March 2006 - WellFound Yachts go Sailing to St Maarten

Every once in a while WellFound Yachts receive a request to move a boat for one of our clients. Often it’s a short trip like bringing a boat down to the Keys from Ft Lauderdale or Miami. So when Mark got the call to take a 60’ Schooner to St Maarten there was an air of excitement in the WellFound offices.

Mark has been sailing boats for over 20 years, he knows the Caribbean well and always enjoys a trip offshore. That said, a week long trip on a sailboat was a welcome offer and I didn’t need to be asked twice. Also invited along were, experienced sailors and friends of WellFound Yachts, Chad and Carolyn. The 4 of us had a great time planning menus and stocking up the food lockers. As an obsessive analyst, I over organized the food by making a little database and storage plan diagram. Every can was catalogued and accounted for, there would be no scrambling around in the middle of the night or opening all 20 cupboards just to find the Chips Ahoy (sailors cookies). We also did some cooking and freezing of our favourite dinners just in case we got weather and no one wanted to hang out in the galley too long.

The day came for our departure; it was warm and sunny but not too windy yet. We motored out of the marina waving goodbye to our friends and well wishers, as soon as we cleared the harbour entrance we hoisted both the main sails (modern schooner rig with equal sized masts) and a head sail. In no time we were crossing the Gulf Stream in some favorable winds and could shut the engine off. It was magnificent. The boat sailed beautifully lifting gently to the offshore swells. That’s about when I started to feel queasy. I don’t get out on the water too much so this was bound to happen. Lucky for me are the modern miracles of motion sickness medicine that didn’t take too long to make things right again.

 Our route would take us north of Bimini, around the Bahamas and then out into the Atlantic. As an experienced sailor, Mark knew this would be our best choice to catch favorable winds. Our first waypoint; Great Isaac light is just north of Bimini and a popular shipping route which brought us into a lot of traffic. By the time my watch started, we had ships everywhere. I soon learned how to tell which direction boats were moving in and whether or not we needed to change course to avoid them. It was actually easier for me at night. I used my binoculars and quickly spotted their red or green lights, which when it’s very dark out, helps you to determine that you’re looking at a ship and not a low star in the sky. I know it sounds funny but ask Chad why the rising moon didn’t show up on radar.

 Almost every night of the trip, the sky was perfectly clear. I’ve never seen the Milky Way quite like it was from out at sea. Millions of stars were visible and some of us even knew how to recognize some of them. We spotted the Southern Cross and enjoyed the marvel of watching it turn on itself as the night went on. Equally stunning were the sunsets with the water glowing a beautiful blue green in the twilight. We all took too many pictures of the sunsets but I am sure to treasure each of them years from now.

 A few days out on the water we started noting marine life. Chad was on deck calling us to get up there. We all ran to join him and got there just on time to see a baby Humpback whale breaching. He was quite playful and swam with us for a minute or two before going on his way. We tried calling him and even thought about shaking a box of whale chow, but a few minutes was all he gave us. Not to worry, a few days later we met up with a pod of whales that swam with us a little while and even had the fortune of being joined by a pod of dolphins. The dolphins were much smaller than I’ve seen in water parks and even had some babies with them.

 Not to be left out, Carolyn also got her share of marine life. I was on my watch one night during some high winds with the boat moving pretty well when Carolyn came up on deck with a flying fish in her hand. She tried to get it back in the water alive but with the boat moving and the wind blowing it landed at my feet. I freaked out (sorry I’m a city girl) and Carolyn retrieved her visitor and returned him to the sea. The not-so-little guy flew in through her hatch and landed on her in her sleep, so she tried to get him back out alive (and I freaked out, how embarrassing). When my watch was over I went straight to my cabin and closed the hatch.

 After a few days of light to moderate winds the weather was bound to change. It was 3:30am on Carolyn’s watch when a squall came in. 30 knot winds on the beam meant we had to shorten sail. We all got up to help and be ready should it get busy. “It was a dark and stormy night”… ha ha ha. We all sat up for a while and checked our GPS displays, read the compass, monitored the wind direction, looked at the radar…  went back to bed.  By morning the wind was gusting to 45 and veering closer to our course .We got some great speeds of 8 to 9 knots and really got to feel the boat heel onto her beam ends.

  As we closed with the islands the winds veered further and began to let up . We had the motor running and our main sails out for stability, and only hours to go. The closer we got to St Maarten the more brilliant the water looked. After days at sea we had islands to admire (or not). Mark told us while we were sleeping, in the early morning we passed Sumbrero island. It was nothing but flat rock with 2 buildings on it; the old light house and the new one.

 Coming up on St Maarten was a welcome sight. We were expected in Marigot bay and tried to radio the marina for directions. Forgetting that the French like to take 2 hours off in the middle of the day, we foolishly kept calling. Dave, the owner of the yacht was waiting for us and grabbed a radio from a not-to-alert marine worker and became the welcoming party we were looking for. After only 7 days at sea we delivered the yacht ahead of time and had a few days to spend touring the island. We got a lot of sightseeing in and had some fabulous meals with Dave and his wife.

 I can truly say that this adventure was a most memorable excursion for all of us. We had just arrived and were sitting on the deck of the boat with Dave while Mark went to clear us through customs, we opened some cold beer, toasted the voyage and agreed we gladly do it again.

Jane Ansara

WellFound Yachts