Kerosene Beach

Sunday, November 22 10:45am

Friday, we went to Philipsburg as planned, it's the port where the cruise ships stop, but the one for the day was postponed to the following day, so there weren't many people in town. The "town", it's only two streets with at least 100 jewelries and a dozen electronics stores, nothing else. We didn't stay long, then we left towards the Simpson Bay Lagoon, We had to wait for 5:30 as the bridge opens only once in the afternoon.
yesterday (Saturday), we went for a walk. First stop: Maho Beach, commonly known as Kerosene Beach. This beach is at the end of the airport runway, and when the planes tak off, they need to put themselves against the fence, then push the engines to take off. The beach being just beind, when the engines thrust, you get a load of sand and insane winds. It's an experiment and they say it's even better when it's a 747 (see youtube videos). We then walked West towards Cupecoy Bay with its small beaches nested betwen rock cliffs. Aside from the fact that often some naked people took the spot before you, it's a small paradise. We went to visit a huge comdo complex under construction over there. In the evening, we went to see a few bars in "town", but it was almost empty, as the big boats will come here in December, in a few weeks.
This morning, we'll walk a little more, but it will be relax, the girls are arriving tonight and tomorrow it will be a few errands and a departure for St. Barth Tuesday.

Pictures from St. Martin / Sint. Maarten

While I have very good internet, I am uploading all I can, so here are the St. Martin / Sint. Maarten pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=174108&id=621427208&l=01d9e69af2

Pictures from the Birtish Virgin Islands

Here are the pictures, unsorted, unedited:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=168441&id=621427208&l=5e75944b24

St. Martin, French side

Friday, November 20, 6:50 am.

We got into St. Martin early in the morning, I was asleep when the change in engine rpm woke me up, indicating maneuvers to anchor. We were in the Margiot Bay. We went ashore to clear customs and visit the town of Marigot, where they speak french and there are dozens of stores as the ones you would see in any big city. It was very hot, but I can't complain. We then left to sail to Pinel island, to the east. Getting there, we saw a wrecked sailboat on the shore, he must've hit the reef; it's sad to see this.
Once on Pinel island, we anchored near the beach, thanks to the shallow draft, we could be where other boats can't go. We swan tot he beach, located in a superb setting. The next day, we used to dinghy to go to Orient beach, on the other side of the bay. Part of the beach is nude and people are not shy to get a tan without lines. It's supposedly a world renown beach. The rest of the beach is filled with small restaurants that rent chairs and umbrellas in their small reserved space to the water. It's so nice outside, the perfect day to be on the beach.
This morning, we woke up early because we were touching the bottom, we shifted direction during the night and it's shallower. We are leaving for Philipsburg, the big commercial place on the Netherlands side, so that Jean can buy a dvd player. We will then be in the lagoon for a few days.
Internet is not readily available here, I've been told that the big telecom companies have gotten a law passed that restricts companies to get wirless signal outside of their walls, for us to have to pay... So to get internet, we often need to be clients of a restaurant. I'll try to put my pictures online before leaving for St. Barth.

On our way to St-Martin

We are Tuesday, November 17th, 10:37pm, AST.

This morning, the rain finally stopped, then the sun came out and stayed with us all day. We went to visit the Bitter End on Virgin Gorda Island, it's a really high end resort. There was an 80 feet Swan sailboat, it's impressive to see such a big sailboat! We couldn't go to Anegada because the weather was not stable.

Right now, we are almost half way between the virgin islands and St-Martin. There is no moon and the sky is filled with stars but we can see lightning to the east. I am at the navigation center inside checking the radar, there is a huge vessel closing in and I am checking if it will pass in front of us. The sea is calm, there is no wind. We will arrive very early tomorrow in St-Martin.

Rain :(

Today, it rains a lot and it doesn't seem to want to stop. The trip to Anegada is canceller for now, we'll see tomorrow. We are currently in a small resort for lunch and to look at the new on internet.

First two days in the BVI

Finally the vacations!
Saturday we left Tortola tu get to Norman Island. Right to the north is Pelican Island, a tiny island with rocks around, I stopped and did a snorkel dive around. I saw lots of fish and could do pictures and videos. We then went to Norman Island see the caves at Privateer Bay where I did a second dive to try and find the treasure that the legend talks about, then we ate lunch in The Bight. Afterwards, in the afternoon, we sailed towards Peter Island to Deadman Bay for the night.
This morning we went to the next island to the east, Salt Island, and we stopped for a dive over the Rhones shipwreck. unfortunately, I couldn't dive at the bottom but the view from the top was impressive. We then sailed towards Virgin Gorda Island to visit "The Baths". These are huge rocks piled up making caves and baths under them. It's magnificient and because we were before the tourist season, it wasn't too crowded. It's normally the big tourist thing here. Right now we are anchored in Gorda Sound for a good dinner. Tomorrow we are going to Anegada!!