Better late than never. Here is a trip report.

June 16 – 23, 2007


Overview
We chartered a 41’ Lagoon Catamaran from Sunsail with another couple for a week. This was their first time to SXM.

June 16
Direct flight via USAirways from CLT to SXM. Uneventful flight. The new airport looks great. We grab a taxi to Oyster Pond and get settled on the boat.

Head over to Grand Case for dinner at Talk of the Town. As always, dinner is great and very reasonable.

June 17
Time to leave Oyster Pond bound for St. Barths.

A word about leaving from Oyster Pond…this can be a dangerous place with big waves and a narrow channel. The charter company provides someone to guide your boat out into the open water. While at the fuel dock a dinghy pulls in with an injured man. Seems he and his wife ran their boat up on the reef. He was cut up pretty badly. We supplied ice and material for a tourniquet, and left him in the hands of what appeared to be a doctor or nurse from another boat who took control of the situation.

Off we head with our pilot into the channel. Then the pilot turns back. It is too rough for him to climb from our boat to the chase boat. So, he boards the chase boat and we follow it.

The seas are pretty big at around 20’ with 25-35 knot winds on the nose. I’m at the helm and can’t even where sunglasses because of the amount of water pounding me.

The crew handles all this pretty well and hangs on for the ride.

Once clear of the channel I get the main up, and it helps steady the ride…..off to St. Barths.

We arrive at Columbier on St. Barths about 2 hrs. later safe and sound.

We observed several turtles here, and even got to swim about 10 feet away from one for a short while.

At anchor that night we catch a rare sight for the northern hemisphere. The Southern Cross is visible low on the southern horizon. Of course we put Southern Cross on the stereo and sang along.

June 18

Off to Gustavia on St. Barths. Cleared in at the Harbor Master and called Island Rental car. They delivered our reserved Jeep to us and we were off to explore the island. Beach hopped all day and enjoyed the sights.

This trip was to celebrate our and friend’s 20th wedding anniversaries. I had already made reservations at Eden Rock for dinner. It was fabulous and the service was impeccable. Truly a memorable experience.

June 19

Still in Gustavia. We spent the day beach hopping and relaxing on the boat. For dinner we went to Le Select for the obligatory cheeseburger.

June 20

Cleared out of St. Barths with the Harbor Master and set sail for Tintamarre. The seas had calmed and the wind had shifted to the SE. We had a nice sail maintaining a boat speed of about 8-9 knots in 15-20 knots of wind. Only needed two gybes to get there. This boat is really easy to sail.

Spent the day at Tintamarre and did the whole mud thing. Snorkeling was so so, but who cares we are in paradise.

Late in the afternoon we head over to Orient Bay to anchor for the rest of our trip.

Tonight is “theme night” on the boat. Our cruise director (we all have jobs on the boat) made us tank tops with 6 baby bottle nipples sewn on them. Gummy life savers go on the nipples. We then played a dice game with dice that are pigs. It was a pretty hilarious night. The Ma Doudou flowed.

June 21

Up early for a walk on the beach. Dinghy ashore. The Gendarmes are stopping people and it is about 7:00. What happened to the Orient Beach I love? I walk anyway. Never got stopped.

Dinghy back to the boat and everyone is up. Pile everyone in the dingy and head to the beach. We plop down in front of the Perch. Life is good. Someone asks me if I am Ohdrinkboy. They have won a free round at happy hour. We meet lots of great people.

Lunch at Pedros and dinner on the boat.

June 22

Up early again for a walk on the beach. Dinghy ashore. The Gendarmes are still stopping people and it is about 7:00. I walk anyway. Never got stopped. They stopped a man who is at least 80. Yeah he looks real dangerous….glad to know the Gendarmes are protecting me from him.

We park ourselves in front of the Perch again. Lunch today comes from the Papagayos. Good salads enjoyed on the beach.

In the afternoon we break out the Madoudou and twister. Free shots for any newbies coming down the beach. We had lots of takers. Twister was quite fun. We must have had at least twenty people gathered around cheering everyone on. We all played several games.

We met lots of great people including johntez (the bagless couple). They came back to the boat with us. What a great couple! They joined us for dinner at Papagayo. Lots of dancing and fun.


Overall Observations:
1) The Gendarmes have really been pushing the no nudity past the rocks issue. I talked with lots of people who are questioning coming back.
2) I have never seen Papagayos so crowded. For dinner on the 22nd it was packed. I’m please to see it do well. I always felt this was an under utilized asset.
3) We didn’t do as much sailing as I would like (I’m a diehard, sail/race at least once a week back home).
4) I had pre-arranged responsibilities on the boat, and kept it fun. We had a cruise director, photographer, chief engineer, drinkboy. The responsibilities fit with what people like to do. It really worked well.
5) Madoudou shots for newbies and twister was a blast. We’ll do it again next year.
6) 4 people on a 41’ catamaran was great. We all had plenty of room.
7) Willie still makes great drinks at the Perch
8) A CO charter is a fantastic experience.

If you have any specific questions about chartering feel free to PM me. This is the second time we have chartered in SXM.

You can view some pictures here:http://skinc.com/messageboard/viewtopic.php?t=9747


Regards,
ODB