We left Ponce at midnight when the easterly trades are lighter and headed east to Puerto Patillas.  Puerto Patillas is a lovely anchorage but it was very rolly from the swells that broke over the reef to the east.  We stayed here three nights waiting for weather.  Maribel and Pete on Paper Moon were anchored in Salinas (west of Puerto Patillas) where they rented a car.  On their sightseeing trip they stopped at Puerto Patillas to have lunch with us, and we ended up driving to San Juan.  One night
we had a pot luck on shore with the other five boats anchored here.  We met two young men who had just graduated from college and had apparently made some money playing poker so they bought a sail boat (a Tartan 38) and sailed the Caribbean for a year and were now headed back to the States to continue with their lives.  These guys never sailed before.

From Puerto Patillas we left in the morning and headed to Sun Bay at Esperanza on the south side of Viequez.  We picked up a free public mooring.  The anchorage was a bit rolly.  Esperanza is a beautiful little town with a brick walkway along the harbor front.  Of course they have the required harbor front bars.   From Esperanza along with Sol y Mar and Moon Sail we took a cab to Isabel Secunda on the north side of the island.  Of course we had to try the harbor front bars on this side of the island.
 

We left Viequez and headed for St. Thomas.  Fortunately, both Puerto Rico and St. Thomas are associated with the US we did not need to check in with Immigration.  We anchored in the outer harbor at Red Hook.  The numerous ferries coming and going made this anchorage very uncomfortable.  So we had pizza at American Harbor and did the laundry and went shopping first thing in the morning and left Red Hook.  We went across the sound and picked up a mooring at Caneel Bay, St. John.   Caneel bay was also
a little rolly due to the ferries that went by on their way to Tortola.

We headed to BVI and checked in at Sopers Hole before heading for the bight at Norman Island.  We were being decadent in picking up moorings instead of anchoring out like a cost conscious cruiser.  You could tell the charter boats when they came in (other than the big Moorings on the sail cover) as at least 2 and sometimes 4 people are on the bow to pick up the mooring pennant.  The really inexperienced charters make 2 or 3 tries at the mooring ball.  There was one large cat drifting towards us until
the hired captain came to the rescue and took over the controls.  We had chartered in this area many times and I'm sure we looked just like these guys did.

From Norman we went to Marina Cay and stayed two days as John had some maintenance to do on the engine.  The engine has been running a little hotter than usual.  The happy hour at Marina Cay featured Michael Bean, a one man band, doing a pirate themed act. ARRRRG. It was very entertaining with a lot of audience participation.  For example, any audience participant that answered pirate questions correctly or had a pirate toast that they shared with the crowd got a free shot of rum.  John got a shot
of rum for being a dinghy captain.     
 
We then headed for Leverick Bay, Gorda Sound, Virgin Gorda to stage for our crossing to Sint Maarten.  We met Sea Schell who we last saw in Luperon and then Paper Moon arrived both of whom were also staging to cross.  While in Leverick we met Craig and Andy from the Malletts Bay Boat Club, our home club in Vermont.   

While in Leverick Bay we went to the Friday night entertainment at the resort that included a band and an appearance by the Jumbies.  The Jumbies are a native dance group who dance on stilts.  The group appeared to be a family with the height of the stilts proportional to the height of the person.  The kids were on relatively short stilts with the adults on six foot stilts.  

The day before we left we took a dingy trip over to the Bitter End Yacht Club and Resort.  A very impressive resort.  The resort sprawls over a very large peninsula with several restaurants, bars, pools, boat rentals, etc.  The grounds are well maintained and filled with many different varieties of flowering shrubs.

On Monday, May 14, John along the three other captains took a taxi to Spanish Town to clear out of the BVI's.  That afternoon at 2 pm we left for Sint Maarten in company with four other boats.     

Sint Maarten

We arrived in Sint Maarten at 7 am after an uneventful crossing and anchored in the Baii (bay) to wait for the bridge opening.  We decided to go into Simpson Bay Lagoon from the Dutch side.  We checked in and made the 9:30 bridge opening into the Lagoon.

If you are going to the Lagoon you can check in on either the French side, Marigot Bay ($8.50 for a month) or the Dutch side, Simpson Bay ($ 10.00 for a week).  We came in the Dutch side with Sea Schell as the Dutch side has a bigger bridge and channel but for boats our size it does not make any difference. We anchored on the Dutch side near the end of the runway of the airport.  Fortunately not too many planes take off, mostly in the afternoon.   We are also anchored near Shrimpy's who has free
wifi in the bar.

The Lagoon has 2 large marine stores on the Dutch side at the extreme southeast end of the lagoon.  The prices are better than the states.  The number of restaurants are too numerous to name.  Many of the restaurants have a happy hour on different nights of the week.  The Lady C, a floating boat restaurant, has all you eat ribs for $11.00.  There is a weekly publication that lists the locations of the happy hours each night.  The local yacht club had a happy hour with $ 1.00 beers Friday night.
They are located next to the draw bridge so we can watch the 5:30 opening with all the yacht traffic (the bridge only opens three times a day, 9:30 am, 11:30 am and 5:30 pm).

John worked on the engine again as the temperature was still a little hot.  He found some grass partially blocking the heat exchanger.  Hopefully this was the problem and the engine will run at the correct temperature now.   

Our last day in Sint Maarten we dinghied over to the French side to Marigot where we had lunch in a French restaurant along the dock.  The enticement from the waiter was that they had poor service but great food.  That night we had sundowners with Sea Schell as a good bye as they were staying another week to have repairs done on their boat.