St Maarten

Passage

After our great stay(s) in Antigua and having negotiated the game of back and forth between hatches which they call Customs & Immigration, we were ready to wave goodbye and point Rafiki in the direction of St Maarten (Or Saint Martin if you’re a frenchie).

We had quite a lot of shipping on the overnight passage, at one point being boxed in by 3 passenger ships wanting to overtake simultaneously, certainly kept us on our toes. With 25-30 knots of wind on our port quarter, we were bombing along under headsail only and reefed down to try and slow the boat hoping for an arrival after sunrise. Rafiki was feeling frisky and despite our efforts to slow, Clodagh and I handed over the watch to Adam and Damo who tacked back and forth for a while to kill time until the sun came up.

Our destination was Simpson Bay lagoon, on the Dutch side of the island. The lagoon is accessed via a lifting bridge with strictly scheduled opening times, so we dropped the anchor to wait while Damo and Adam took care of checking us in with Customs & Immigration.

The bridge opening was announced on the VHF and we duly queued up to pass through (queuing is one of our least favourite activities in Rafiki as with no speed and a lot of windage from our bimini and twin headsails, we loose steerage quickly). The bridge operations team screamed up and down in their RIB past us and other boats telling everyone to put more speed on while also hollering over the VHF.

Arrival

Heineken sailing week was on in St Maarten when we arrived, so the marinas were absolutely rammed. We hoped to get into the IGY marina since we were entitled to discounts via the ARC rally (15% off plus a free night!) but initially didn’t look like we’d get in.

After some persistent badgering, the staff offered us a spot which looked a little small, but were adamant it was the only place (despite there being a larger vacant space next door). We were nervous about getting into the spot as it was blowing 25kts in the marina and even those with bow & stern thrusters were struggling. Damien did a great job manouvering Rafiki in the conditions but the inexperienced RIB driver and marina manager managed to T Bone the boat across the finger pontoon enclosing our space. Once the boat was in, the marina manager acknowledged the space was too small and offered us the adjacent berth. We were pissed off to say the least with their actions/attitude and the manager jokingly said to Adam that we owed him a few cases of beer for him really helping us out. Adam did well not to punch the idiot.

Anyway, safely parked up and after a bite to eat in the appropriately named “Zee Best” restaurant, we set off to check out the lie of the land and some of the race boats competing in Heineken week

Getting ready for hard work

Rafiki had been in the water for nearly a year and was due to be lifted out, antifouled, polished, have her anodes changed and a load of other jobs we’d been storing up while having fun around the Caribbean. St Maarten is famous amongst cruisers for duty free chandlery (up to 20% cheaper than in other islands) and parts so we wanted to take advantage, setting up accounts in all the outfits we were sure to need.

We also needed a place to lift out and do the necessary work. We wanted to do all the work ourselves while living on board and weren’t greeted with much interest by yards who insist they perform all work below the waterline. We were particularly put off by the shitty, dismissive attitude of Bobby’s yard and would advise anyone to avoid them if in the vicinity.

We received a warm reception at St Maarten Shipyard nearby the airport. They were reasonably priced, responsive and were happy for us to do all our own work while living on board. They had suffered from some damage in the 2014 hurricane Gonzalo and were getting back to normal with a huge effort from their team led by Hank, a rather typical Dutchman; direct, straightforward and a good laugh J

With everything set for getting lifted out, we thought we should make use of the intervening time checking out the local restaurants & bars in the interest of research for this blog.

Jimbo’s rock bar in the marina complex was the “local” for most parked up on the nearby pontoons. Typically the Heineken race teams congregated in the bar to debrief the day’s successes/failures assisted by some liquid refreshment. Many of the boats were from the Solent scene in the UK and known to us from the ARC, was great to see them posting winning places each day. We were also mesmerized to see the misery in some of the pro/semi-pro race teams. In particular a J-109 beside us whose crew returned to the dock daily seeming pissed off and fed up regardless of their result, didn’t look like fun to us.

Every style of cuisine is available around Simpson Bay, so we were treating ourselves to great Thai, Italian and fusion cuisine mostly served by Lithuanian waiting staff, a large influx of who have increased quality and service compared to the local contingent…

Of course we had to check out some of the local bars including the infamous Pineapple Pete’s, Soggy Dollar bar and some karaoke place we would all rather forget. Thankfully no one has any video footage!

Works

After a bit of fun, games and Heineken party gatecrashing, our lift out date had arrived. We had to pass through another pivoting bridge through the recently constructed causeway to access the shipyard then perform a relatively tricky manouver on their dog leg pontoon to await out lift out.

After a bit of the usual Caribbean waiting, Hank came over to brief us on the procedure for lift out. The shipyard didn’t have a conventional travel lift we were used to, instead having invested on what can be described as a padded, adjustable hydraulic trailer. Hard to describe so here’s a photo:

The procedure was that Hank would drive the sea lift into the water to the required depth, we would drive straight up the middle after which he would inflate the pads and begin the lift. Great in theory but with a 20kt crosswind and a low margin for error (one side of the lift is the marina restaurant and the other a load of redundant steel piles) it was a bit tricky.

After some headscratching, lift adjustment and a lot of use of Rafiki’s winches, we were out of the water and onto our timber chocks/supports where we would remain until the work was complete.

Amongst other things, the job list was roughly:

· Scrape back old antifoul, prime and reapply 2 x coats

· Compound & polish from the waterline up

· Replace the rear fender strip (send from France at great expense!)

· Install new cooker

· Full engine & watermaker service

· Service winches

· Inspect anchor chain

· Replace steering lock

· Repair mainsail bag

· Pull new speaker cables

· Pull new VHF remote mic cable

· Gelcoat repairs (some old, some new, performed by the yard for a very reasonable price)

· Replace anodes

· Service folding prop

· Repair and make new cockpit cushions

· Stain remove and touch up topsides/cockpit

· Install pad eyes for additional gas cylinder on transom

· Inspect & readjust steering cable

· Fix our carbon whisker pole (which had been broken since the ARC)

· New traveller lines & other bits of running rigging

· A good freshwater wash & rinse of running rigging

We were out of the water for 10 days which were a bit of a blur. We’d generally split into two teams for the first half of the day: one pair working on the boat while the other went shopping for parts/materials, then work together throughout the rest of the day until darkness.

Clo with the receipt after our first shopping trip...

Dirty work...

Living on the boat while on the hard is a real pain in the arse, the toilets can’t be used, there’s dust everywhere, climbing up/down a ladder every time you need to get on/off the boat gets old very quickly and the work is never ending.

We were well looked after by the small restaurant in the shipyard during our time there, the ever smiling Arlene would send us beautiful lunch in takeaway boxes and soothe us at the end of the day with ice cold beers and complimentary soup of the day with homemade bread. Boca marine is a real hidden gem and worth the trip down there if in the area.

Boca Marina Restaurant - Arlene our favourite waitress!!

Naughty Nacho

During our time in St Maarten, our Spanish lothario ARC crewmate Nacho had arrived on a boat on which he had just started working as mate. As luck would have it, it was his Birthday around the time we were on the island, so we decided some celebrations in order. He collected us on his fast RIB and brought us to the boat for “a few drinks”.

Nacho and his fancy new rib

We love Rafiki and everything about her but were blown away by Nacho’s cat; a 65ft sunreef around a year old. It was the height of luxury and the attention to detail in her fitting out was evident. The only disappointment was that the hot tub at the rear of the cockpit wasn’t filled up while we were there.

Drinks on the back of Nacho's Cat

After a good snoop around the cat and some great drinks and music, we headed to the notorious Soggy Dollar Bar to continue the Birthday shenanigans. We’re not sure when Nacho actually stopped partying, but we think at least 48 hours later!

Lucy & Kitty Kat

A friend of ours from The Yacht Week 2012, Lucy had planned to be on the island roughly around the time we would be there but we weren’t sure if the dates would align. Teething issues with the sea lift meant our relaunch was a bit delayed and so luckily we were able to meet up with Lucy and Kitty Kat.

They had been staying up in Philipsburg and came down to meet us at (surprise surprise) the Soggy Dollar Bar. It was great to catch up with Lucy and meet Kitty Kat, with the chatting/pool playing/dodgy dancing going into the small hours.

Lucy and Kitty Kat join us for drinks

The next day, Clodagh and I headed to Philipsburg for some shopping and to meet the girls. They came back with us to see the boat and visit the Driftwood bar at the end of SXM airport’s runway. The bar is right on the beach and the planes fly directly overhead when landing. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see a big jumbo blow beach dwellers off their feet but it was still quite an experience.

Watching the planes come in over the beach

We were sad to leave St Maarten, in particular saying goodbye to Nacho who we all love dearly, but with the works complete it was time to negotiate the lifting bridge and head to St Kitts!