spun around the stern of Music shining a wicked bright spot light in Tricia's eyes. What night vision? Just as soon as they went from one side of the boat to the other, they were gone again. They were spotted tying up to a mega yacht further out in the harbor. Harbor Police? Harbor Master? Drug Dealer? We'll never know!
In the morning, we lined up behind 6-7 super yachts and waited for the bridge to open. I was shocked to find that they paid $1,000 for a private opening at 0830. I waited for the free trip at 0930, thank you. As we entered Simpson Lagoon, we were surprised to find a new bridge barring our path to the French side. Seems the causeway had been added last year. After some mild confusion, we followed some friends on Tevai through the swing bridge. We had a little excitement as we passed through. Our dinghy, trailing astern, was caught by a gust of wind and flipped. It was doing a remarkable submarine impression as I tried to steer through the bridge. Surmising that there was nothing beneficial I could do at the time, I dragged it half-submerged through the bridge before slowing and righting it. As we righted the dinghy, we watched in horror as a monohull, about our size, made a last minute pass from the French to the Dutch side as the swing bridge was closing. The Captain made it that time, and earned a round of applause from onlookers. Glad it wasn't us.
Simpson Lagoon is large and shallow. We anchored in about 11 feet of water just west of a little point called Witch's Tit and in from of an island with a sizable ship washed up on the shore. The wind was whipping in the harbor, but the anchor seemed to hold well. Overall, it took us about 36 hours to travel 80 miles. But we did it safely and without major incident.
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