HAVEN Sailing Adventure: January 2016

January 8th, our last day in the BVI's. We have had such a fabulous adventure here for the last two months. A wonderful area to explore, land and sea.

Virgin Gorda , St.Thomas, Culebra, Fajardo Puerto Rico, St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola, Jost Van Dyke, St. John, St. Thomas, Tortola, Gorda Sound...round and round we go. Al checked distance covered after arriving here in St. Martin and has reported that we have traveled over 700 miles.

After we said our goodbyes to Paige in St. Thomas we slowly made our way up to Gorda Sound as the jump off point to head to St. Martin with John and Nina aboard Sunkissed. The winds were dropping every day with a predicted weather window holding for the upcoming Friday/Saturday. We waited the one extra day, leaving on Saturday afternoon , giving the seas time to "lie down" (look at me throwing out nautical terms!) Also, the later day the very light winds were going to turn slightly north hopefully at least allowing for us to keep the sail full while motor sailing.
Chris Parker called it! That is exactly how our trip went. Completely flat seas with only the gentle beginning of a north swell. Very light winds, 4-7 knts, but enough that 80% of the overnight 16 hour trip east our mail sail kept us pinned comfortably. We were able to keep the engine RPM's very low which kept the noise and heat down while maintaining 5 knts boat speed. Next to being able to actually sail with the engine off, it was a perfect pass.

Gorda Sound

John on Sunkissed reeling in a fish during our trip to St.Martin. Unfortunately it was a Barracuda so they had to stick with their leftover chicken curry for diner!

Sunset during the crossing. It's actually been weeks since we have seen a proper full unobstructed sunset.

Top of Bitter End in Gorda Sound, looking directly toward St.Martin

This is how us cruisers make friends down here, dingy rescues! The couple in the picture (Mel and Robert from UK) and Al rescued this dingy after breaking loose from a Catamaran anchored in front of us in Gorda Sound. We all were invited aboard Castellina II for happy hour with the very grateful, lovely owners Gail and Ron. We had such a fun night! Thanks guys.

last view of the Virgin Islands

We arrived and dropped anchor in Marigot Bay, French St. Martin at 7am. It was a wonderful site to lay eyes on our long lost (not really) friends, Harmonium! Together again. We managed a nap, a walk around town, and swim before heading to Harmonium for a absolutely wonderful welcome meal of "home made" french delicacies. Official check in waited until the next morning as they are not open on Sundays.

approaching St.Martin

Our first dinner in St. Martin, A January tradition, Gallette des Rois (Kings Cake) whoever finds the stone gets to be king for the night.

No broken teeth, someone's feeling special!

The six of us have been having a blast eating and drinking our way around St. Martin. Krista and Phil have been here for 7 weeks making them fabulous tour guides, giving us all the ins and outs on how to meet all our needs and wants. I'm having such fun checking out the french grocery stores. New and interesting products and amazing quality for such great prices. Who knew how great canned Duck Confit could be. Taking the hits that we have with the Canadian dollar, it's sure nice to be in a somewhere that you can get so much for so little. We have found some completely drinkable wine for 2 euros a bottle!!

The north swell built and was fairly significant in the anchorage for the first 4 days but has died out almost completely now. We fared not too bad but for a couple of uncomfortable nights of sleep . Lots of boats that didn't manage to anchor close enough to or behind the break wall of the marina sure took some abuse from the ocean!

10 pastries for $5 in contrast we bought croissants in St.Thomas and paid $3 each!
(yes, some are missing we couldn't wait)

Dingy ride through the lagoon over to the Dutch side

Burning off the pastries

view of the French bridge, entrance to the lagoon

Lagoon, French to the right, Dutch on the left

Marigot Bay, Haven at anchor

Fire in the hole!!

Lagoon entrance on Dutch side, Simpson Bay

Happy hour entertainment last night watching the 5pm bridge opening.

you can just make out the deck on the left where we would be standing

Philipsburg (Dutch)

Great food, great company

Having visited both the French and Dutch side of the Island, via dingy, bus and foot, we feel like it is time to move on. We will visit a few anchorages around the island as we make our way next to St. Barts and then on to Antigua for next weekend.

Hoping you are all happy and well and enjoying life whatever you are doing!!

Love to everyone! Talk again soon xo

Happy 2016 to everyone!! Hope you all enjoyed the holiday season however you chose to spend it.

We have enjoyed having Paige on board for the last 2 weeks, had such a blast. We are settled on the fact we will never make a sailor out of her but she toughed it out and made her dad proud. We were able to keep a smile on her face (most of the time) with regular dosing of sea sick meds.

While awaiting Paige's visit and after we were back from Porto Rico we spent our time traveling between St. Thomas and St. John (USVI's). Circumnavigating both and finding some truly beautiful nuggets along the way. St. John is about 80% national park land and with that has a quieter laid back feel, not a lot of charter boats and a multitude of hiking options. We loved it.

So 3-4 weeks balancing exploring and fun time with boat projects, maintenance etc. A leak in our raw water intake pump put us back into Crown Bay for a rebuild of a pump. The guys at the shop were so fabulous, saving us a few hundred dollars and helping Al out with the rebuild. Water pumps seem to be a recurring theme as now we are having issues with the water pump we installed 2 months ago, uhg!

We just got back from exploring the BVI's with Paige. Showing her some of our favorite places as well as checking out areas we hadn't been to before. Lots of snorkeling, paddle boarding and just relaxing. We spent Christmas in Trellis Bay. Dinner at The Last Resort was underwhelming and over priced!! Fire dancers and great company kept us from seeing red. That was followed by joining the full moon party on the beach, dancing and people watching. What a blast.
The BVI's were very, very busy coupled with high winds yet we managed to cover everything we had wanted fairly stress free.
Unfortunately the "Christmas Winds" showed up the day before Paige's visit and will only start to settle somewhat tomorrow. We can't think of a day that we haven't had rain and squalls but usually have been short lived and can get back to enjoying the sun and water.

Our new year's eve was quiet but great. Tomatoe soup and grilled cheese for dinner. Backgammon and a few hands of crib finished off with a fun movie. Up until 11pm!!
We are now on St. Thomas, Red Hook for Paige's last day. Decided to grab a dock for a good night sleep and ease for catching cab very early tomorrow morning. A sad day.

We have been watching the weather and it's looking good for a window opening at the end of the week to head to St. Martin. A few things to catch up on with the boat then we will make our way to Virgin Gorda to stage for the departure.

We have thoroughly enjoyed our time here, no regrets staying as long as we did. BVI's, St.Thomas, St. John, Culebra, main land Porto Rico. Some great sailing, beautiful waters, lovely people and lots to do, We will definitely be back again.