St Croix to St Martin

  We had a relatively smooth passage to St Martin, sailing for 8 hours until we were about 10 miles off the east end of Virgin Gorda (we could see many on the BVI), and then striking the sails and motoring directly  upwind and up current for another 18 hours.  The best part was, we actually caught a fish on Judy's hand line! It was just a small jack, and by the time I finished hacking out the fillets, there wasn't a whole lot there, but we just had it for breakfast, and it was delicious. 

Judy with the little prize.

  We had one small incident during the short passage.  Judy had taken the watch about 1AM, and I was sleeping in our bunk while we were motoring, when I woke to "John, John" I quickly harnessed up and scrambled above to learn that the genoa had just unfurled.  I made my way underneath the flapping "monster" to the bow, where I determined that the problem was due to some screws which had held the furling drum to the core - they had backed out and were missing, so there was nothing to keep the sail from unfurling.  I decided that the simplest thing to do was to drop the sail on deck and deal with the issue later.  After much wrestling and slipping, Judy and I finally managed to get the sail below.  Fortunately, it was fairly calm, only 4 to 5 foot waves with 15 knot winds, and the moon was out.  Even with the moonlight, I was using a headlamp, though.  Apparently, it is very annoying to other people when you look their way while wearing a headlamp ;-)  Interestingly, the next morning, we found two out of three of the little screws on deck.  We are currently on our way to the chandelry to find another screw so that we can repair the furler and get the sail out of the cabin - it is taking up almost the whole salon!

   Checking in to St. Martin (the French side) was also very interesting - we simply dinghied into the "Captainaire" (or something like that), went upstairs in the nicely air conditioned office (well, after they got back from their two and a half hour lunch break), and used a computer to fill out the entry form and then print it.  Once I got used to the French keyboard, it was no problem - it's a good thing I can't type without looking at the keys.  So, I hand the form the the lady, she asks for 5 Euro (~$7), and we are in - she didn't even look at our passports!  By far the easiest country we have ever checked in to.  Apparently, we are actually in France - what I've read is that that it's as much a part of France as Hawaii is of the US.  Tres bon.