Our Big Caribbean Vacation

John, Steff, Fiona and the two of us went to pick up Trevor, who was flying in from Germany on Friday. Once we collected Trevor we proceeded to get lost in the election day madness; we drove between the mountains and up the mountains but could never get over the mountains. Reinhart’s land navigation skills appear to be on the rusty side…of course, the only map we had was a satellite picture of the island without any road names, so maybe we should give him a break. We never made it back to the airport to surprise Jayne with a ride, and good thing because she was a couple of hours late, also good because she probably made it to Orient Beach before us anyway. We had a great night at the Bikini Buddha on the beach and in the morning Reinhart and I brought Maia around to Oyster Pond (N18 03.235 W63 00.975) to meet the rest of the gang on the sailing trip and check out the charter boats. John was having some serious problems with his lower back and Trevor was recuperating from a dirt-bike shoulder injury and the gang encouraged us to fill the empty cabin on John’s boat rather than sail with Maia to ensure that injuries didn’t get any worse…or at least that was a great excuse for us to go and have a great time.

So it ended up that John, Steff, Trevor, Fiona, Jayne, and the two of us were on John’s Moorings 4200 dubbed “Mind Eraser” and Keny, Rizia, Nicole, Mike, Lynn, Kevin, and Margaret were on Keny’s Sunsail Lagoon 440 dubbed “5 o’clock”. There were lots of jokes about Keny having the luxurious yacht and John’s being one that moorings had to haul up from the bottom of the pond; but all jokes aside, the Lagoon 440 was a fantastic charter boat. The galley layout was perfect for several people to work around each other preparing drinks & meals and easily deliver them to the folks outside, and the fly bridge offered great visibility and had room for several people to be up there with the captain. If anyone is interested in chartering a catamaran in the next couple of years, the Lagoon 440 would be a great choice.

On Sunday, we all set sail to Grande Case on St. Martin and anchored in the landing pattern the planes arriving at the Grande Case airport (N18 06.180 W63 03.560, approx). Jack was there with Dionysus as well and we all did some snorkeling and had a great dinner together. As we shuttled back and forth we realized that we had a huge leak in our dinghy and upon further inspection we found out the floor was actually separating from the inflated tubes…keep bailing everyone! Later on Jack, Jayne, Reinhart and I went in search of the 5 o’clock gang (in Jack’s dinghy) and ended up listening to music in the comfy lounge chairs at the great beach bar in Grande Case.

Monday we were off to Anguilla, somewhat of a slow sail, but quite competitive. It appears that Mind Eraser might have won, which is odd as it is the smaller boat dragging a dinghy; however it really looked like the 4200 could sail closer to the wind than the Lagoon 440. We dropped anchor in Road Bay at N18 11.930 W63 05.550 (approx) and we all piled on Keny’s boat to take a snorkeling and swimming trip to Sandy Island. That evening the crew of 5 o’clock headed in to dinner, but those of us on Mind Eraser pooped out and had quesadillas and pizza on board. Keny and Rizia went scuba diving the next day, while the rest of us went into town, explored ship ruins up on the reef, or just lounged around on the boats. Tuesday afternoon we set sail for Orient Beach back on St. Martin. We anchored at N18 05.310 W63 01.060 (approx), and spent the afternoon swimming and lounging around some more. The folks on 5 o’clock enjoyed Mike’s freshly caught fish, and the Mind Eraser crew went back to the Bikini Buddha for another fantastic Thai meal. Several of us ordered fresh water shrimp which ended up being crustaceans the size of Reinhart’s forearms. Steff was feeling her Louisiana roots and peeled our colossal shrimp for us.

The next day 5 o’clock headed in to Oyster Pond to fill up on water and head down to St. Barthelemy (St. Bart’s). We were a few hours behind them as aside from filling up with water, we had to stay in Oyster Pond to replace our ripped dinghy and have some electrical work done on the boat. We made it to St. Bart’s just before sunset, where we set anchor right beside Dionysus outside of Gustavia. Jack took John into Customs and Immigration with his dinghy and when they returned John decided to move Mind Eraser onto a mooring in Gustavia Harbor near the crew on 5 o’clock (N17 53.765 W62 51.015, approx). This was a mooring system like Reinhart and I have never seen; the boats are attached both bow and stern to moorings, and it would be quite an undertaking for just the two of us on Maia.

St. Bart’s is by the far the most picturesque city we’ve seen in the Caribbean. The harbor is lovely and surrounded by hills covered with red roofs. The streets are narrow and cobbled with tiny European cars zipping by. It absolutely has a Mediterranean atmosphere and made us all feel quite cosmopolitan. We couldn’t find the crew from 5 o’clock so we headed in for a swank dinner, followed by Mind Erasers (the drink, not the boat) on 5 o’clock (the boat, not the drink) and more drinks on Mind Eraser with our new found racer friend from a nearby boat. The next day was filled with shopping, both real and window, and eating pastries. John, Steff, Jayne and Jack rented small Jeep to explore the island and were shocked by almost running head on into a landing plane as they rounded a hill-top (Reinhart, John, and Trevor went up the next morning to catch these shots of a similar landing).

That night we had a meal in a handsome restaurant, followed by drinks and excellent Blues in a nearby bar, and ended up by dancing the night away in the chic waterfront club. We pulled the dinghy up to Mind Eraser at 2:30 am and hit the sack. On Friday morning, Jack came by to say goodbye…really goodbye this time. We’ll miss him terribly and we hope he’ll become a lifelong friend; as he has certainly been a great friend to us these past two months. Jack headed to St. Kitts, 5 o’clock headed back to Orient Beach, and Mind Eraser headed to Oyster Pond. All reported having exceptional sails in 20 knot east winds. We had a lunch stop in Columbier Bay on St. Bart’s for some swimming and snorkeling and arrived at Captain Oliver’s docks in Oyster Pond on Friday evening at 5pm (N18 03.345 W63 00.940, approx). Just as we were coming into Oyster Pond, Reinhart caught a keeper and we ate our fresh fish for dinner that evening. We finished off our night by torturing John and Trevor with a karaoke club.

The next morning everyone packed up and Trevor and Fiona were the first to leave with a 9am taxi. 5 o’clock came in and started their packing process and before we knew it we were putting Jayne, John and Steff in a taxi and waving goodbye to the rest of the crowd. We now have that vague lost feeling which occurs after vacations and holidays…we are happy to return to our charmed life; however, it all seems a little lonelier now.

Everyone on the trip was so very generous to us and on top of the mail, magazines, and oodles of CDs that John and Steff brought along for us, I ended up with several hair clips, sunscreen, body lotion, and toilet paper. On top of that, 5 o’clock had seemingly provisioned for a trip to Brazil, not only did they have copious amounts of left over alcohol, juice, water, jam, bread, cheese, tomatoes, eggs, bacon, etc. they also appear to have had a 10 lb baked ham on board which we’ll be eating for the next 3 weeks. We were planning on staying in St. Martin to provision, but it isn’t quite necessary any more so we’ll be on our way soon to visit the islands south of here any day now.