Ile Tintamarre St Martin

Moored off off Tintemarre island

Our plan for Wednesday 9 January was to dive on the wreck of Le Remorqueur, a small tugboat that was deliberately sunk off Tintemarre island to make an artificial reef, and then to return to Marigot Bay.  So at 0935 we raised anchor off Ile Pinel and 45 minutes later had picked up a mooring in the National Park off Tintemarre.

Tintemarre is a low-lying uninhabited island with, on its west side, a beautiful white sand beach backed by scrub and, at its northern end orange and grey rocks, almost mini cliffs.

It’s a lovely place and if we hadn’t felt somewhat pressed for time and feeling as if we needed to make progress north and west, we would probably have stayed a day or two and walk across the island.

Our wreck dive site conveniently marked with a white buoy just beyond the headland

We prepared our kit and took the dinghy out to the small white buoy marking the wreck site.  With the water about 16m deep at this point we were pleased that the buoy was in place as it gave us something to tie the dinghy to. Whilst we do have plenty of chain and rope for the dinghy’s grapnel anchor we were a lot more confident that the dinghy would stay put tied to the buoy rather than anchored on the sand.

The tugboat sits, almost perfectly upright, in a patch of clear sand.  It’s by no means a large dive site but the local fish population evidently loves the wreck, particularly the enormous school of Tomtates that greeted us as we sank down into the turquoise depths.

The wreck is gathering a good encrustation of corals all over but it is still very clear that it was a tug.  I don’t know how long it has been in situ but the fish (and the divers) will have many more years of fun out of it.

Top left: another Lionfish – they’re a bit too common around here. Top right: Cocoa damselfish in its ‘light adult’ colouring.  It will turn quite dusky when it’s a little larger.  Bottom left:  Mustard hill coral (?) with 2 Christmas tree worms in the centre.  Bottom right:  a trio of Spotted goatfish just hangin’ around on the wreck and rooting out food with their barbels

Top right: Bluestriped grunt with Giant brain coral behind it, a Sergeant major in the background on the right and the school of Tomtates in the background on the left.  Bottom: Porkfish disappearing on the left, Giant brain coral on the right with another Sergeant major behind and to the left

The number of different species living on and around the wreck was quite amazing.  Everywhere we looked there was something different to point out to each other and to watch.

We have not had any wreck diving training and so could not enter the wreck but we could still peer in through the portholes and open doors and watch the fish inside.

Bottom left: Corals, including Purple leaf coral and a hiding Cocoa damselfish in its ‘light adult’ colouring. Remaining pictures: The size of the school of Tomtates was quite staggering.  Seeing it up so close we felt rather as if we were in a David Attenborough programme

It was a fabulous dive and being such a small site we were able to go round a couple of times to make sure that we hadn’t missed anything.  And then, reluctantly, we headed for the surface – take only memories (and photos!), leave only bubbles.

Le Remorquer Tugboat 

Back at BV we used our remaining air on some navigation and buoyancy training in the relatively shallow water (5-6m) around her mooring.  And then it was time to return to Marigot Bay to get BV ready to move further west.

Ile Tintamarre, St Martin

Ile Pinel St Martin

We left Grand Case Bay at 1115hrs on Tuesday 8 January to continue our clockwise journey around St Martin, this time heading for the anchorage behind Ile Pinel.  There was some wind but it was all on the nose so we motored the 5nm or so.  The pilot book warns of the dangers of easterly swell and strong easterly winds when attempting an entrance to Baie Oriental, particularly as there are areas of reefs and shoals on both sides of the wide entrance.

Heading north towards the anchorage in the lee of Ile Pinel

However, these shoals are reasonably easy to see in good light and the entrance is well charted so we had no problem. Once in the centre of Baie Oriental it is safe to turn north towards Ile Pinel and the anchorage in its lee.

The anchorage is shallow – only about 3m – so we dropped anchor as soon as we were tucked in just far enough, and clear of the catamaran already at anchor.  The beach is lovely and the island most attractive but with the surge around the reef we thought it wise to have a look at the conditions before committing to diving.  And we’re glad that we did.  The visibility was poor with lots of sand in the water and what we could see on the reef was not particularly special.  So we contented ourselves with snorkelling and then returned to BV.  I then took a look at our anchor windlass which had again been sluggish when we raised anchor in Grand Case Bay.  Working in the confined space of the anchor locker I changed the solenoid; it was switching properly (big click when I pressed the button) but the slow and sometimes intermittent operation of the windlass suggested that there was an electrical fault, possibly dirt contacts inside the solenoid preventing the flow of sufficient current to lift the anchor. After an hour of sweaty work and the new solenoid in place, the windlass whirred away properly but the real test would be when the motor was properly under load lifting the anchor.  We’d test that in the morning.

Chores done, our plan for a celebratory sundowners on the beach to mark Nicky’s birthday was also put on hold as the sky clouded over and threatened rain.  But there are worse places to drink fizz than in BV’s cockpit looking at an attractive, if somewhat overcast, view and making plans for diving around a wreck the next day.

Ile Pinel, Saint Martin

Grand Case Bay St Martin

Grand Case Bay is only 6nm from the anchorage at Marigot Bay and we had been recommended to try the dive site at Creole Rock at the northern entrance to the bay.  So, several days later than we had originally intended, we upped anchor and motored around at lunchtime on Monday 7 January.

Creole Rock

As soon as we were securely anchored over a lovely large patch of sand in about 4m of water, we dug out the new dive kit to give it its first run-out.  There was a lot to check and adjust so we started off with a shallow water run next to BV, checking weights, regulator adjustments, BCD positioning on the tanks etc, before jumping into the dinghy and heading over to Creole Rock to do it all again ‘for real’.

We picked up one of the dive moorings in the bight on the Grand Case Bay side Creole Rock and swam on the surface to the southern tip before diving and handrailing our way along the seaward side of the rocks.

The water was clear and there was plenty to see, albeit I didn’t get too many pictures as I was enjoying myself too much and fiddling with adjustments on the new gear.  However, lionfish don’t move too fast so I managed to juggle my kit and get a photo of one that we saw.  Mind you, perhaps it would be better if I had been able to spear it instead as they are an invasive species which eat the juvenile native reef fish and they have no natural predator in these waters.

Spotted eagle rays off on a mission in formation and not wishing to stop and pose for a photo

I also managed to get my camera out in record fast time when we saw these 2 spotted eagle rays ‘flying’ in formation relatively nearby.  As far as my very wide angle underwater camera is concerned they were a long way off (hence the photo’s rather grainy) but in real life they were surprisingly close. But they were off on a mission and were gone nearly as soon as we had seen them, though not before we had registered their fabulous spotted colouring and enormously long tails.

Just hangin’ around

And after a very successful first dive with our kit, and an hour of washing it and hanging it to dry, we sat on the coachroof with a beer (the cockpit was too wet!) enjoying the new view and the much less crowded anchorage and making plans for the next couple of days.

Anchored in Grand Case Bay

Grand Case Bay, St Martin

Marigot St Martin

Getting ready to leave the Lagoon

With all of our purchases of boat and diving bits completed on Wednesday, by Thursday 3 January we were ready to move on. We had a choice, either move promptly and use the 0800hrs bridge lift to get out of the Lagoon, or wait until the next bridge lift at 1000hrs.  We decided to go for the earlier option.

Waiting our turn in the queue to go through the Simpson Bay lift bridge (blue on the right, just ahead of the coastguard boat on the far right)

And we certainly weren’t alone in that thinking; there were lots of yachts on the move in the Lagoon ready 15 minutes before the lift time.  We all circled about and then lined up in order to zip out as soon as the bridge operator said that we were clear to move.

Anchored back in Simson Bay

Once through the lifting bridge we only went a short distance and anchored back in Simpson Bay.  This was to just be a short stop of a couple of hours to allow us to visit Customs and Immigration so that we could check out of the Dutch side of the island.

A good sail around the island

With the formalities completed and the anchoring fees paid we were clear to leave.  It was a good sailing wind and a beautiful day as we made our way clockwise around the island to sail the 13 miles to Marigot Bay on the French side of the island.

Top: light aircraft lining up on finals to the international airport. 
Middle:  Maho Beach on the undershoot to the runway at the airport. 
Bottom:  sequence showing the light aircraft on short finals

Our route took us past Maho Bay and the approach to the runway of the island’s international airport, the Princess Julianna Airport.  The runway starts just beyond the beach and so a good game for visitors to the beach is to hang onto the fence as the big jets arrive.  We watched a small passenger plane make its approach (pictured in the sequence above) but if you can imagine that aircraft being a large passenger jet you can see just how low the aircraft are as they cross the beach.

Anchored in Marigot Bay

The Marigot Bay anchorage was quite busy when we dropped our anchor in the lovely turquoise water at 1400hrs. We had been slightly concerned that the anchorage would be very rolly with swell like the one at Simpson Bay. As it happened it was a much nicer anchorage and we were very comfortable there.

The view of Marigot town and Fort Louis (on top of the hill just left of centre) from the anchorage

We had 2 reasons for visiting this side of the island.  Firstly, there is a good French Super-U supermarket a short distance from the quay. Nicky had visited it by bus from the Dutch side when trying to sort out the problem with our Antiguan Digicel sim card but, with a big stock up of our food lockers planned, we really didn’t fancy lugging all of those provisions back to BV by bus.  Our second reason for visiting St Martin (vice Sint Maarten) was to dive a couple of sites that had been recommended to us (more of that in a later blog).

However, before all that could start, the afternoon’s priority was to complete the arrivals formalities.  We checked our pilot book and worked out the location of a marina office at which we could check in but when we took the dinghy ashore we found the marina and the office still closed after being damaged by Hurricane Irma.  In fact looking around the immediate area around the port and on the Lagoon side it was clear that the rebuild was quite a bit behind what had been achieved on the Dutch side of the island.  Having failed to find a place to check in at, we walked up to the Island Water World chandlery to find out the timings for getting one of our propane bottles filled and to buy a courtesy ensign for further down route.  It turned out that they also had a check-in computer in the shop, so we were able to complete the arrivals formalities there which was very convenient.  We also found a really good boulangerie close to the main town quay and hatched a plan to buy some proper fresh bread in the morning for breakfast.

Dinghy and ferry dock

And so we settled into life anchored on the French side of the island. Somehow our brief stop in Marigot Bay turned out to be a 5 day affair.  We tinkered with a few small maintenance jobs.  Tried out various wines to decide which we’d buy more of, and generally enjoyed great pâté, cheeses and bread.

Conscious that were intending to move onto areas where food would not be so readily available, Nicky spent quite a bit of time coming up with a plan on what store cupboard items we needed to buy in bulk.  The town ferry quay, pictured above, became a regular dinghy stop-off point for us as we started to gather in those stores.

Fort Louis

We had intended to climb up to see Fort Louis which dates from 1765 but somehow we ran out of time.  One of the reasons for that was that we were getting a little concerned about the amount of stuff that we had [Ed: have!] collected on BV.  With some new diving gear that we had bought ‘for Christmas’ and an every growing store cupboard pile that we hoped would last us for the next 3 months [Ed: but that pile will be eaten!], BV was starting to look a little low on her lines. More to the point, we knew that we would need to fit Charlotte on board with us (and the store cupboard food) when we reach Cuba in Feb.  Fortunately there was a possible solution.  Almost as soon as we had anchored in the bay, a dinghy turned up with a flyer advertising a yachting jumble sale which would take place on Saturday at the Time Out Boatyard, one of the local yards.  Almost perfect timing for us.

The Time Out boat jumble

The jumble sale turned out to be a success for us and we got rid of lots of little things that we have been carrying around but not using.  However, we really wanted to sell the large double genoa that we had on board; that would make the most significant improvement on space in the aft cabin and on weight on board.  Unfortunately, despite having a couple of phone numbers left by interested parties, the sail was about the only thing that we didn’t sell and so we lugged it back to BV just after lunch.

However, that evening our phone rang from one of those interested in the sail and we spent the next morning delivering the sail to a nearby yacht so that the potential buyer could check that it fitted.  It did and so with that sale completed we were clear to leave Marigot Bay and explore some of the other anchorages around the French side of the island……….. but only after buying in some lovely fresh baguettes from the boulangerie first thing on Monday morning.

Marigot Bay, Saint Martin

Simpson Bay & the Lagoon Sint Maarten

We departed English Harbour at 2155 on Boxing Day for the 90nm passage to Gustavia, St Barthelemy (St Barths). Our original plan, before we had spent so long in Antigua, had been to spend a couple of weeks visiting some or all of Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Sint Eustatius (Statia) and Saba before heading to Sint Maarten/St Martin.  However, the forecast of strong winds and northerly swells meant that most of the anchorages in those islands would be uncomfortable verging on untenable and, with time marching on, our plans to be in Cuba in February and Nassau in late March meant that we wanted to be making progress west and north.  So we thought that we’d try St Barths, which we also hadn’t visited in early 2018.  Clearly, though, we’ll just have to come back again in order to ‘do’ Montserrat et al.

St Barths ahead highlighted by one of many rainbows we saw that morning

We had a good overnight sail to the northwest.  The wind was from the east or east-southeast starting at about 12kts and rising to around 20kts by morning.  As daylight arrived so did the showers and squalls and we arrived off St Barths reefed down and wet but quite enjoying the succession of rainbows which added a touch of colour to a very blue and grey scene.

Approaching the anchorage off Gustavia, St Barths

But we were uncomfortable with the anchorage off Gustavia in the conditions in which we arrived and which were only forecast to get brisker.  The anchorage was very busy, with the most sheltered spaces already taken by anchored yachts or moorings or too shallow for us.

The busy anchorage off Gustavia, St Barths.  Though the pictures don’t make the sea state look unreasonable, it was surprisingly choppy and rolly.  Getting the engine onto the dinghy would have been a challenge, and living and sleeping in the roll would have been uncomfortable

We had a look at Anse du Colombier at the northwest end of the island too, conscious that if we anchored there we would need to dinghy the 2 miles back to Gustavia to check in – apparently there is no overland route.  There was space enough but it was already very windy with the wind being funnelled through a gap in the hills and the wind was only due to rise.  All things considered, we decided to head to Simpson Bay in Sint Maarten.  We thought that the bay would be better sheltered than the anchorage off Gustavia and, if it wasn’t, we could always go into the Lagoon.  Or we could try Marigot Bay on the French side.

So that’s what we did, arriving at 1520hrs on Thursday 27 December.  The anchorage in Simpson Bay was also rather full but we sneaked right up into the eastern end of the bay, almost exactly where we had anchored with Charlotte back in April, and found a BV-sized space just outside the moorings.

Low cloud, heavy rain and a building swell

Friday 28 December brought low cloud and heavy rain.  We stayed on board for the morning doing chores which, for me, meant starting on wiring in the new and improved regulator that had come with the replacement DuoGen.  As ever, it was a pig of a job involving emptying all of the machinery space and then, inevitably, needing to get to spares hidden under the bunks I had stacked everything on.  It took the best part of 2 days to get the job complete.  In the afternoon Nicky took the dinghy ashore to try to find a Digicel shop.  The Digicel sim card that we had bought in Antigua, and which we had been told would work across the islands, was not working.  She discovered that there is no Digicel shop on the Dutch side, though there is on the French side.  However, the afternoon was wearing on and she reckoned that the shop would be closed by the time she found it, so she scoped out the buses and returned to BV.  By the time she got back, the swell in Simpson Bay had built quite considerably.  There was a bridge lift at 1600hrs for vessels inbound to the (flat but windy) lagoon so we took the opportunity and moved inside.

Anchored inside the lagoon (Dutch side)…..eventually!

It was an eventful move into the lagoon. We decided to join the spread out group of anchored and moored yachts on the Dutch side, turned left out of the channel and promptly went firmly aground on a mudbank.  It took a verylong time to get off.  In the end, we launched the dinghy and I used it as a tug to push the bow whilst Nicky used nearly full power in reverse to try to drag BV off the mud. And once we got off that bank, almost immediately we ended up on another, despite being almost exactly on our chartplotter’s ‘snail trail’ at a point where we had been afloat!  It was all rather embarrassing.  Eventually, we got off and into clear water, found another route into the anchorage that was deep enough for us, dropped anchor and retreated below.

The Causeway Bridge open for boat movements from the
Dutch side of the lagoon to the French side (or vice versa)

It wasn’t a pretty debrief.  One of the sketch maps in Doyle’s Guide shows that the lagoon is very shallow at the point that we went aground and, when we put our Navionics chart plotter into ‘fish ‘n’ chips’ mode (where it shows very detailed depth contours from crowd-sourced echo-sounder/sonar returns) we could also see the bank.  Unfortunately, the chartplotter’s normal view did not indicate any particular shallows…… Lesson learned (or just identified?)

The following day (Saturday 29 December) Nicky headed into Marigot whilst I continued the nearly unequal struggle with the wiring and the regulator.  Meanwhile, Nicky wasn’t faring much better.  She discovered that Digicel in Marigot (part of Digicel.Fr) couldn’t help with our non-functioning Digicel Antigua sim card.  We subsequently discovered that the card we had could not operate outside Antigua and Barbuda and that in order to ‘roam’ we needed a second card, which we should have bought in Antigua, clearly at great expense.  So, Nicky bought us a Digicel.Fr sim card which, she was assured by 3 different Digicel assistants in 2 separate Digicel shops, would operate in any of the Lesser Antilles as well as in Puerto Rico and the Turks and Caicos, AND which included calls to Europe (as well as to any of the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico and the Turks and Caicos) at no additional cost. Fabulous!!  [Ed: but The Tale of the Digicel Faff continues later…….]

New Year’s Eve decorations

We spent New Year’s Eve day, looking at dive kit.  We really enjoy snorkelling but want to spend more time at depth than we can manage on a breath-hold plus doing lots of 4-6m descents and ascents in a snorkelling session of an hour or more plays havoc with balance organs and sinuses.  We’ve loved the diving that we have done and would like to do a lot more, preferably from BV if possible, though in some places, such as Anguilla, this is not an option as you are only allowed to dive with local guides.  So, we had decided to buy the equipment to do this and, being a duty free location, Sint Maarten seemed as good a place as any to look at doing so.

New Year’s Eve fireworks from all around

Superyacht departing the Lagoon – heading off for a better party?

Having mentally spent all our Christmas present allowance and some more, we decided that it would be best to see in the New Year on board BV.  We went the whole hog with decorations [Ed: not exactly – I dangled some lights around in the cockpit!], opened a bottleof wine (vice drinking the usual boxed wine) and ate a lovely meal in the cockpit.  At about 2000hrs one of the superyachts turned its nose up at events in the Lagoon and left on a bespoke opening of the lifting bridge (cost approx US$1000 – someone wanted a good New Year’s party!) but at midnight we enjoyed the multiple fireworks displays that went on all around us.  It was a lovely, low-key evening.

On Tuesday, of course, everything was closed for the Bank Holiday but the next day we were able to confirm our order for dive equipment and collect it a little later that same day.  Better still, the lady who runs the shop gave us a copy of their guide to diving in the Sint Maarten/St Martin and St Barths area. This concentrates on dives that can be achieved from a cruising boat, rather than on those dives to which a dive centre might take customers.  We’d already done some research and had noted the location of most of the sites in the guide but the website information looked quite dated so it was useful to have up-to-date confirmation of which sites were worth visiting.  And with our permit for anchoring in Simpson Bay/the Dutch side of the Lagoon needing renewing on Thursday 3 January, it seemed an ideal opportunity to head around to French St Martin and to try out our new dive kit on some of the dives on that side of the island.

Simpson Bay & the Lagoon, Sint Maarten