On March 23rd we crossed from St. Kitts to St. Martin. We were very lucky to get a perfect weather window the day after the kids flew out. St. Martin/Sint Maarten is an island divided by French and Dutch rule.
Since strong winds were forecasted for the next few days, we decided to enter the lagoon and spend our time there on a mooring ball.
We entered on the French side, and picked up a mooring on the French side, but we did our grocery shopping on the Dutch side! The orange line shows the boundary between the two countries.
I must confess…one thing that has worn me down a bit, regarding Caribbean cruising, is the lack of protected anchorages. It can be exhausting to be on a boat that rocks constantly, while at anchor. This, however, was an amazingly protected spot, and well worth the $100 we paid for a week of peace and tranquility!!!
I don’t ever remember being so excited about grocery shopping, but this might be the nicest store I have ever seen…and it was certainly a huge contrast to most Caribbean store😲
There were soooo many veggies, and even an entire cooler of microgreens😲
It felt strange to be surrounded by such an abundance, of everything!
Of course…per usual…getting there was an adventure! We tied Alma (our dinghy) to the mangroves, walked the plank, climbed over some rocks, and walked 1/2 mile to the store. Then did everything in reverse while weighed down like pack mules🤣🤣
We left our ball two days early to stage for our next crossing to Virgin Gorda. This was a 95 mile crossing so we needed to get a very early start to ensure we would arrive before dark. However, the bridge to enter and exit the lagoon only opens at 8:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. so we had to abandon our perfectly calm mooring to anchor in Marigot Bay the night before departure. As always, the weather forecast drives all of our travel decisions, and winds were going to get quite ugly starting on the 30th, and we’re scheduled to blow for 6-7 days. My cousin and her husband were scheduled to fly into Virgin Gorda on April 6th, so we needed to move while conditions were calm.
On March 29th, we left St. Martin at 4:00 a.m. for a pleasant cruise to Virgin Gorda. Once we were checked in we moved quickly to find protection from the incoming NE winds. We made the short hop to Peter Island and enjoyed a gloriously calm week at anchor, while the winds screamed! On April 5, we returned to Virgin Gorda to meet our guests, and as you can see from our tracker we spent the next 9 days zigzagging around the Virgin Islands.
If you are a Virgin Island aficionado you might say that we went to the wrong places, but let me assure you went to perfect places! Our goal is always to avoid crowds and avoid tourist attractions. I was a little concerned, while planning this portion of our trip, that we would be in the Virgin Islands during Easter week. This area is known for heavy tourism, and large numbers of rental boats…racing each other from place to place, and fighting over mooring balls. I am happy to report we had no trouble avoiding the crowds.
Angie and Matt arrived on time, and we picked them up from the dinghy dock at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour.
We did visit the Baths, but we took the dinghy to avoid mooring ball congestion. I also selected the time of our visit using a ‘cruise ship crowd prediction’ app, and our visit was perfect!
The hike provided beautiful views! Keith and I screwed up a little🤣 we didn’t know the park was set up as a one way loop, and we told Angie and Matt to wait while we walked up the trail to purchase tickets. This was a BIG MISTAKE! They wouldn’t allow us to go back down the way we went up…so we essentially ran through the entire loop trying to get back to them. These pictures were taken on our second time through🤣
The geology was definitely worth any problems faced that day. This place is amazingly beautiful!
We enjoyed several hikes during our week together.
And found some fantastic snorkel spots!
For the most part, our weather was wonderful, but a quick downpour during a snorkel was a whole new level of cool!
It’s hard to believe 9 days could pass so quickly! We absolutely loved our time with Angie and Matt! We thoroughly enjoy sharing this lifestyle with family and friends, but it is true that visitors need to have a certain level of Chason (hardiness)! Whenever we are considering whether or not guests will be comfortable I ask them to describe their camping comfort. We aren’t like tent camping, but we aren’t luxury bus either. I would say we fall around pop up plus🤣 Anyway, Angie and Matt were flexible and seemed perfectly happy with the accommodations. A great time was had by all!
And once again, it is time for us to focus on putting some miles behind us. Our next planned meeting point is at Staniel Cay, in the Bahamas. Essentially, we have six weeks to travel almost 800 miles. That might not sound like much to you 70 mph roadsters, but it is a LOT for an 8 mph (weather dependent) vessel. To put this distance into perspective, since leaving Trinidad in November we have not traveled 800 miles😳
However, this was part of the plan. We wanted to take our time exploring islands we have never visited, and now we are at a point where we have seen the upcoming islands, and will move as weather allows.
Angie and Matt flew out of St. Thomas on April 15, and immediately we are planning for a forecasted weather window of April 22 to cross Mona Passage. This crossing (between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic) is notoriously difficult (if you want to know why, please revisit my post from April 23, 2025), and requires excellent weather! The forecast for that week wasn’t great, but was doable along the south side of Puerto Rico, and so we were off!
