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April 24, 2005
N18 W63 Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten
We left St Kitts with the full knowledge that we could experience squalls and thunderstorms, but also knew that we had seen the worst of it (yesterday, it rained without pause, with thunderstorms and high winds). We had a good sail under south winds (rare in these parts). About 2 miles from St Maarten, the squall hit us. We could see it coming, turned on the engine, took in some of the sails and waited it out. Finally, it ended, and we changed into dry clothes.
The marina we were heading for was inside a lagoon under a swing bridge that opens 3 times a day. We were early for the last opening, so we anchored in the bay outside the lagoon and waited. It was like riding a hobby horse. There was no protection from the south swells (normally the bay would have been protected in an east wind, which is 99% of the time).
Then, the second squall. This time, it wanted to move VERY slowly. And rain VERY hard. So hard, we couldn’t see the bridge. We could see boats starting to move for the bridge, so we followed. A pilot boat from the marina found us and told us to follow him into the lagoon. We did. We tied up at the dock, and the rain stopped, of course.
It took 2 days to dry everything out. Our fingers and toes are still prunes.
Sint Maarten is divided down the middle between the northern French part (St Martin) and the southern Dutch part (Sint Maarten). There is an unsubstantiated story that rather than fight over the island, a Frenchman, with a bottle of wine, walked in one direction, and a Dutchman, with a flask of gin, walked in the other direction. Where they met became the boundary. The French got a little bit more, apparently because the gin was stronger than the wine.
Posted by dave at April 24, 2005 12:41 PM