St. Maarten Passage in January 2017

We prepared Silent Dream for the overnight passage to St. Maarten on January 5, 2017.  Preparations for a long passage include checking many weather apps and subscriptions, topping up on fuel, water, food, stowing away all items below deck that might move, securing all items on the top deck, planning and mapping out a route to our destination, preparing food that is easily accessible during the trip, laying out all safety gear and clothing that might be needed, and finally, checking out with customs and immigration and paying the fees.  So far, this has been the most inexpensive fee checkout here in the British Virgin Islands, a total of $0.75!  Yes, that was 75 cents, US Dollars!

We departed Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands early afternoon on January 5th for the 90 mile crossing.  This should have been about an 18-20 hour passage, and we wanted to arrive in the early morning in St. Maarten.  We had been waiting for a weather window and now the Christmas Winds are prevailing out of the east at usually 20-30 knots.  We had a somewhat rough passage, but not the worst, with winds 11-20 knots, and 4-8 foot waves, all on our nose.  Silent Dream is no longer waterproof, with her fairly new custom windows, so when the waves washed over the bow, we had water coming into the salon.  We do miss the fresh water of the Great Lakes for this reason.  Salt water never dries and is sticky and if not cleaned soon causes mold to grow.  We knew we were in for a long cleanup process with the salt water in the salon. 

It took us just over 21 hours before we arrived at the bridge entrance to the Simpson Bay Lagoon in St. Maarten.  The bridge has specific openings for incoming and outgoing boats and we just missed the 9:30 am incoming bridge opening.  We waited two hours for the next 11:30 am opening.  We had previously decided to stay at the Simpson Bay Marina for a while since we will be using our timeshare on the island and needed a safe and secure place to keep our boat.  We were guided in through the bridge by a tender from the marina to our slip.  How wonderful to have fresh water without hauling it five gallons at a time and unlimited power regardless of the sun and clouds.  We passed by the numerous megayachts here now for high season.  Many of you probably have never seen such huge megayachts up close and believe us, they are enormous! 

We are settling in here in St. Maarten, one of our most favorite islands visited by us for many years.  We have several friends here and will be seeing all of them shortly.  We also have friends from the States who have decided to visit us as well.  But for now, it’s time to clean and clean and clean!!