Passage Martinique – Saint Martin

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”
by Jacques Cousteau

Our planet Earth has five major oceans and 113 seas. These together represent 72 percent of the earth’s surface and are an endless source of inspiration for sailors, among others. After discovering a new country, there will come another day when it is time to continue sailing. After a wonderful unexpected extra week in Martinique, we look forward to sailing again. Our trip to Saint Martin is 249 NM and will take us about 45 hours. We try to plan the arrival time of a new destination during daylight. We don’t know Marigot Bay and if you arrive during the day then you have a better view of unlit markers or natural hazards. This may mean that we may have to deliberately slow down, deviate from course or speed up to arrive at our destination during the day. Saturday morning, we prepare the boat and I prepare dinner for 2 days ahead. Jeroen makes his rounds on and around the boat to check everything extra carefully whether there are no loose ropes hanging, whether the dinghy and outboard engine of the dinghy are properly secured, the bathing ladder is up, and he does the last oil readings in the engine room. If I get a thumb up. I’ll give Neptune a sip of rum. Neptune was the Roman god of the waters and seas, who controlled wind and storm. The idea is that by pleasing this god, the seas will remain favourable during your sailing trip. Then we raise the anchor and slowly motor out of the bay at Fort de France. Once at sea we hoist the sails.

There is 17-22 knots of wind from the Northeast, so we have a nice course with half wind to Saint Martin. We can sail almost in one straight line to Saint Martin. We have all sails fully set and the boat glides through the water at a speed of between 7.5 and 9.9 knots. What a wonderful feeling this gives. Real freedom. Soon we see a sperm whale lying on the surface. Exhaling the air gives a characteristic sound and you see the splashing of water. Very nice to see. We didn’t see him go under. It immediately put us in a euphoric mood. Dominica is the first island we will sail past. Dominica’s steep underwater cliffs create deep sheltered bays along the west coast and are the perfect haven for the sperm whale to breed and calve. Dominica is the only island in the Caribbean where the sperm whale resides year-round, although sightings are most common between November and March. Less than three hours later we see another sperm whale and it went under close to our boat. What a magical moment. Rajesh had his phone at hand and managed to get nice photo’s.

Peace then returns on board, with one reading a book and the other grabbing extra sleep before our waiting schedule starts. It is very calm on the water. We don’t see any other sailing boats, which surprises us a bit. Around 5 pm Jeroen slowly warms up the Biryani, so that we can enjoy a nice meal and a beautiful view together during the breathtaking sunset.

As romantic as sailing into the sunset, heading into darkness requires careful preparation. The wind has remained pretty constant so far between 17 and 22 knots, but when we are responsible by ourselves, we prefer to have the mainsail slightly reefed. The jib and mizzen are easier to reef quickly on your own. We also prepare the cockpit by having a good flashlight, bottle of water, smartphone, headphones, e-reader, some chocolate and cookies within reach, so that you do not wake up the others who are sleeping with bright lights and noise. Inside the boat, we make sure that all loose items are back in their proper place and cannot wander around the boat. Our waiting system starts at 8 p.m. I start my first 3-hour watch, while Rajesh and Jeroen each go to their own resting place. Sailing through the night brings its own rewards: a meditative silence, shooting stars, bioluminescent plankton visible in the waves. During my watch the wind speed picks up to 25 knots (6 Beaufort) and because we are no longer sailing behind an island, but between two islands, the waves are getting higher. The speed soon goes back to 9 knots and the waves cause the boat to be pushed at an angle of about 30 degrees. I decide to reef the jib and put a first reef in the mizzen. This reduces the speed to a comfortable 7 knots. The waves keep pushing the boat up to 30 degrees, but you get used to it quickly. It will only be a little less comfortable for Rajesh and Jeroen who are sleeping. Jeroen then also wakes up, comes to check whether everything is going well and sits down next to me for half an hour to chat. After which he goes back downstairs to continue sleeping. Suddenly I see something next to me jumping above the water and I hear the sounds of a dolphin. Yes! Unfortunately, it disappears after 5 minutes and I have not seen it again. Rajesh takes over from me at 11:00 PM. During his watch the wind eases again around 19-21 knots and Rajesh takes the jib out a little more. During his watch, he sees no other boats. No other boats were visible on the radar and AIS either. Other than that, it is a quiet watch. Jeroen takes over from Rajesh at 02:00. Jeroen often does an extra round of checks in the engine room and feels and sees whether everything is still going well there. The wind remains constant and he reads a lot during his watch. You notice that it is starting to get less warm in the Caribbean. In the evening the wind is cooler and we wear a sweater or thin jacket. I take over from Jeroen at 5 a.m. and enjoy a beautiful sunrise. I think this is and remains a very beautiful phenomenon. The beautiful colours of the sunrise, the fresh breeze on my face. These aspects of sunrise time ensure that the day begins with happiness and excitement.

Little changes in the wind and the course and sails do not need to be adjusted. I started a new book two days ago: “Solo” by Tania Aebi. After our first experience with sailing, we started reading travel books from people who have sailed around the world. Eighteen years ago “Solo” was the first book I read about sailing around the world and I remember thinking it was an incredibly well written and inspiring book. So definitely worth reading again. Tania Aebi was an unambitious eighteen-year-old who was a bike messenger in New York City by day and spent a lot of time at night in the Lower East Side bar with her friends. In short, she wasn’t going anywhere until her father presented her with a challenge: Tania could choose a college degree or an eight-foot sailboat. The only catch was that if she chose the sailboat, she would have to sail alone (solo) around the world. She chose the boat trip, and for the next two and a half years and 17,000 miles, it was her home. With only her cat for a companion, she discovered the wondrous beauties of the Great Barrier Reef and the deadly horrors of the Red Sea. She experienced a terrifying collision with a tanker in the Mediterranean and a lightning storm off the coast of Gibraltar. Eventually, what began as a pure desire for adventure turned into a spiritual quest as Tania came to terms with her troubled family life, fell in love for the first time and most of all faced her own needs, desires and dreams. Now that we have started this adventure ourselves, I have even more respect for Tania who performed this solo as an 18-year-old at the time.

Rajesh came to relieve me at 08.00 and I slept a bit in the cockpit. We have breakfast together and mainly chat about what we have seen and what we have not seen during our watch. The journey is going so well that it will be almost impossible not to arrive in the dark. We try to get some speed out of the boat and meanwhile try to find more information about Marigot Bay in Saint Martin. It turns out to be a large bay with plenty of room to anchor. Still, we try to plan to arrive in daylight. While we talk everything through we hear the fishing rod spinning, which means we have a fish. While Jeroen runs to the fishing rod, Rajesh and I ensure that we reduce the speed of the boat to 4 knots. We do this by making the jib very small. We catch a delicious Mahi-Mahi which I fillet later.

Due to the low speed of the boat, it sways uncomfortably from left to right, because the waves come close together. Not a pleasant speed to maintain until Saint Martin. We add more jib again and continue sailing at a speed of 6 knots. Apart from a single cruise ship, we do not encounter any other sailing boats or cargo ships. That evening we decide to adjust our waiting schedule slightly. We now know for sure that we will arrive at night. Everyone has 2 hours watch and from 04:00 all three of us are in the cockpit. We have the deck lights on and Jeroen and Rajesh both had an extra flashlight. It was quite exciting for a while, but Marigot Bay is indeed very spacious and the amount of other boats were not too bad. At 4.30 am we anchored in Marigot Bay and we could all sleep for a few more hours. After checking in at Immigration and Customs the next morning, we make a plan to collect our belongings at various pick-up points. We had ordered a sewing machine from America to carry out sail repairs, among other things, and it has arrived. My sister Hanneke had sent us our last stuff from the Netherlands and a box full of Dutch goodies. We will not miss out of the ginger nuts on board during these days.