Still in St-Martin....besides provisionning, we have been visiting with fellow boaters, exchanged ideas about cruising routes and attempted to make good pictures of Marigot...it is actually difficult may be because there are so many cars parked everywhere or because the streets are narrow and do not allow good shots...anyhow, yesterday, we climbed Fort Louis and tried to get a fell for the climate on St-Martin during the late 18 century, when French and English were at wars and disputed every inch of territory available.

We then visited the Art Gallery L'Escale Des Iles on the waterfront of Marigot. There was an excellent phtography exposition on Haiti as well as other very original work of arts on wood and in ceramics. We also took photographs of "gingerbread style houses" common here inth Caribbean.

To end the day, we went to the French supermarket and bought a couple more delcacies such as jams of Bonne Maman, Pates, Gin from Spain, etc...

We will stay here for a little while...it is the best place for provisionning, there are plenty of bars to have happy hours, the atmosphere is relaxed and French...what more does one wants?

Being on this French Island was wonderful..it felt like being on the Cote d'Azur...just one disagreement, however: Marigot's Port Authorities have been enforcing a 20Euros fees just for mooring in the bay...the Dutch side of the island had been doing that for a while so the French must have found the idea quite enticing...Local newspaper have been writing on how this mooring tax is perceived by the marine industry (negatively, as you can imagine) and there will be more meetings about it...my readings of excerpts: this tax will stay...

This tax is not beeing applied if the boat is in the lagoon so guess what...La Buena Vida passed the Sandy Grounds bridge first thing in the morning to find a spot beneath the Witch tits...(or Mont Fortune, in French...sounds more distinguished!).

Quel plaisir de se retrouver dans le cadre idyllique de cette France tropicale...jusqu’a ce que le douanier m’apprenne qu’il y a maintenant une taxe si on mouille dans la baie de Marigot..ouille, 20 Euros c’est presque $40.00 canadien juste pour mouiller la...cette taxe est récente et a déjà crée beaucoup de remous dans la communauté avec l’industrie maritime très mécontente! Vu le ton adopte par les autorités je crois que cette taxe va rester...mais bon, puisqu’elle s’applique seulement au mouillage dans la baie de Marigot, on a déménagé au lagon! En passant par un petit pont levant qui évoque un peu les ponts de Van Gogh...

The trip from Virgin Gorda to St-Martin (80 miles) is known as a rock and roll passage due to confused seas (Anegada Passage) and easterly winds on the nose (as can be seen on the picture, we cover our vents with plastic bags...we have a friend who was really surprised to see a waterfall pouring into those vents after he forgot to take the necessary prrecautions!!!).

We hoped that t would not be a "Hard Rock " passage...and expected to have to motorsail all the way to our destination. And it was exactly as we anticipated...The wind was East-Southeast, from 12 to 23 knots (in squalls), seas were confused and choppy (4 to 6 feet on an Easterly swell) but hey! it was a short passage! Only 24 hours...compared with our ocean passages of 7-8 days, it was a "walk in the park" as Lindsay would say... After being greeted with winds of 20 knots and rain showers at our arrival in St-Martin, we sailed into Marigot Bay!

Nope, no departure for St-Martin today...tomorrow! We enjoyed another pancake breakfast with maracuya (passion fruit) jam!

Le depart vers St-Martin est remis a demain....on a encore du se regaler de crepes aux fruits de la passion...en attendant les excellentes confitures Bonne Maman de France...

We will spend another day in the Leverick Bay paradise and enjoy the high winds, here, sipping rum rather than boucing around...for your enjoyment, here is a picture of a rather large sailboat (200+ feet) that tried to compete with us sailing up the North Sound...

Nous passerons une autre journee ds ce petit paradis de Leverick Bay...que pensez-vous de ce grand grand voilier (200 pieds+) qui a essaye de nous depasser hier??????

Hello Friends,

we are in Virgin Gorda Sound ... with an WiFi connection. Hence, just a short update (if possible). We are planing to leave for St. Martin tomorrow (Tuesday). Everything is ready to go, only the weather forecasters disagree on the weather and the condition in the Anegada Passage. We will see tomorrow morning if it is a go - or not.

If we make it, we will try to post a Blog update from St. Martin, but we will certainly update our Position Report when we can along the way.

Voila la fin de notre sejour dans les Iles Vierges...demain, nous essayerons de partir vers St-Martin. Un voyage assez court comparativement a ceux du mois de novembre - mais avec le vent dans le nez et des meteorologues qui sont en desaccord par rapport a sa force. Rien de nouveau!

Nous passons donc notre derniere soiree dans le North Sound de Virgin Gorda - un vrai paradis. il y a meme un flamand rose esseule qui peche sur le rivage!

Nous ferons un rappel de position en mer ou a St_Martin...

And what now????????? Heiner is planning the rest of the trip...we have to wait for a weather window in order to get to the next island St_Martin! We can't wait to reach a French island and wine, cheese and cafes! It is not far, only 75 miles, but we need a norteast wind, not too strong...we will take the coming "waiting" days to work on the boat, do varnishing, rust work, etc...Enjoy the winter, you all!

How to put an end to the caribbean adventure???? Sailing by Green Cay, we arrived to the West End of Tortola at Uwe's last destination before his departure. Good bye, mon!

From Great Harbour, Jost Van Dyke, we hiked over the mountain to White Bay in orer to enjoy the erfect white sand beach AND the Soggy Dollar Bar painkiller drinks...as a matter of fact, we have tried to sample that drink in all the bars visited on British Virgin Islands territory! Uwe liked the Sinny Legs bar on Coral Bay, St-John's island best but he liked the Soggy Dollar Beach site best...

Back to Jost Van Dyke island...a beautiful spinnaker sail for 20 miles with a soft breeze and sum shine! The dream of sailors! We had been on Jost but this time, we went to the very well now Foxy's for a fantastic BBQ buffet offering, jerk chicken, succulent ribs and mahi-mahi. What a treat!

It's always nice to bring friends to places that we know but it is also fun to discover new territories. We sailed back to Virgin Gorda, the fairly large island east of the island chain where we first arrived on December 1, 2008. First, we brought Uwe to the Baths! Giant granite boulders, some as large as 40 feet in diameter! They form pools, caves and appear to have fallen from the skies, sometimes, holding precariously together!

A day later, we sailed to Virgin Gorda North Sound, site of the well known Bitter End Yacht Club. If you dispose of a minimum of $650.00 per day per person, this is the place to go! It is a dream place and the North Sound seems to attract rich and wealthy...several mega-yachts and luxury cruise ships anchored in the bay while we were there.

Well, at least I could enjoy the huge bushes of bougainvillae and the luxury oozing from this place!

We returned to Norman Island and thoroughly enjoyed the dance evening at the Pirates. When can you dance barefoot in the cool breeze of the trade winds sipping on an exotic drink?

We ended the night by a midnight swimm, with Heiner first jumping from the dinghy ! When Uwe and I realized that he had not been devoured by sharks, we also went in the water!

And we sailed some more, with Uwe enjoying the Trade Winds or Passat (in german)!

Our efforts were rewarded with wonderful views of adjacent British Virgin Islands and the romantic ruin of a plantation house dating from the Danish occupation times.

On January 1, we went for a hike in the hills surrounding Coral Harbour. Wow, there were very steep hills, fit for donkeys! (There is a diner in towm called Donkey Diner offering "Kick Ass food"...we have no idea what kind of food that might be except that it might be fuel for climbing those hills!). Donkeys don't seem to have a problem there...

Then it was New Year's Eve or Sylvester for German...we had arrived at Coral Bay on St-John's Islands. The town is mainly populated by American Ex-pats and very very friendly..everybody greets you, and there is a 1970's peace and Love atmosphere. We had read that the Skinny Legs Bar was one of the best of the US Virgin Islands and so, that is where we celebrated the end of 2008...before having our sparkling wine on board the boat at midnight!

After a few days in St-Thomas busy Charlotte-Amalie harbour, the whole crew moved onto a quieter area, on St-John's island...Uwe was so happy to be sailing in the trade winds!

We went for a little tour in Cruz Bay where we sampled Painkiller and other exotic concoctions at a beach restaurant!

It was not New Year yet and Uwe had not yet taken good resolutions, like stopping smoking for example! Marleyne could not let him smoke alone....

so, to counterbalance their decadent behaviours, Heiner went onto organic foods!

He has arrived...after a long and tedious flight, our German friend Uwe made it to the Virgin Islands. He was thrilled to have warm weather greeting him and we celebrated his coming on board La Buena Vida with beer and Cruzan rhum...

The next days were spent in St-Thomas, visiting the sights that we already enjoyed such as the Rhum factory ...

St-Thomas...Charlotte-Amalie Harbour...the most popular cruiseship destination in the Caribbean and so, thousands of tourists come and go every day of the year to SHOPPPPPPPPPP! We don't care much about jewelry or Hugo Boss suits right now, so what have we done here?

We found a charming site, up on the hill, called the Rum factory, in an enchanting decor with rum from all over the world and besides sampling the Cruzan, we enjoyed their punch and the veranda!

Notre coup de coeur à St-Thomas est sans contredit la Rum Factory pour la variété de ses rhums et aussi pour le site tropical!

There are several areas of town that are quaint and deserve a visit. We visited the Frederic Lutheran Church with Steel Drums at the upper level and decided that we would attend the Christmas service there.

The pastor of the church was a latino woman with lots of humour and warmth and we enjoyed the west indian music and other gospels.

We also visited a "less shiny" area of town west of the market place; "Savan" is referred as a red light district in our guide...of course, this makes the visit even more interesting, right? Many latinos lived there and salsa and merengue music poured from every little bar. We were hungry and so decided to enter one of them with pool and domino players...we ate pork and plantain chips which was delicious. While we felt a little our of place, people were kind and asked us several times if we were allright and needed anything else!

Finally, we went to visit Frenchtown where Huguenots once settled, coming from a neigbouring island, St-Barth. While the names are still French ("Aubain, Magras"..) nobody speaks french anymore as explained to us by the kind hostess of the French Museum . Frenchtown was settled by immigrants from the French Caribbean island of St. Barthelemy in the late 1800's through mid-1900's. Many of the men were fishermen and so the area became a fishing village and is still today. In the early morning you can watch fishermen coming in with their small fishing boats, or cleaning and selling their catches from the jetties and from the Quetel Fish Market. Many of the older French people still speak Creole. In the middle of Frenchtown is a hill crowned by St. Ann's Catholic Church. A small museum contains several hundred artifacts of historical interest related to the area and to the French community including photographs, pottery, tools and furniture.

Here am I with a view from St-Ann Catholic church overlooking the "modern" Frenchtown wtih restaurants such as Epernay ou La petite Fenetre... Me voilà sur la terrasse de l'église St-Anne dominant le quartier "français" appelé Frenchtown, dont les habitants sont des descendants des Huguenots venus de l'île voisine St-Barth...

Et encore dans la tradition française, nous avons découvert que le père de l'Impressionisme Camille Pissaro n'était pas français! Né ici a St_Thomas de père juif-portugais et d'une mère dominicaine, c'est ici qu'il a commencé sa carrière d'artiste avec des scènes du port et des environs de Charlotte-Amalie. Nous avons visité le petit musée sur la rue principale.
And to remain in the French tradition, we discovered that the "French" painter Camille Pissaro...was not French but born of a Portuguese-Jewish Father and a Dominican mother right here in St_Thomas! here is the house, located on Main street and now hosting a small museum.

These were some sights of this town whose charms remain unknown ... Et voila quelques aperçus de cette petite ville ou déferlent tant de touristes mais dont les attraits restent probablement méconnus!