ENDURANCE 40 VOYAGER 38
CLASSIC WAVE TRINCULO
Yachts with Power Style & Grace
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43DS
Voyages of the C-W CREW 1
This is the first story of a voyage involving the crew following the loss of CLASSIC WAVE
The LEEWARD ISLANDS St. Martin to St Kitts
FRIDAY 4th. November to FRIDAY 18th. November 2005
CREW: Bob Skipper
Barrie
Alison
(Bob P.)
After the loss of Classic Wave Barrie proposed we should charter a yacht to get over it all. Actually, I think he found he had spare holiday that he did not know what to do with! We therefore tasked Bob P. to organise something.
This evolved into the charter of a Sun Odyssey 43DS, with Sunsail from their base at Saint Martin in the Leeward Islands. In the meantime my daughter, Alison had decided she should come along; to keep an eye on her Dad.
The result of the sad loss of Bob, just after he had made the booking, was a large yacht with four individual cabins and only three of us.
However, we decided he would wish us to carry on, and arrangements were concluded. His ashes where also to come with us and we were determined to take him sailing before finding a good place to leave them.
Flights were booked through Sunsail leaving Gatwick on First Choice at 09.15 on the Friday morning. A challenge from the start, as theoretically we had to check in at 6.15 am. Sunsail helped by upgrading us to ‘Star Class Premier’, which slipped the time to 7.15, and finally we solved the problem by Barrie driving us down the night before, staying near Gatwick at the Russ Hill Hotel, where his car was also parked for the two weeks.
We arrived at the airport on time, just after Alison, who made it from Portsmouth despite having overslept, and missed her taxi.
The First Choice flight from Gatwick to Antigua left on time and, although nearly nine hours, was excellent, arriving around 14.00 local time. The three of us were in a very good mood, but we had not then encountered LIAT, the local Caribbean Airline. They first said they knew nothing about our, paid for, booking and we had to pay again to go to St. Martin. There was fortunately a Sunsail rep. at the airport and she soon resolved this, but it was now apparent that we would not be departing at the time we expected, ie 16.35. The only way to describe the wait, is ‘total chaos’. Fours hours late we got onto an aircraft. I just made it, being the last on, with more than ten people left behind. None were too pleased, and the Police were called to calm one very upset passenger. It turned out later that two Sunsail passengers were left behind, and one other on our flight lost his luggage.
WE CANNOT RECOMMEND LIAT.
A 20 mins. flight and, I am pleased to say Sunsail were still waiting for us when we got to St Martin. A pleasant ride and we were at Oyster Pond, Captain Oliver’s Marina, and introduced to our home for the next two weeks. The good ship LETO.
The yacht was very nicely presented, with a number of goodies from Sunsail on the Saloon table, so we rapidly felt at home, especially in the warm (28 ish) night air. Need I say we had to calm ourselves with a drink. A visit to the ‘Dingy Dock Bar’, was very successful. It allowed us to sample and identify a good (it had some taste) beer; Presidente, made in the Dominican Republic. We continued to drink it for the rest of our stay. We were also introduced to the ‘Island system’. When you order a short, eg. Jameson, you were given a glass of ice and the BOTTLE. I liked it!!! I recommend its introduction over here, but also with their prices. We slept well that night
Saturday 5th. November Oyster Pond to Ile Pinel CHART
The Sunsail briefing was at 09.00, and the night before we thought we might miss that early time, but we were up and present when required. This told us where we could go and where we could not go, for safety and environmental reasons. Also useful info.on how to deal with the officials on the various different islands, which in the main were different countries which you had to clear into and out from. After that we had a boat brief and picked up some supplies at the local small ‘super market’. Some Americans’, who were clearing their boat to go home, also gave us some ‘left overs’, cartons of milk, juices and mixers, etc. This gave us a good start.
Our idea had been to provision the yacht before we got under way but this did not seem the best idea when we found the large supermarkets were some distance from Oyster Pond. We decided to sail to Philipsburg, the Capital but on the Dutch part of the island. Saint Martin is half French and half Dutch, Sint Maarten, with the border running through Oyster Pond.
The harbour has a difficult entrance, facing east, particularly challenging in a strong wind, so Sunsail wisely provides a pilot to take the boat out for the first time. Vince came aboard and helped us out, and we set off north to Orient Bay and the Ile
Pinel. Yes, Philipsburgh is south, but we would get their eventually!
Sunsail had provided us with a detailed chart and instructions on how to get to Ile Pinel. In fact, like a lot of pilots, this only made everything seem much more difficult than it was.
We were soon in Orient Bay and had to identify the island and anchorage. This we did but the depth of water at the anchorage was considerably less than the chart said, causing some embarrassment to Barrie on the helm!!!
We got anchored in the end in an idyllic position. A view of golden sand, palm trees and a beach bar.
Sunday 6th. November Ile Pinel
I have described the view we had that evening. In the morning it looked even better.
The yacht had a excellent Carib RIB as a tender and a 9.6 hp outboard motor. You could probably have water skied behind the tender. The problem was that all that power meant the motor was very heavy. I mean heavy; Barrie and I struggled to move it from the yacht rail to the tender. We wondered how a husband and wife crew would manage?
Generally speaking after our first sail in LETO we were well pleased. She sailed well and for a three year old charter boat was in good condition. The only problem we had found was, the log was slow to start moving and only indicating half the true speed. The impeller seemed free so we re calibrated the speed against the GPS. She also only had a Windex at the masthead, difficult to see in the sun and with the biminni. A wind speed/direction display would have been nice to have.
Once ashore all that was forgotten as we relaxed into the Caribbean way of life. Swimming in warm water, interspersed with a drink, a rest, a stroll over the Island, a rest, a swim............... Lunch passed by with some food on the boat. Another drink and a rest.
As the day had nearly gone we decided to spend another night in the same place. We debated whether we could spend the whole holiday there.
One problem was that we had not provisioned the boat, therefore we had to move the next day if we were to have food onboard.
Monday 7th. November Ile Pinel to Philipsburg CHART
Getting up in the morning seemed remarkably easy. The bright sunshine may have something to do with it! So after a ‘continental’ breakfast in the cockpit we were underway at 9.10
We decided to leave the motor attached to the tender. Not good practice but, in our opinion, safer than lifting it on and off.
We also decided to navigate our normal ‘British’ way; ie with a good reference to the depth sounder and GPS way points, as well as the eyeball.
Leaving Orient Bay was easy under motor and we had a great sail down the east side of St. Martin, passed Oyster Pond to Philipsburg which is on the SE corner of the Island. A large cruise ship came into view just before we turned the corner. We were then in the bay, heading for Bobby’s Marina.
The Dockmaster told us to moor stern -to against the pier. It had been a long time since I had done that so you can imagine we had some problems. The detail is irrelevant, but after ‘ditching’ the anchor in the middle of the harbour, a lot of awkward manoeuvring, in a cross wind, much shouting from the Dockmaster, we finally ended up tied stern-to the pier!
Bobby’s marina by our standards is a bit of a dump. It was however within a short walk of a large Chinese supermarket where we got over $300 US of provisions. A nice Chinese lady delivered it to the marina door for us, with a ’lad’ to help us move it. We needed him because the marina had no trollys. The ‘lad’ cost $10 (He said the supermarket did not pay him.)
You can walk straight out of the marina into Philipsburg which is a nice small town. Dutch/Caribbean in style, as you would expect and, while there were tourist shops, they were not unpleasant. Lots of bars and good restaurants, one of which was selected for a meal ashore that evening.
At six o’clock the ‘lights went out’. At ten to six it is daylight. At ten past six it is pitch black. No twilight. This was the same every night. I had heard of this but had not realised it was so dramatic.
Our first meal ashore was excellent and I would recommend the restaurant, if I could remember its name!
Tuesday 8th. November Philipsburg to Oranjestad Statia (St. Eustatius) (Neths) CHART
We were away good and early (08.50) after topping up with water. $3 for 60 galls. As with the day before the wind was slightly south of east, F5 and we headed south. Statia rapidly emerged from the haze and we kept to the east of our course. Saba was also now visible but Sunsail had barred us from going there, saying the anchorage was poor and they had lost some boats. Rounding the north of Statia a number of large tankers came into view. These were waiting to visit the oil terminal. Before long we also observed the storage tanks on the hillside.
We arrived at Oranjestad the ‘capital’ of Statia at 14.10. A passage average of 6 kts, after making 8 kts for much of the time.
The anchorage is on the west of the island but exposed to some swell. We stopped in what appeared to be the best place, downstream from the main dock.
We then had our first experience with the ‘officials’.
Although we had left Dutch Sint Maaarten and were arriving at Dutch Statia we had to clear Customs and Immigration. However, they conveniently had an office at the harbour entrance and after filling in a few forms, we were cleared in and out by a single person.
Ashore we found a very sleepy island, with the town well spread out up a steep hillside. Nice friendly people and the Fire Brigade busy preparing for a fate or fiesta. Unfortunately we would not be staying to join in.
Wednesday 9th. November Statia to Charlestown, Nevis CHART
The swell turned out to be worse than we thought so it was not the best place to get a good nights sleep, and we were up early again the next morning, pleased to get away from the rocking and rolling. The wind had also veered very slightly more
to the south so we were not able to get a heading that would take us straight to Charlestown. Around midday we put in a tack to close with the coast of St Kitts and debated a change of plan. To visit Basseterre, St Kitts. However the new course we achieved from the coast looked good, and we were making good speed, so we carried on.
Entering the anchorage at Charlestown a familiar looking yacht was seen. Barrie read ‘Northern Rose’, Preston. Built by Glen at Freckleton Boatyard, when I had my previous boat ‘Ardgour’ berthed there. He and Pat had set off around the world a few years ago. They were not onboard, but appeared later in their tender, after we had anchored and settled down to a beer. It was a shock to them when they received a torrent of abuse from the innocent looking yacht anchored beside them. They were revived by coming aboard ‘LETO and having beer poured into them. It turned out they had spent some time as planned in the Med. after leaving Scotland, where I had last met up with them. They had then crossed to the Caribbean.
After arriving they survived Hurricane Ivan, but with considerable damage to Northern Rose, which Glen had to repair. It was fortunate that it was a strong steel boat and he could push it back to shape using car jacks.
Nevis is part of the autonomous (British?)Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis, so we had to clear ‘in’. We decided to leave it for the following morning. This time it was a bit more difficult. We cleared the Customs near the harbour, but then had to go up town to the Police Station to clear Immigration. We also did not seem to be able to clear ‘out’, but were given a form to clear ‘out’ from St Kitts.
A very tall, 7 ft. plus, friendly taxi driver wanted to give us a tour of the island, but we declined, feeling the $80 US could be spent on better things. So after a walk around town we returned to LETO.
Thursday 10th. November Charlestown to Basseterre, via Ballast Bay, St Kitts CHART
Glen and Pat were meeting relatives off a cruise ship in Basseterre so they had left by the time we returned to LETO.
We got underway at 10.30 and decided to stop for lunch on the way. We dropped anchor in Ballast Bay on the southern tip of St Kitts. While we were there, we were joined by a big ‘cat’ which was obviously a tourist dive boat. It discharged a large number of people into the water who swam around with snorkels but after what seemed too short a time, called them back, upped anchor and left.
We also noticed a large black cloud building over St Kitts. It was the rainy season and we had experienced a small shower, heavy but short, on the sail south, but this looked like something bigger. We raised anchor to make a dash for Basseterre. Our fears were proven to be correct. Within a short period the rain was coming down like a waterfall. Visibility had decreased to a few metres and the wind had increased. It was still warm and LETO was sailing well. Fortunately another large ‘cat’ appeared on the same course behind us; slowly gaining on us. It eventually overtook, and we could now vaguely make out a large cruise ship in Basseterre harbour. The ‘cat’ showed us the way into Port Zante marina. This introduced another mooring challenge. Northern Rose had taken the only small space alongside so we had to berth bow to, between piles. Glen and Pat appeared on shore and with their help we managed it. A very friendly taxi man named Basil appeared and provided a lot of local knowledge plus the offer of an Island tour., which we said we would consider.
Unfortunately for him, Percy another taxi man was the local Sunsail rep. And we needed his help with the cooker. Since leaving Oyster Pond we had not managed to get the gas to stay alight. Neither of the two burners. There seemed to be a problem with the flame failure device(s).
The book; Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands, recommended the Ballahoo Restaurant overlooking the ‘Circus’ as the place to eat. The ‘Circus’ is a round-about in the centre of town. The restaurant is an upstairs terrace where you can watch the comings and goings as you eat. We decided to eat out again and had an excellent meal, so we can fully endorse the recommendation.
The following morning we eventually contacted Percy on VHF 16 ( the taxis listen out on it as well as the boats) and got him to look at our cooker. That is about all he did, and light it a couple of times. However it worked from then on. I think he also used some voodoo!
We also negotiated a trip around the Island, he wanted $80 US but we finally agreed on $60 for a few hours, mentioning that we needed to visit Customs and pick up some provisions from a supermarket.
Continued on next page
At least we now had a full freezer, including a number of cases of el Presidente.
