FWI Day 8: Final Morning and Phillipsburg

We departed early from Ilse Fourchue (just off the north coast of St. Barths) to return to Phillipsburg where the Captain and Elena would resupply and clean the ship and welcome a new set of eight guests at 2pm that day.  Matt got out of bed when the engines started at 6am and went up to assist the captain.  We departed for St. Martin and Matt turned around and caught a beautiful Caribbean sunrise while steering the ship.

We ate breakfast in route and came to port at Phillipsburg, St. Marteen.

We anchored off the pier and ferried our luggage and all passengers ashore and said our final good-byes.

With our luggage in hand we went to the hotel and relaxed and said good-bye to the Swenson and Thelins who were leaving that Saturday afternoon.  The Spencers and Grimmers were flying out the next day so we stayed and enjoyed lunch and Matt and Wes did some snorkeling at the beach behind the hotel.

We then went to Phillipsburg for some shopping and dinner and a beautiful sunset.

 

 

FWI Day 7: St. Jean Bay

We left Saline Bay and sailed around St. Barts to a bay (Colombier Bay) to meet with a scuba diving group who would take us on our final dive of the vacation.  We went to a nature preserve where we saw lobster, turtle, coral reef, sharks, barracuda, fish, eel, etc. And, our very nice and helpful dive masters did not require dive cards confirming we knew what we were doing, no signatures on paperwork, no concern for plans or testing equipment or when Matt's air was in the red he received the "every thing's fine" from the dive master.  So, it was just fun; with some anxiety for those wondering if there was a plan to this dive. Despite this relaxed approach, it was a wonderful experience.

After the dive our captain took us to his favorite bay: St. Jean Bay, where we swam, played and relaxed.

At the end of the day the captain took us back to Ilse Fourchue to anchor for the evening.  We took group pictures, shared favorite memories, and exchanged gifts with our captain and Elena.

All week the Captain had been teaching Matt and others how to operate our sailboat, on the final night, the Captain's gift to Matt was something from the boat to practice his sailing knots:

FWI Day 6: Saline Bay and the Lion Hunt

The wind was almost dead on Thursday so the Captain fired up the engines and we "motored" from Gustavia harbor to Saline Bay on the west side of the island, we anchored the boat and spent the entire day (and night) playing in the surf, kayaking around the bay, snorkeling for hours, sitting on the beach, hiking around the beach, climbing (and stealing) coconuts (despite the no trespassing sign--much to the frustration and anger of the french resident) and cracking them open and tasting them, and generally just watching a couple dozen nude (presumably European) beach goers. And as usual, the captain and Elena his assistant kept us well fed with breakfast, lunch and dinner on the yacht.

As night fall approached, Jason drew on his experience catching lobster at night and Wes, Jason and Reid set out on a lobster hunt.  Matt accompanied them in the sea kayak as their "support boat."  Armed with lights, gloves and a spear gun, the hunters canvased the reef and rocks near the cliffs about 100 yards from our boat.  They did not find any lobster, but they found a poisonous Lion Fish and abandoned their lobster hunt, to attempt to kill the Lion Fish, which is a danger to other fish.  With one shot Jason killed the fish and hauled it back triumphantly to the boat to the concerned wives who had been watching the lights of their husbands as they turned the corner around the point it the rocks and disappeared into the moonless night.

FWI Day 5: Gustavia

After breakfast, we departed Ilse Fourchue with hoping to use the spear gun at St. Barths and looking forward to a stroll in Gustavia, the main city on Saint Barthelemy (St. Bart's).  We sailed to the Gustavia harbor and anchored among other sailboats, yachts, super yachts, and mega super yachts.

We immediately went snorkeling with the spear gun to an area just outside the harbor, and returned with lunch (thanks to Jason and Reid): two parrot fish, which the Captain promptly prepared and presented for lunch.

 

 

 After a delicious lunch we cleaned up and went ashore to explore Gustavia.  We shopped, explored, and concluded with dinner at L'Isola. We found Gustavia a quiet slow-paced friendly and relaxing city. But we realized quickly, this is an expensive place.

FWI Day 4: Sailing and Hiking

Everyday the Captain presented options for our day and we were given the choice: snorkeling, go ashore, sailing, fishing, etc. Tuesday morning the Captain said the seas were somewhat rough beyond Tintamarre and we could stay at St. Martin, return to Tintamarre, or leave St. Martin and push to the open waters between St. Martin and St. Barths and endure what might be rough waters.  The Captain was unquestionably trying to prevent and avoid any seasickness (or make sure we new it was our decision if seasickness occurred).  However, our decision was to set sail and head to the open waters where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Caribbean and see if we could make it to St. Barths.  So, we finished breakfast and set sail for the Windward side of St. Martin.

A brief rain shower began as we left Grand Case Bay and Matt guided the ship for the next hour through the rain and wind while others remained below.  As we passed Tintamarre and Pinel Islands the clouds parted and we set sail out into the Atlantic for about 90 minutes, then set a new course with the wind directly to Ilse Fourchue, an uninhabited island just off the coast of St. Barths with a very protected bay.  Everyone came out on deck and enjoyed sun, warm wind and sailing for the next four hours, and at times the seas were more rough than we had experienced, but the ladies gathered on the stern and enjoyed riding the waves while Matt sailed our ship.

We arrived at Ilse Fourchue and went ashore to explore and climb one of the rocky peaks.

Our adventures ended with another marvelous dinner at the outside deck on VIP One and some spirited games once dessert was cleared from the table.

FWI Day 3: Tacking to Tintamarre

This trip was Matt's 40th birthday present and he wanted to go sailing. And while the Captain had been having Matt sail for the past two days, Monday morning brought more than he expected.  Previously he asked the Captain if he could help and was given every opportunity including sailing for hours at a time, hoisting sails, drawing line, helping drop anchor, standing watch, etc.

We departed Marigot Bay and headed around the north end of St. Martin on our way to the uninhabited island of Tintamarre.  With the wind in our face we took a zig-zag route known as tacking.  Along the way the GPS was not giving the necessary information to the Captain and so he summoned an immediate meeting of the men on the ship where the captain gave orders for them to take compass bearings and report locations, chart this information on the nautical map and report to the captain the coordinates and locations as we traversed between St. Martin and the British island of Anguilla.  It became tricky when adjustments for magnetic north had to be included in the computation (14 degrees offset).

It was an absolute joy to Matt to embrace all aspects of sailing, and to have a crash course in taking bearings. One of his tasks was to keep the log book while they were charting their locations, writing their coordinates to the exact "second" of longitude and latitude.

Overall the sailing was enjoyable and relaxing, we proceeded at about 4-6 knots.  The captain even took us to the stern (back) of the boat and threw a knotted line (rope) in the water to show us how to estimate our speed.  The weather was perfect and we eventually arrived at the leeward side of Tintamarre. It was beautiful.  With the boat anchored we went ashore, swim or kayak, to explore and play.  We crossed the island and found a shipwreck to investigate in the surf on the Windward side of the island and a beach covered with treasures.

More shells and coral than you could carry.

The island adventures ended with dinner aboard and an expectation that we would stay the night in the bay at Tintamarre. But as the sun sank on the horizon we saw that the cresting surf was shifting and that waves were beginning to roll just beyond the boats anchored near the beach.  The captain announced that we must leave and seek shelter in another bay or it was likely that at some point in the night these rolling waves would impact the boat and roll her over.  We pulled out and backtracked toward St. Martin; heading to Anse Marcel, a protected canyon.  We used the motors under the full moon to find a safe spot for the night.

In route the Captain asked Matt to sit at the stern (front) of the boat in the dark and watch to insure we did not hit anyone or anything. As we entered the canyon and could see the lights of the boats in the distance ahead, Matt started yelling to the captain to turn around. Immediately the Captain turned the boat and Matt pointed to giant crashing waves ahead in the middle of what would normally be open water far from shore; these cresting waves were visible only briefly as they crested creating the white foam and producing the unmistakable sound of a crashing wave.  The captain identified these waves as the same rolling waves that Tintamarre was about to experience, and he explained that the boats deep in the canyon were trapped until the rolling waves dissipated, and that these waves that were cresting in open water would have likely capsized our boat had we attempted (intentionally or not) to make it over or past these waves.  We again turned back and went to the next bay for shelter: Grand Case Bay.  At Grand Case we found peaceful calm waters and we anchored for the night.

FWI Day 2: leap of faith

We woke Sunday morning to the smells of breakfast, which was served at the back porch (deck) of the boat. The table was set, the toast, eggs, bacon, and cereals were prepared and eight rested passengers assembled for a blessing on the food and to share stories of sleeping while adjusting to the constant rising and falling of the boat with the tide.

Mullet Bay was beautiful in the morning.

After breakfast we dressed for Sabbath services and the captain instructed us that, without any dock or pier around, to go ashore we would need to ride the dinghy (small inflatable motorized boat) to the breaking waves, then wait until the exact moment when the waves broke to leap from the dingy onto the sand while allowing the captain to reverse the motor with the wave and not be left stranded on the sand subject to pummeling by the next wave.  The goal was to keep church clothes dry.

We were almost entirely successful... Fortunately, the constant breeze and 84 degree whether dried those who attended church with slightly wet and somewhat salty clothing.

Once ashore we turned and photographed our boat in the bay.

We went to the hotel on the bay and summoned a taxi, who took all eight of us to church. Church was mostly in English with portions translated into French. Reid confirmed that the temperature during the main services exceeded 90 degrees, but once someone turned on the air conditioning we were comfortably back into the mid-80s.  Matt was glad he was barefoot for our meeting (and that his pants, wet to the knees [from aiding a rescue of one in our party] kept him cool).

 

After church we took a taxi to Marigot where we explored the city and then met the captain and returned to the yacht.

We spent the afternoon reading and relaxing, and the captain gave us a dinghy tour of the lagoon which houses hundreds of boats, including many with families or individuals living on boats both on shore and moored in the lagoon.