St Martin - 2nd-9th April 2009

We arrived in Simpson Bay in the early hours of Thursday 2nd April. One of the places we feel comfortable going into at night time - it's a big open bay that is relatively shallow til quite far out, so you can anchor quite far out before having to deal with all the boats anchored closer to shore. We also have our bearings for coming in at night time: the 4 white lights, next to the green lights off Kevin's dads house.....

Next morning we woke to find ourselves 2 boats away from Joe and Shawn on Libertas! - hadn't see them since leaving Barbuda.

Thursday was taken up with checking in at customs and immigration, jobs etc. Harmony came over to play with Charlotte later that afternoon.

Friday a nice leisurely lunch with Joe and Shawn before heading out for the weekend - over to Orient Bay - about a 2 hour motor-sail. Orient is probably one of the nicest beaches on the island, over on the French side, but hence has become very busy and a hot spot for the cruise ship passengers. We anchored off the beach and felt like we were on vacation!! On Sunday we even went to the beach for the day and rented chairs!! Despite what you may think, we hardly spend any time just sitting on a beach. Charlotte and I got our hair braided, we had lunch at one of our favourite restaurants Kon Tiki (that has been there for years) and then enjoyed a couple of rum punches relaxing on the beach.

Back to Simpson Bay Monday afternoon, after our weekend away!! Joe and Shawn were having a party on their boat that night and Charlotte had a sleepover at Harmony's.

We left St Martin at about 3.30am on Good Friday and arrived Antigua 13 hours later. We managed to get the jib out towards the end but most of the trip was a motor job as the wind was almost on the nose.