A gentle reader has asked me to write more about my sail up from St. Marten. I arrived into St. Marten on June 25th via American airlines. I needed proper paperwork from the Captain, which I received via email. Since I was sailing out they needed proper documentation which allowed me to stay in St. Marten without an airline ticket departing St. Marten. The documentation that I needed was a letter from the Captain, stating that I was joining him as crew, on board his boat. It also needed to state that I was an experienced sailor along with having a good character.....hum. I have a great character! I also needed a copy of the ships clearance into St. Marten. With those items and my passport I was able to go through immigration and customs.

That night the lagoon winds were up high. With my luggage which I will admit was more than the Captain thought I was bringing, but he was a good sport and we covered up my luggage with a small tarp. He advised me to change into dingy clothes before hopping into the dingy...that was great advise!

As I approached the dingy the Captain said here's your banana suit....I said what??? Banana suit, now I've heard of a swim suit and a mans dress suit but here was this flimsy yellow slicker that I put on. Needless to say the slicker helped just a bit since the winds were up and we were heading into the waves...of course I was drenched head to toe, but my luggage was dry....now that I was thankful for. We both laughed hard that we were drenched but thank goodness my over abundance of luggage was dry.

Did get a hot shower in on the boat and that felt GREAT! We had several days of prepping, we provisioned, loaded up on water, diesel, gas, Rum, ladyfingers....oops that's another story. We woke each morning to listening to the VHF and hearing Mike from Shimpy's giving the weather, lost and found, announcements, arrivals and departures. Our weather was not great for us to head out until Friday so that meant a free day of hitting Orient Beach, having escargot, wine and lots of sunshine!

Friday was our first shot of heading out so on Thursday we checked out of customs on the French side, that was easy, the Captain did all the work while I started to prep the boat for open water. That meant anything and everything that could get knocked on the floor had to be stowed or put on the floor.

That same day we raised the dingy up onto just forward of the mast on the deck. We used the wench to hoist it up. I was the grinder while the Captain positioned the dingy and guided it to its resting spot for the voyage. The dingy motor was secured on the stern. We had 30 gallons or more of water strapped to the starboard side along the rail, and the 3 plactic yellow diesel cans full of diesel.

We had two GPS's set up for the trip. The Captain had programmed the waypoints on the GPS and with that our course was set. Friday morning we pulled up the anchor after the Captain had our life line secure so that both of us would be harnessed in at all times. We cleared the first opening of the bridge on the French side at 8:15am. We headed out going north, I did take Bonine since I've been known to get seasick, that really was the saving grace for me. We drank water and had a couple of ritz crackers but nothing heaving on our stomach. We set the autopilot and kept vigilant on watching the helm. At first it seemed like St Marten was always over my shoulder as well as Anguilla, but then it was off in the distance and then we were alone out in the sea. We watched the weather, took turned at the helm sailing as well as letting the auto helm do the work for us as well. We had 4-6 feet waves almost directly on our stern so the movement was slow and rhythmic. No food was eaten, and we tried not to go down into the cabin since the rolling was quite a bit. The winds stayed steady at 12-15 knots which was perfect for the Captains 36' sailboat.

For tonight this is the first installment of my journey up to the BVI.

Cheers
The mermaid gardener

Good morning everyone,

Have just arrived back in the BVI! It feels great, with the Midwest having such a heat wave it is cooler here that up north. We are currently at 85 degrees, with winds at 15 mph gusting. The rain forecast is not much. Coming into Tortola this time I sailed in. Having had my very first experience of blue water sailing.

This was a huge step for me since my sailing experience has just been around the BVI. My journey took 22 hours from St. Marten up to the BVI. We had winds that knocked us in the behind .....or stern....opps sorry I slipped into being a land lubber....our winds were steady about 15 knots seas were 4-5. So this mermaid was a bit fearful, not only the open expanse, the feeling of being a small fish in a big pond,but the night sailing was a bit scary for me.

The sail was uneventfull with the exception of seeing a waterspout ...now that was scary though it was far off in the distance, probably maybe 10 miles away from us. The Captain said not to worry but to keep watch....I'm thinking we're is the basement on this thing and tornado sirens I don't hear them at all! As we sailed the twister errr waterspout stay far off in the distance and then in a blink of an eye it disappeared..

I did quite well not getting queasy......thank goodness for Bonine! It really worked for me. We ate sparingly and drank water and ginger ale. Night sailing was scary at first but the Captain reassured me while I took the helm and steered....sailed her a course of 300 degrees towards Tortola. I settled down and was less fearful. I have to thank the Captain for being willing to sleep in the cockpit while it was my watch. Overall my experience was a sweet one, and I'm now looking towards my next adventure in sailing.

Will write about more of my experiences while on board.

Cheers from a have her sea legs mermaid gardener!