Okay, here’s Part 2 – April 22nd to April 29th. I don’t read too many sailing reports in the SXM section, so I hope this isn’t too boring. We were sailing on a Sunsail 434 catamaran, actually there were two identical boats with 9 people on each. We did our briefing on Thursday afternoon, settled in and did provisioning but had to spend the night in the marina. I was able to leave the car rental in the marina parking lot – what a great convenience that was.

Provisioning
We had planned to do provisioning at Le Grande Marche but the taxi driver bringing the rest of the gang to the marina recommended this other grocery store. But I don’t know the name of the place! It was about a 10 minute drive from Oyster Pond and I think the building was very green (?). Anyways, a bit smaller than Le Grande Marche and we had the most helpful employee ever helping us. He was probably about 14 – 16 years old. Great kid! Every 30 minutes a fresh rack of baguettes would be wheeled to the front and local people and kids where clamoring for the bread. It sure looked good! I’m sure we were there over an hour and spent $700 and the provisioning only lasted for about two days!

First Day Sail – SXM to Anguilla
First sailed to Road Bay because we needed to check-in with immigration. We had supper at Roy’s (I think). Back to the boat but xtremely loud music from establishment on the beach went to after 1:30am. I couldn’t believe anybody within a mile could sleep with that. But no matter, we’re on holidays and as long as my kids can sleep through it, I’m okay.

Second Day Sail - Anguilla
Sailed to Sandy Island. Very good snorkel swim to the island and then back to our cat. Then on to Prickly Pear. We anchored on the other side and dingyed to the main beach. I didn’t go but amazing reef out aways where the water breaks. But I just did a little snorkel right by the beach and some my very first turtle. Too late to go anywhere else and so back to Anguilla at Crocus Bay. Our briefing said Crocus Bay had nothing on shore – wrong! Fairly new dining place that plays very loud music until after midnight – again! Kids slept – no problem.

Third Day Sail – Anguilla to SXM
Us divers motored back to Road Bay where we were picked up by Shoal Bay diving (?). This first wreck was amazing and our kids loved it. The second wreck had very strong currents and I was desperately holding on to my 10-year’s hand the whole time. Not quite as enjoyable dive. Sail back over to SXM to Grand Case. We hadn’t celebrated our 15th anniversary properly at home – so this was going to be it. We were all going to go to Le Cottage but it was closed. So, we all went different places. Our family went to La Villa, others to Fish Pot and others to Il Nettuno (??). Everybody had great meals. I had a Caribbean pumpkin cappuccino soup that I’ll never forget. Amazing!

Fourth Day Sail – SXM to Ile Fourchue, St. Barth
Long sail to Ile Fourchue. Got in late, ate supper on the boats. Nothing exciting except for green sailers!

Five Day Sail – Ile Fourchue to Anse Colombier
Short sail to Anse Colombier. Very, very beautiful and amazing snorkeling. We left the cliff edges to snorkel back to the boat and saw so many turtles. We ending up seeing LOTS of turtles, sand shark, eagle rays and other rays, small other type of small shark and barracuda. Motored into Gustavia to check it out. Very cute and quaint and luckly didn’t spend enough time to spend lots of money. Back that night to Anse Colombier

Sixth Day Sail – Anse Colombier to SXM
Woke up and went for another amazing snorkel. Sailed back to SXM. Bit of indecision where to anchor and ended up behind Green Cay – which is directly across from Club Orient. We didn’t get there until around 4pm and it was our last night on SXM. Again we split up where to go for dinner. I ended up at Safari Grill and others at an Italian place 2 doors down. The Italian place got rave reviews but the portion size was insanely big.

Last Day – Green Cay to Oyster Pond to Airport
<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />Went for a little walk and swim on Orient Beach but mostly we packed up and got ready to get to the airport in time for our flight. This was April 29th so we glimpsed a bit of the parade by Le Grande Marche as we went by in our taxi. No problem making the flight, though I think we caused a bit of a line-up at check-in. Eighteen people show up at once – it takes a while to clean that up. Security was busy!

Final Observations
I never got to see Anguilla the way I wanted to. So, there's another trip to do that.
I wished I could have switched the sailing to the week before and relax on the island the second week. I got much better sleep in a proper bed and that last morning packing and cleaning out the boat are exhausting and very hot.
I don’t know why they can’t figure out better refrigeration on these boats. So much food goes to waste. Our trailer has a great system between electric and propane. Maybe propane is difficult to get on the islands? Anyways, I’ve been sailing for 27 years (yikes!) and planning for food on the boats always bugs me.
Anyways, this will be a trip that we talk about for years. Our memories and pictures should be around for decades. I believe I’m battling a little post-vacation depression. I’m having planning and trip withdrawal! And it didn’t help to actually come back to snow, if you can believe it on May 1st and actually more snow after we got back.

I don’t have the rest of the pictures ready yet. I’ll post the link when I do.