French Island/Dutch Island

We left St. Barts for the 15 mile  sail to St. Maarten. This is the Dutch half of the island. The other half is French. Once signed in to one side, you can move freely to the other side and back by local transport.. We had been told that the Dutch side was cheaper and we wanted to provision the boat for the sail to Bermuda, then, as Bermuda is the most expensive place in the world to live, for the stay there and the onward trip to the Azores. For this reason, we anchored in Simpson Bay on the Dutch side.

We stayed there for two nights then decided to go through the lifting bridge to stay in the sheltered lagoon. Scruffbag wanted to fit a radar reflector, which involved climbing the mast and we would have to dinghy regularly across the lagoon to collect water  and visit the chandlery so we felt it would be better there. It certainly was but there are some shallow patches and we touched bottom whilst anchoring before dropping the hook in 5.2 metres.

The island is not a particularly pretty one, but Phillipsburg, the Dutch capital, a bus ride away, is an attractive town surrounded by saltmarshes. It has an attractive seafront and a good swimming beach as well as a large Carrfour for stocking up and a "Cost You Less"warehouse for bulk buys of tinned goods and drinks etc,

The French capital, Marigot, is also a short bus ride away and the Super U supermarket is our provisioner of choice. It can also be reached by a  half hour dinghy ride across the lagoon, though in windy weather one can get a little wet. Marigot, and indeed all the French side of the island, shows more obvious signs of hurricane damage.

We have managed to do some exploring and have found a walking track from here to Marigot, which affords great views of the lagoon on both sides of the border.

We have visited several pretty beaches, including the famous Maho beach, which is next to the airport on the Dutch side and where you can swim in the sea whilst planes come down overhead. Everyone automatically ducks.

We are now killing time waiting for a good weather forecast to sail the 850 miles to Bermuda. Unfortunately the winds are not yet favorable. We took a walk up to the fort in Marigot last week for another great view,

There are a number of superyachts  here in the lagoon (though nowhere near as big as those in St, Barts). Among them is the£1.5 million  yacht designed for Steve Jobs

Also anchored here in the lagoon is our friend Richard, who we first met in Guadeloupe, a singlehander on his Vancouver 28 and he is also waiting for the weather to sail to Bermuda, We meet up in the local yacht club every morning to enjoy the $2 cup of coffee with  unlimited refills and to check the forecast and continue to hope for fair winds

Private jets and Superyachts

We left Barbuda at around 5-30 pm for another overnight sail. We wanted to go quite slowly in order not to arrive before daylight so we set off under headsail with the wind aft of the beam. However, although we wanted a slow sail, 3 knots was too slow and felt like we were wallowing. We decided to put up the reefed main and actually still managed the slow pace we had hoped for. we enjoyed a very pleasant sail and arrived off the island in the early morning. The wind had gone dead aft of the beam so a last minute gybe was needed to correct our final approach.

The anchorage appeared very crowded so we called up the port authority to ask if we could pick up one of the buoys we could see. Unfortunately, they were all private so we anchored way off the town. Also unfortunately, the anchorage was extremely rolly, as we had been told it was. There were private planes flying in all the time and there were huge numbers of super yachts, some bigger than cross channel ferries and one with two tenders bigger than Erica.

We went ashore and into the harbour office, where we were charged 18 euros for the privilege of staying on this rolly anchorage for two nights. At least there was a book swap and there were free showers too. A walk round the town was an eye opener. Most shops did not display prices on the "if you need to ask you cannot afford it" principle. We even found a supermarket with state of the art stainless steel shelves and no food prices. I did find one shop with a sale where I could have bought a swimsuit for a mere 150 euros.
We did manage to find a relatively normally priced supermarket, thank goodness, as well as the downmarket bar and cafe so we were able to eat and drink.

What with the price, the roll and the distance into town, we  only spent one full day there. We managed to find a lovely small shell beach just out of town where we had a swim and a picnic lunch.

We have met a couple later who told us of a secluded (though quite busy) anchorage just round the corner from the capital, where we were anchored. They enjoyed their stay there but we were anxious to press on to St. Maarten/St. Martin so, although we knew of this anchorage we decided to move on.

Barbuda, beaches and frigate birds

The sail to Barbuda was only 30 miles. We hand steered in 17 knots of breeze on the beam and enjoyed a very pleasant sail. Scruffbag hooked a large, grey fish but, unfortunately lost it before we could land it or identify it.

Barbuda was beautiful, a quiet anchorage in turquoise water with miles of deserted white sand beach. The beach was steep to and on the other side was a large lagoon. Across the lagoon was Codrington, the capital of the island, though in reality, little more than a small village.

The only way across the lagoon was by water taxi and it took us so long to get a response from the radio that at one point we thought we would have to leave the island having only seen the long beaches and distant views of the capital.

Eventually we managed to get a response and arranged a taxi across the lagoon and a trip 4 miles up the lagoon to visit the largest frigate bird colony in the world.

Barbuda was badly damaged by a hurricane two years ago. All the islanders were then evacuated amidst fears of a second one. Although this never materialised, they were not allowed back for a month, during which time the rain  had got into the houses, all of which were roofless and damaged, and ruined any surviving possessions. Two thirds of the islanders have now returned and building work has been extensive but there is still much to do.

A large beach side hotel remains an untouched ruin.


Our trip to the frigate bird colony was one of the highlights of our Caribbean trip. There were thousands of birds, from young chicks to yearlings to mating pairs( we were lucky as it was very late for mating). Apparently the frigate birds all left the island just before the hurricane, but thankfully they have now returned.

After 3 nights, it was time to leave Barbuda, However, the winds seemed a good deal stronger than forecast. As we had no internet on this anchorage, and no signal on the mobile, we called our daughter, Heather on the satellite phone and got an updated forecast. With a prediction of 30 knot gusts, which was what we were experiencing, we decided to postpone our overnight sail to St. Barts  by one day.