January 3rd – February 17th, 2024

When we first told our Salty Dawg Sailing Association friends (who are very experienced cruisers) that we were going to head west to the BVI for Christmas, they said we were crazy! It would guarantee having to beat back into the usually strong east winds to get back to Saint Martin and eventually back down to Antigua. But lucky us, the weather window was just right and the day after the kids had all headed home from the Christmas holidays we left Nanny Cay Tortola and had a nice overnight trip back Sint Maarten (the dutch side) with just a little headwind. We pulled in early in the morning and set anchor in Simpson Bay. We checked into customs where we literally stood next to a guy from Marblehead (Nick C.) who had just bought a Leopard 48 and had chatted with Billy on WhatsApp sharing ideas. It is indeed a small, small world!

After a few days, we decided to head into the well protected lagoon which requires passing through the Simpson Bay draw bridge – It’s a bit nerve wracking going through the draw bridge as its not very wide, plus there is usually a large crowd at the St. Maarten Yacht Club drinking, watching and waving as you go through. The Bridge tender had to give Bill a little encouragement to move faster “c’mon man, everybody’s waitin’ ” over the VHF, but we made it through and got a nice wave from the SMYC crowd.

My college roommate (from our 214 Eddy St gang) was vacationing in Anguilla and while it wasn’t feasible for Billy and I to sail up to see her and her family, we decided to quickly meet at the airport as they awaited the flight home. I decided to try the local bus service to get to the airport – and it was was quite an adventure, but I made it and only cost $1.75. We got a chance to say a quick hello, our first in-person hug in many years. Next time we’ll hope to at least have dinner together!

Billy and I had just about a week before our next crew was due to arrive and we took advantage of all the services and stores in Simpson Bay – from marine stores to small grocers and one huge Ace Hardware store (more like a department store) we restocked and fixed CA up ready for the next crew to arrive.  There is a “cruisers net” that comes on every morning at 7:30 am on VHF CH 10 hosted by a local legend “Shrimpy”. The net provides weather, local news and happenings and great resources for local cruisers to buy, sell or swap items. We enjoyed listening every morning, got some great info on where to get things done and it was very entertaining as well! 

Scott and Kimberley Fillenworth arrived on February 9th and since the Hoyts weren’t due to arrive for a couple of days we decided to sail up to Anguilla (~5 nm north of St Maarten). We exited the Simpson Bay Bridge with another “c’mon man you’ve got to go faster” nudge from the bridge tender and sailed to Road Bay Anguilla where we checked into customs (in a tiny little building right on the beach) and enjoyed lunch at Elvis’ Beach Bar and an evening on the boat watching the locals race their sailboats. We spent the next day at Crocus Bay which was an amazing snorkel spot where we grabbed a mooring right next to the cliffs – couldn’t have been closer!

We returned to Marigot St. Martin (Marigot on the French side) to pick up Karl and Nea and headed north to a lovely little harbor called Grand Case known as the “gastronomic center” of St. Martin and it didn’t disappoint, we ate very well!  The next day we sailed to St Barths. A bit of a rough ride with heavy seas and wind but we made it in one piece! Gustavia has always been a favorite stop and it was once again – great food, beautiful town, relaxed atmosphere and lovely people.

The highlight of our stop in Gustavia was a car tour we took with “JC” who came highly recommended and was a complete character. He had known Jimmy Buffet well and showed us a picture of the two of them and Sir Paul McCartney – as you can imagine his stories were epic! He took us all around the island providing insight on all the key spots and allowing for lots of photo ops. We had a lovely lunch on the beach by the airport (the shortest runway ever!) then he picked us up and finished the tour. While the sights (and photos) were amazing – one of our special moments was when JC explained he was battling throat cancer but he had the most positive attitude and shared his mantra:  He said, “Everyone has two lives. The second one starts when you realize you only have one”. 

After Gustavia we sailed up to Colombier Bay – part of the St Barths national park system. Nea and I went on a long hike up an over the hillside towards the northern coast of the island where many goats and turtles crossed our path and a large group of seabirds circled us as we got too close to their nest. The next day on our way back to St. Martin we stopped at Il Forchue island, another national park, with a steep trail leading up to the top of the island. It was a little hairy, but we climbed all the way to the top which provided spectacular 360 views Before we knew it we were back in Simpson Bay waving goodbye to the Hoyts and Fillies as they took off right over us!

The plan had been for a quick turnaround and arrival of my brother Peter to sail with us back town to St. Barths and on to Antigua – but as the weather doesn’t always cooperate we had to change the plans and Peter diverted and flew directly to Antigua while Bill and I sailed off first thing Sunday morning with a quick overnight at St. Barths and then a full day of bashing into the wind for 10 hours to reach Jolly Harbor in Antigua where we found Peter sitting comfortably at the marina bar! 

We moved onto Falmouth Harbor Antigua to meet my niece Casey (Peters youngest) and her fiancé Garrett who were joining us for a few days. The weather wasn’t good for sailing but we found that the kids enjoyed just chillin’ on the boat, swimming in the harbor and touring through town. We did have a great snorkel on Galleon Beach with lunch (with cocktails of course) after and then we caught Shirley Heights with the Halsteds (SV Surprise) – and had an absolutely wonderful night. While Casey and Garret are more “Jersey Shore” kids – they were right at home on Carried Away and seemed to enjoy the boat life – we expect to have them back!

After Casey and Garrett headed home, we headed west to the island of Nevis. Peter has a very good friend from Stamford who grew up there, recently retired and had moved back home. Layton met us at the dock and walked us to customs – which was pretty easy. He took us all around the island. We went by The Eden Brown Estate – an old sugar plantation where Layton had played as a kid on his way home from school, it’s now a national park. We stopped at his home where he grabbed some coconuts from his refrigerator (yum!). It was so much fun to get the personal tour and every where we went people were saying hello to him – even Mr. Sunshine at Sunshines Bar where we enjoyed the famous Killer Bees (went actually went twice!) We had a wonderful time at Nevis and even got Layton out for lunch on board Carried Away.

It was hard to believe Peter’s time was up – but we headed back to Anguilla so he could catch his flight and return home – we think the sailing life (and retirement) suits him! Bill and I spent the next week back in Falmouth Antigua. Always nice to have a few days to do the laundry and get boat stuff done.

Willy arrived for a weeks vacation in Mid February. Always nice to get out of New England in the winter and he was so happy to be back on the boat. He arrived and settled right into the island life – it was fun showing him all around Falmouth and English Harbor since that’s where we had initially arrived back in November. His great friend Stew was due to arrive the next day when we heard that Stew had made it to Atlanta (from California) without his passport! Rather than scratch the plans. Stew flew back to SFO, got his passport which Lizzie had left for him at the airport, then flew right back to ATL to catch his original flight to Miami and to Antigua – so much effort (money and miles) – but we’re so glad he made it.

We visited Jolly Harbor, snorkeled the reef and and stayed at Carlisle Bay, then on to Green Island (which we all loved) which is on the east coast (the windy side) of Antigua but well protected by a reef so very protected and reefs and sights galore. The week flew by and next thing we knew we had to return to Falmouth. We had planned to finish our week with another evening at Shirley Heights (can you tell we like that place?. We found out that Will Hundahl (great friend of Ryan’s from Marblehead) had just arrived aboard “Velocity” for the Caribbean 600 race which was starting on Monday. So he and the boats captain James joined us up at Shirley Heights and we all had a great time. After the evening was done we returned to the docks and sat aboard Velocity a very lean (no galley, no bunks, no heads) racing sailboat – very cool to hear all their stories about serious yacht racing.

Next – we’re heading south to Guadeloupe to meet the Braun’s! Stay tuned……