Author: crimsonkathyrnandcrew

It’s Carnival season in the Caribbean and we were fortunate enough to see a small demonstration in Grand Case on Jan. 18th. The drumming parade started at 4 pm but the drumming continued well into the evening. We could still hear the drums while having a nice happy hour aboard Sundog – with Sharron, John and their friend Peter (who arrived on Saturday for a 10 day visit). The parade was colourful and super fun. I think we were all impressed by the quantity and quality of the participants.

On Monday we actually got a tiny bit of sailing in as we made our way back to Marigot Bay. As I mentioned, we’re in the middle of a week and a half “blow” – wind speeds are consistently in the high teeens to mid 20knots. That kind of speed is great when you’re sailing but not much fun when you’re anchored. Our boat has been doing a lot of bouncing and moving around which makes it loads of fun to move around inside. I have a few new bruises!! This type of wind also makes it a challenge to dinghy to shore – it’s often a wet ride!! Marigot Bay is fairly wide open so we are seeing waves along with the wind. It’s all part of the sailing life!

We’ll be anchored here for a bit as we wait for Mark’s brother John and his family to arrive on Jan. 27th and will probably stay in this bay until the beginning of February. The wind is expected to die down by Jan. 23rd so it will be way more comfortable here fairly soon.

We moved the 4 nm from Marigot Bay to Grand Case on Thursday, Jan. 15. It was a super quick and easy motor and we were anchored before lunch. We decided to head into town that afternoon and picked up Sharron and John in our dinghy. We were anchored slightly further away from the dinghy dock so it was very easy for us to stop and get them. We had a nice look around the town and visited two very cool stores – Busco (makes homemade jams and flavoured rums sold in hand painted containers) and Maison Chocolat (you can guess what they sell!!). It’s always nice to support local businesses so we bought jam, rum and chocolate!!

On January 16th we went back to the town with Sharron and John for a bit of shopping and lunch. We met Lisa and Lionel, friends of Sharron and John who just arrived for a 3 week vacation on St. Martin. We had a very tasty lunch and good conversation. We returned to the boat in the afternoon and then we had a great birthday video chat with Evelyn and Caroline! It was a great way to spend my birthday!!

Unfortunately our lovely fairly calm anchorage changed overnight Friday to Saturday. We knew the weather was changing – higher winds being predicted for at least the weekend – and boy did those winds arrive in rare form. We had rain and strong winds in the early hours of Saturday (Jan. 17) and those winds are continuing still (it’s now Jan 18 in the afternoon). We were seeing sustained winds in the low 20 knots and gusts in the high 20 knots / low 30 knots. We also discovered that there were eddies or strange currents in the north east side of the bay (where we were anchored). Our boat was spinning 360° as well as being heeled over by the strong wind. It was very unnerving!! We decided to pull up anchor and move closer to the dinghy dock (basically beside John and Sharron on Sundog). The boats on that side of the bay were not being spun around by the currents. It was a very good decision. We are no longer spinning around!!

Tonight we’re going ashore for a drumming parade! Not sure what this is all about but we’re very interested in seeing some local culture!

We have had quite the time with our little honda generator and this repair is definitely one for the books!! As I said in my last post, we took the generator to Electec on Jan. 9th and left it with them. We were not super hopeful that they would work on it immediately so we weren’t surprised to learn on Monday afternoon (Jan. 12) that the technician hadn’t looked at it yet.   We were very happy to get a call around 3pm today (Jan. 13) from Electec. The tech checked our machine and could find nothing wrong with it 😳. He said we could come and get it. What?? Did it fix itself? Did the generator just want to go for a fun dinghy ride?? Who knows. We headed over to the Dutch side and Mark had a chat with the tech. They started the generator and it seemed to work like usual. So we brought it back to the boat and used it to charge our batteries for about 2 hours. It ran perfectly!!

We had been doing okay charging our house batteries with the solar panel and the main engine. Our major concern was water. We need the generator to run our water maker and we were down to our last 50 gallons (or so) in the bow tank. Fortunately we found out this morning that the fuel station in the channel (leading to the lagoon) sells potable water. I guess it’s moot now because we can make our own water (which we’ll do in the morning).

Although we’ve had to stay close by that hasn’t stopped us from doing some more St. Martin exploration. Today (Jan. 13) we climbed the steps up to Fort Louis. The fort was built in 1789 to protect the harbor’s valuable goods (rum, salt, etc.) from pirates. What’s left of this fort is located on the north east side of Marigot Bay and it has spectacular views of the bay and the surrounding area. We walked up a few steps (brought back memories of Benabbio – we were in better shape 4 months ago!) and had a good look around. After our Fort visit we went to the daily “market in the square”. It’s basically venders selling touristy clothing and some local crafts and jewelry. It was very colourful and Mark bought himself a nice shirt.

Now that we have our generator back, we can leave Marigot Bay. In the morning (after we’ve filled our one water tank) we’re heading slightly east to Grand Case where we’ll hang out for a few days. John and Sharron (Sundog) returned today from St. Bart’s so they’ll be joining us at Grand Case. We’ll find out all about St. Bart’s and plan our visit for next week.

It’s been an interesting few days here in Marigot Bay. As I mentioned in my last post, our Honda portable generator stopped working on Wednesday (Jan. 7th) while we were trying to charge our house batteries. Well it is proving to be quite the challenge to get this thing fixed!! Mark made several phone calls Thursday morning to find a place that would work on it. We finally were told to take it to Budget Marine – a really good marine supply store that also does some repairs.

Okay we put the generator into the dinghy (that was fun – it’s quite heavy) and headed to Budget Marine (on the Dutch side). After some discussion, the mechanic agreed to look at it – told us to come back in the afternoon. Mark returned around 2pm and the mechanic said he needed to change the spark plug but the store didn’t have any (Mark had already determined that the spark plug was fine). Quick as a bunny, Mark zoomed in the dinghy back to our boat (because we had new spark plugs for the generator – of course!) and grabbed the spark plugs and tools to change it (just incase) and headed back to the mechanic. Unfortunately the mechanic was not interested in working on our generator at that time so Mark just left the new spark plug with him. When Mark returned we were getting quit low on our house batteries so we had to use the main boat engine (in idle) to charge the batteries. This is not a good practice because it can cause problems for our diesel engine – it doesn’t get hot so that can cause a buildup of crap (my technical term) in the engine, but we really didn’t have a choice!! We’re also running low on water. Normally we would run the portable generator and then use the water maker to fill our starboard tank but that’s not possible. There is a gas station near us (on the water) that also sells water. We’ll be checking to see if it’s potable water very soon.

This morning (Jan. 9th) we decided to see if we could find another place that would service our generator plus see if we could rent one while we’re waiting for ours to be fixed. Wow what a challenge. After several phone calls we were no farther ahead so we just got in the dinghy and went to the Dutch side. We visited several marine stores and businesses all saying they don’t work on Honda generators. We were hoping like crazy that the mechanic at Budget Marine had already fixed our problem. We did find one place (Electec) that could look at our generator but probably not until Monday. We couldn’t find anyplace that would rent us a generator! Fine – off we went to do a bit of shopping. We had lunch at a nice French restaurant (on the Dutch side – hehehe) and made our way back to the mechanic at Budget. What a big let-down!!! He couldn’t fix our generator- said it was an electrical problem. So we went back to Electec (a company that specialized in power generation etc) and they now have our generator and we are crossing fingers and toes that they can get it working again!!

As promised – here are some of the mega yachts in Sint Maarten! Enjoy!

We’ve spent a lot of time taking our dinghy through the lagoons from the French side to the Dutch side (and back again). There are many boats anchored (and on mooring balls) in the French lagoon – some are not in the best condition (that’s putting it mildly). It’s quite the contrast because the Dutch side of the lagoon is full of mega yachts! I’ll share some photos of those boats in another post!

We’re enjoying our first week in St. Martin and have explored lots of marine stores, the ACE Hardware and one very nice jewelry store (for me😁). Mark got our dinghy running well again but today our Honda portable generator quit working (while we were charging our house batteries). So we were planning to head to St. Bart’s in morning (Jan. 8th) but now we need to find a repair shop for the generator! Always something!!

Here are some of the wrecks!

Boy we’ve done a lot in the last few days but have really only scratched the surface of this island. After our lunch with John and Sharron on day 1 (Jan. 2nd), we crashed back on the boat – truly exhausted after only a few hours of sleep. Our anchorage in Marigot Bay is very busy (lots of boats coming and going) but because it’s so large, you don’t really notice. Our first full night in the bay was quiet and we slept well!

We decided to do a bit of shopping on the French side (in Marigot) in the morning of Jan. 3rd. We took the dinghy into the Simpson Bay Lagoon and tied up to a nice dinghy dock in the east corner (recommended to us by John). It was great fun walking through the little shopping area and narrow streets. We quickly found the big grocery store – Super U, after about a 20 minute walk. The store was very well stocked with all kinds of French foods. We saw French wines for under $10 CAD and Mark bought a bottle of gin for about $8 CAD. The best part of our shopping experience was buying different types of food. We also found a nice bakery and bought some yummy fresh bread.

Back on the boat that afternoon, we decided to get a few jobs out of the way (minor jobs). We put up our shade cover, ran the generator to charge our house batteries, put the Starlink back in its position in the cockpit and lastly we pulled the dinghy out of the water and put it back in the davits. This is probably the biggest change now that we are travelling farther south in the Caribbean. We used to leave our dinghy in the water, tied behind us when we were in an anchorage for a length of time. It just made it so much easier to use. But dinghy theft is a huge problem down here so you definitely don’t want to leave your dinghy unlocked in the water. So we put the dinghy in the davits at the end of each day to keep it safe. We are also locking it with a strong metal cable when we leave it at a dock.

Today we met Sharron and John for lunch – taking the dinghy through the lagoons to the Dutch side. We had a wonderful afternoon and made our way back to their boat (and our dinghy) around 2 pm. That’s when our troubles began (well actually they started the day before)!! Our dinghy motor started acting up in the am of Jan. 3rd. It would start but then shut down very quickly. Today when we tried to leave the dinghy dock, the motor just said “nope”. Good thing the dinghy dock was in the marina where John and Sharron are docked. John helped us with tools and extra hands as Mark took the motor apart!! Sharron came over to help too. It took 2 hours to disassemble and reassemble the motor but it finally started and we were able to get back to our boat. The motor is still not running well so tomorrow we’ll take it in to be looked at. This island is known for its excellent boat work and good prices.

Thanks Evelyn for the jazzy post title! Here we are at the beginning of 2026 – crazy! And to top it off, we made our 93nm trip in about 17 hours and we’re now anchored in lovely St. Martin. If you’d asked me a few years ago if I would be in St. Martin for the start of a new year, I probably would have said “Where?” and then laughed at the thought of sailing that far. Well we made it and I’m super happy and proud of us. St. Martin is known for many things but to cruisers (well us 😁), it’s known as the corner! It’s all east sailing (well mostly motoring) to get to this point in the Leeward Islands. From here we should be able to sail easily down the chain of islands that end at our summer storage destination, Trinidad.

We ended up leaving Lameshur Bay, St. John (USVI) early on January 1st – anchor up just after 11 am. We were ready and the anchorage was so rolly that we figured we might as well be making some distance. It was a beautiful day on the water. The low wind and waves predictions held true and we were motoring along in the mid 5 knots (which is normal for our boat). Our plotter ETA when we started out was 3:15am – yikes!!! It’s not ideal to come into an unknown anchorage in the dark but we figured that time would certainly change as we made our way across the 93 nm passage.

It seemed to take a long time to get out of the shelter of the USVIs and the BVIs. Lots of boats were on the move but very few were heading on our course. After several hours of motoring in very calm water (for the ocean), we were finally away from all the islands and getting the full impact of the Atlantic Ocean. Thankfully it made no difference!!! Our course was very easy – a couple of turns getting away from the BVIs and then straight across to St. Martin. We saw some boat traffic – other pleasure craft heading our way, mega yachts heading to the BVIs and a few cruise ships going here, there and everywhere.

Fairly quickly (or at least it felt that way) we transitioned into an overnight passage. The sun set around 6 pm but we were super fortunate to have an almost full moon that was visible for the entire night!! The moon was so bright that we could see clearly. It was very comforting to have the moon by our side and it made the night passage much smoother. Mark had a 2 hour (ish) sleep around 11 pm (and I listened to music and danced to keep awake 😁). I have a hard time sleeping during a night passage so it was easier for me to stay at the helm while Mark got some rest! By 1am we were both in the cockpit and eager to reach our destination.

One of the most amazing things as we crossed (not just the awesome moonlight) was that we started seeing the lights of St. Martin about 23 nm out (that’s about 4 hours away). Mark noticed this red light that kept bouncing up on the horizon that we thought must be a ship. No it was St. Martin. It was super nice seeing those lights as we made our way east to our anchorage – Marigot Bay (French side).

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve come into a new harbour in the dark and said “we’ll never do that again”. Well we did it again!! We motored into Marigot Bay around 3:30 am. We were super lucky to have the moon still shining brightly behind us. The well lit bay on the other hand, made it very difficult to tell what was lights on shore and what was boats anchored. As we got closer, it was very easy to see boats anchored and we found a decent spot to drop our anchor. It was 4:05 am when we were secured in the bay!! Time to sleep!!!

We had a short 3 hours sleep and were up again around 8 am (Jan. 2). It’s always fun to take a look around at a place you arrived to in the dark – can be surprising!! The bay is very large and full of boats – mega yachts, mega sailing yachts (over 150 ft) and many smaller pleasure crafts like us! Our first anchoring spot was not great (what can you expect at 4 am in the dark 😁), so we moved deeper into the bay (closer to shore). Our friends John (who stayed on our boat in Fajardo) and Sharron have been here since mid December so we touched base with them and made a lunch date.

So here we are!! We have almost a month to explore this island and the area (Anguilla is only 10 nm to the north and St. Barth’s is only 15 nm to the south) before Mark’s brother John, his wife Sadhana and their 2 kids arrive in St. Martin on Jan. 27th.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday in Toronto. We spent time with both our families and had some quality time with Evelyn (Liam) and Caroline!! We arrived back at the boat late in the afternoon on Dec. 28th and all was well!

While at home we were watching the wind down here and saw a really good weather window to cross from the Virgin Islands to St. Martin but it started on Dec. 28th. We kept an eye on this window and sure enough it started to move a little later (Dec. 30 – Jan 2). We decided to make sure we were ready to leave the dock asap. On Dec. 29th we rented a car and did a major provisioning at Costco. We also stopped at a few other grocery stores so the boat is now stuffed full of food and drink!!

Early Tuesday (Dec. 30th) morning we started getting ready to leave the dock. Our weather window was now Jan. 1 – 2 with low wind and small waves predicted (a big 95nm motor). We were off the dock and on our way to Culebra a little after 10 am. The 22 nm trip was a bit rolly with a stronger south east wind blowing on the bow. This was our first trip was our new chart plotter and oh boy is it nice!! It’s super fast – zooming in and out is a quick turn of a knob. Setting a route is very easy and the display is bright and easy to read. All in all it’s a wonderful replacement! We had our anchor down by 3pm in the same spot we anchored in on our first journey to the BVIs.

Today (Dec. 31) we left around 9am and motored the 32 nm to Lameshur Bay, St. John (USVI). It was a much nicer trip because the wind was lower and so were the waves. We arrived at our destination around 4 pm and I started the process of clearing into the USVIs using the CBP ROAM app. If you remember my previous posts – clearing into the USA can be a tricky thing and you never know what kind of an answer you’ll get. Last time we went from St. Thomas (USVI) to Culebra (Puerto Rico) we used the ROAM app to report our arrival. After a short video conference with a CBP officer, we were cleared to enter the US. Okay so this time I tried to report our arrival in the USVI from PR but I couldn’t find PR in the list of “last country visited” section so I had to select something else. I figured this would initiate a video call but instead we got a phone call from CBP telling us to report in person at a port (Cruz Bay) about 1 hour west (not good)!! Mark explained our dilemma with the app and this officer told us we didn’t have to clear into the USVIs because we were coming from a US country 😳. By the end of the call we were cleared in and didn’t have to report in person!!

Tonight we rest in Lameshur Bay and tomorrow we’re off to St. Martin!! We’ll be leaving here around noon and making the roughly 95nm passage in about 20 hours. It should be a good motor crossing with nice low wind and waves. We should be anchored and cleared in by about 10 am Jan. 2.

Happy New Year!

Little St. James Island (near Christmas Cove), St. Thomas.

We had a nice few days resting in Ensenada Honda Culebra. The harbour was very calm and not super busy – although boats did come and go every day. Mark did some jobs on Dec. 15th and I finished a crochet project. My goal for the day was to let my back settled down and I can report that I was successful (back is fine now)! On Tuesday (Dec. 16th) we went to shore to visit Culebra. We’d spent a bit of time here last April with Caroline but it was nice to get out and walk (stretch those back muscles). We had lunch at this bakery that makes really good (and large) sandwiches and wraps. We stopped at the little grocery store for our last few items that should do until we fly home.

We were up nice and early on Wednesday (Dec. 17th) to have breakfast before we had a lovely birthday video chat with Evelyn (Caroline joined too!). The rain had started overnight and really poured down around 6am. We managed to get the anchor up and the sails ready before the rain came down again (this was around 9:30am). The whole morning was a drizzle fest – actually way more rain than just a drizzle!!

Once we were away from Culebra and in deeper water, we put the main sail up and pulled out the jib. The wind, waves, and rain were coming from behind us so it was a slow, rolly passage. We could watch the squalls creep up behind us so were well prepared when they hit. We opened and closed our enclosure many times that morning – zippers got a workout!! A few times the squalls hit with some crazy wind (we saw 25 knots with one) but once the main part of the storm blew over, the wind would die down. We eventually pulled in the jib and started the engine. We motor sailed about half of the 22 nm to the marina. We still made it into our slip at the marina by 3:30pm (after a stop at the fuel dock) and immediately started the air conditioning!! Oh boy what a treat!

On Thursday we had a late start (enjoying the cool interior) before getting to work. We took all our garbage up to the garbage bins and headed to the office. We had to check in, get our security passes and mostly importantly, pick up our new plotter!!! Talk about quick delivery – Mark ordered the new plotter on Dec. 12 and it arrived end of day Dec. 17th and it came from New Jersey plus there was a weekend in there! We returned to the boat with our package and I unpacked it while Mark washed the deck. After lunch I did laundry and Mark went in search of an atm and a few other things. Our last job of the day was to connect the plotter and play with it!! The connecting was a bit of a challenge but once that was done, the rest was great! The charts easily loaded onto the new device and it looked amazing! It will take a bit of time to learn the operation of this plotter but that’s part of the fun!

We only have today and tomorrow here at the marina (Dec. 19 – 20). We’re taking the red-eye flight home on Sunday – 2 am departure and arriving in Toronto at 9:30 am (and it’s not a direct flight – yikes!). We will leave the boat secured at the dock, power off, fridge and freezer emptied. We have a bit of work to do (besides packing) to be ready but have enough time.

This will be my last post until we return after Christmas. I wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a Happy New Year! See you back on the water in 2026!

Our stay at Magen’s Bay was very nice – even though it was quite rolly overnight (not a crankorage but on its way to becoming one!!). Unfortunately after our first night on anchor, my back started acting up (anyone who has had back problems knows that’s not great). I think the nighttime rolls led to me not sleeping well (and in awkward positions so I wouldn’t roll out of bed!) and then my back muscles just said enough is enough – we’re tired and are going to hurt! So Dec. 13th was a pretty low key day for me. Mark was busy – he went around the boat in the dinghy cleaning spots on the hull and he made chili (which I was going to make) for dinner. We did manage to get over to the beach and had a good walk (that certainly helped loosen those back muscles).

We were on the move before 9am this morning (Dec. 14th – happy birthday to my brother Matthew!! 🎉), heading the roughly 24nm to Culebra. My back was okay but still stiff and a bit sore. We pulled up anchor and headed out of the bay and I was very thankful for the wide, deep bay because without the plotter, we are navigating by sight (and with the help of my iPad). It sounds easy – just look where you want to go (how hard can that be), but there are things under the water you can’t see and it’s often difficult to judge distance. You have to look for the light differences – something farther away usually is more muted in colour. Anyhow, we made it out of the bay with no trouble .

It was a good wind day (actually there was a small craft advisory for Puerto Rico to the USVIs – gusty wind to 30 knots and 6ft – 8 ft waves) and we were able to start sailing while still in Magen’s Bay. The hills of St. Thomas did play a bit with wind speed so we had a slow start until we were far enough away from the Island for it to have an impact. Using aquamaps on my IPad, it was easy to navigate the north, west side of St. Thomas and then straight across the Virgin Passage to the main harbour of Culebra. We only saw one other sailboat out today. We didn’t have the gusty wind or the big waves that we were warned about. It was a bit rough at points because the wave (and wind) direction was on our port aft quarter (and sometimes on the beam – 90° to the boat). It was a pretty good sail and we made good time – got into the bay before 2 pm.

The entrance into Ensenada Honda, Culebra is fairly narrow but well marked. We took our sails down (jib and jigger) just before we got to the narrow part and, with our wind meter set to show depth, we easily navigated into the bay. We were just starting to turn up towards the town anchorage when we heard a radio call from some ship – it was leaving Culebra heading to Isle de Vieques (a PR island just south west of Culebra). Sure enough a small cruise ship was heading directly at us! We were both very happy that the ship didn’t depart about 15 minutes earlier. We would have met it right at the narrow spot and that would have been interesting!

We’re now anchored near the town of Culebra and we’ll be here until Wednesday (Dec. 17th) when we’ll hopefully sail the 20 nm to Peurto Del Rey. Time to relax and get my back feeling better!!