BVI to St. Martin (II)

British Virgin Islands to St. Martin (II)

Contributed By: Marshall Olsen, s/v Jorvik, Beneteau 463

Perfecting the Passage

I have made three prior attempts to reach the Leeward Islands from the BVI. Each ended as aborted missions including turning back only to return to where I started. Two of these were ended by engine failure and the third was related to a very seasick and frightened crew. On May 27, 2002, S/V Jorvik (a Beneteau 463) and her crew successfully made the passage.

I have long wanted to visit the Leeward Islands, not only to see new territory, but the experience the navigational and sailing challenges involved. This is my log which I hope will help others starting from zero as I did.

My decision as to when to begin is now based on the weather and sea conditions. While the Caribbean weather seams to be just about the same each day, wind and wave conditions, including ocean swell, play a very important part of the decision. My boat is a monohull so conditions may affect Cats differently. I have concluded that a typical crew can stand wave heights in open waters up to 5 feet. Some crews I have sailed with can handle heights up to six feet. Since the passage is directly into the wind, the wave heights play directly into travel comfort and seasickness. In reality, travel comfort is an oxymoron because the boat is under engine and pounds endlessly into the oncoming waves for the duration of the trip. Anyone not in the cockpit is sure to get bumped and bruised below as well as being highly prone to seasickness.

I had been in the BVI for a week prior to departure listening to the weather on 780 AM daily. After a while, one can recognize patterns in the weather, rising and lowering, just like waves only on a grander scale of days rather then seconds. We found the wave heights to be predicted at 3 to 5 feet on Sunday, May 26, 2002. I decided it was time to go. I headed to Virgin Gorda so I could clear customs at Spanish Town. The current cruising guide says the office remains open until 12:30 on Sundays. I arrived at 11:45 only to find the office closed for the day.

The next day the weather forecast remained the same so I returned to the bay to the north of the Spanish Town Marina where the custom offices are. There are several mooring cans there but on this day all were taken so I had to drop a hook. You may not dock at the pier as it is for commercial use only. A short dinghy ride takes you in where you next have to decide where to get out. You can beach the dinghy or tie it up to the commercial dock. If you do the former, go with a second person. I did not take anyone so I went to the commercial dock, which is quite high and a challenge to get on to. It pays to be in shape to get up on the dock. It is best to tie up on the North side as ferryboats go to the South and end of the dock. Having a second person is a good idea here as well so the dinghy can be moved if need be although I did it alone.

After clearing customs, we took a mooring ball at the outer North end of Gorda Sound. While part of the crew made a fish dinner on the grill the rest of us put the dinghy on the foredeck and the motor on the mount at the stern. I believe it is not prudent to pull a dinghy over high seas and for such a distance. When mooring to the can, it is important to think about how you are going to get off once the dinghy is on top of the cleats. I used a line passed through the loop on the can line which can be set free on the starboard side, pulled up on the port side free of the can line, and then run over the top of the dinghy to lash it down by connecting the standing end of the line again to the starboard cleat.

I used the extra halyard to winch the dinghy up to the foredeck. With one crewmember at the winch, two others guide the dinghy over the safety lines and then the winch handler eases it down. Once it is in place, I place a line on each of the rear handles of the dinghy and make fast these to the beam cleats. The front of the dinghy, as mentioned above, is secured when casting off.

Our target for departure was Sundown, which occurs about 1900 hours. Our course takes us out of Gorda Sound, around Necker Island to the North, and then East on a course about 120M. I planned the course to make landfall at morning light at Road Bay on Anguilla. By going to Anguilla before St. Martin, we traveled about 10 miles less in pounding seas. My return will be from Simpson Bay, St. Martin and will head to Round Rock in the BVI.

I purchased a navigation software last year that integrates with GPS, which proved to be a great help. I plot a course in advance on the charts I purchased for the software, identical to the Imray charts on board the boat. I have a crewmember watch the boat move along the course line on the PC as we travel. 
After leaving Gorda Sound and three waypoints, the course need only be checked occasionally, about every half hour, to insure we are on track. I use Nobletec's Visual Mariner with Imray charts but there are many good products on the market that work as well.

We reached Road Bay at 0830 and were cleared by customs by 0900. There are a few mooring cans in Road Bay that look inviting but in reality all are private so it is best to anchor. Customs is a breeze and you can both clear in and clear out at the same time. We all took a nap until 1300 hours and then had brunch, pulled up anchor and moved to Crocus Bay for an afternoon of snorkeling. Back to Road Bay for dinner, we had a fantastic dinner at the Barrel Stay Restaurant, best in the area. We spent the night and then the next morning we sailed early to Simpson Bay, St. Martin.

You anchor outside the bay in 20 feet of water and then dinghy to the customs office, which is right at the entrance to the bay. Again the process is easy and you can clear in and out in one procedure although we did not, electing to say several days. After customs, you must wait for a drawbridge to go up allowing entry into the bay. The cruising guide states the bridge opening times as 0900, 1100, and 1750 which is correct, but only for outgoing boats. Inbound boats are 30 minutes later. We entered at 0930 and anchored just inside.

The bay is quite large and deserves to be explored. The Simpson Bay Marina is quite nice and offers all kinds of services. There is a business office there, which provides Internet service, telephone service to the states and more. We walked a short distance from the Marina on the road towards the bridge and ate lunch at Bananas Restaurant, a place I highly recommend for casual food like a cheeseburger or fish burger. Back in the bay, on the far side is a channel leaving the bay and going into Marigot Bay. It is stated on the charts that it is dredged to 9 feet but I was well within the channel markers and went aground in sand and mud. I got free but abandoned my plan to enter Marigot Bay by boat. Later in the day we went there by dinghy. It is a great place for dinner, shopping and people watching. When you enter Simpson Bay by customs, you are on the Dutch side. When you enter Marigot Bay you are on the French side. Everyone in St Martin speaks English although the French side people prefer French when speaking to each other although I heard no one speaking Dutch on the Dutch side.

The next day we left the bay and sailed to Oyster Pond to the Moorings base to refuel, take on water, and see what the place was like. If you have not been there before, study the charts before approaching the harbor entrance, as it is very tricky and usually rough since it is on the windward side of the island. We found the personnel very helpful although some had difficulty with English. In this part of St. Martin, everyone speaks French. It helped that I had brushed up on my French before the trip.

Our next destination was Gustavia, St. Barts. There are several islands along the way, some large enough for a quiet lunch stop. There are also several rocks and small islands on the approach to Gustavia. The harbor is the most European I have yet to see in the Caribbean in that life revolves around the waterfront.

Med mooring, or stern to is the norm although there are "two can" moorings in the middle of the harbor. You can also anchor outside of the harbor but that can be tricky because of so many boats and the swings they take. Some use stern anchors and some do not so beware. It was interesting to me to see that there were only one or two cats among hundreds of monohulls. I guess this means French sailors are more traditional sailors. I also saw only one Moorings boat and it was of French registry, Nice.

Our women crew members took delight in the hundreds of shops crammed into such a small space while the men enjoyed cigars and a beer at Le Select, a bar and grill where Jimmy Buffet is reported to visit often and it is believed he got the idea for his song "Cheeseburger in Paradise". This is definitely an upscale port and also very delightfully French. English is well understood and spoken, however. Fine dining abounds.

One detail to add: in French territories one can enjoy the privileges on being "en France". This includes telephoning anywhere in France at French, not international rates, using a European (GSM) compatible mobile phone, ditto rates, or mailing France (or anywhere in Europe) at French rates. It also pays to stock up on French wine, cheese and a particularly good French non-alcoholic beer called Tourtel that doesn't put you to sleep on the long night watch back.

We left Gustavia to visit several snorkel spots, ending up in Anse de Columbier, a nice bay and great snorkel spot. There is also a beautiful beach here and one can climb the hill behind it and reach the top where a Rockefeller home is. We decided to make our passage from here directly to the BVI and skip the planned stop at St. Martin.

We left at noon and motor sailed a run on our reciprocal course of 300M. My plan was to reach Round Rock in morning light. We made exceptional time, averaging 7.6 knots and as a result, reached Round Rock early, still in the dark.

I elected to continue to the West End. At 0300, in total darkness, we came to a slow speed, dropped the main and put the dinghy back in the water. Using the wind to guide the rubber raft over the side while being hoisted helps a lot. We tied off the painter and motored around the corner to Soper's Hole and moored on a can. The total distance traveled was 112 miles. We all went to sleep at 0300 and got up at 0900. From there we sailed to Jost Van Dyke and cleared customs, went to the Soggy Dollar Bar for a Pain Killer and lunch and reviewed our trip. Everyone was pleased we did it and all want to go again, including the captain.