Arrived back at St Maarten after 10,5 days

Arrived back at St Maarten after 10,5 days sailing trip from 'NY' down here..
No big problems, ate a lot of fresh Tuna, but hapy to sleep in my own bed to night..
Later more, Cheers

NB Upwind (with a lot of wind) on autopilot, so we eat with hands and drink from bottle because otherwise impossible and food and drinks and utensils would fly through the boat..

Visitor.. big bird totaly not afraid of us and knows what he wants..  cake..

Tuna, baked potatoes and white wine..

Dolphin or Mai Mai

We broke the (only) halyard (grootzeilval) half way, inspection of top of mast thisway to see if and how we solve the problem..  we got one in again and could continue..

Arietje had to be hoisted several times in mast to solve problems..

Tuna, like biefstuk, erg lekker..

We were lucky we had pictures taken at inspection before trip, so we could see at sea what possibilities were..

Big fish, first we thought it was a Sward fish, later that it was a Sailfish..

We set off now...

We leave 2-12 0500 for St Maarten...

Probably snow today..

Greetings from gray, rainy (soon to be snowy) cold Norwalk, just above NY..

Maybe we leave thuesday, probably later because we are waitnig for boat papers, rescue raft, dinghy, Bullet M2 WiFi antenna (no internet on board..  we walk to office we can use 24/7 for it)..

Food and drinks stocked and 2 heaters and winter clothes bought for few days make it still cold but is ok now..

Cheers

Han, Arie and Arietje..

Art Objects the boat is called.. http://www.boatpoint.com.au/reviews/2007/hanse-470e-10046

We're here now..  sailing to St Maarten..  https://maps.google.com/maps?oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF-8&q=Norwalk+Cove+Marina&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Cove+Marina&hnear=0x89e81c4a9c36c5b9:0x5dfa2209bc49d58d,Norwalk,+CT&cid=0,0,1390799190461023308&ei=xHiNULCgDZLO8wTO4ICQDg&ved=0CIEBEPwSMAA

In Norwalk (above New York) to sail Hanse 47 to St Maarten..

It is cold here..  Sunny but nights are freezing and we have one electrical oil heater..  brrrrrr
And wind not good, so probably leave somewhere end next week..

LSR 3 nov (to be combined with next on 17th of nov)

Pictures and unofficial results St Maartens Day Reggatta

Some great sailing, super weather and exciting results last Saturday. With protests (me Han against Robbie, hearing somewhere coming days (with protest comity: David de Vries, Paul Miller (official judges) and Ernst Looser) and Portsmouth Yardstick calculations and yet another race results to be added much can change. All very exciting .

Looking forward to the second St Maarten's Day series with anticipation .

Ruargh         Jukkel Stukkels.(Startship)

LSR    5  races  ( subject to results of Protests )     (a bullet is 1st place in a race)

1 Frits      -Seahawk           with   6  points  ( with 4 bullets )

2 Robbie  -Budget Marine    with 12  points  ( with  3 secondplacings ) 

3 Han      - Elevator Service  with 19 points  ( with 1 bullet )

4 Guy      - Best Advice       with  21 points  ( with 1second place ) 

5 John     - FKG                  with  28 pionts

6 Deerk    -SMYC               with  30 points

7 Claudio  -Eurocar             with  31 points

8 Jerry      -WIB                  with  33 points 

Frits Bus..  1,1,1,2,1

Robbie.. 

 

 the rest can be seen at  http://bit.ly/YJh3ES

St Maarten

Sailed of from Grenada Monday 1930, anchored Thursday 1700 Simpsonbay St maarten..
First night was very fast, even had 8.3 knots on GPS,  a high reach, wind and trim perfect for big Genoa and main..  But next day also long period with little wind, then good wind again, and Wednesday even 1.9knots speed.. was not good.
Wednesday night dinghy dropped out davits, but had problem fixed in an hour.. (take Genoa away and go in wind on engine slow, and finally decided to tow dinghy last day..
When there was plenty wind, no problems, but last day wind dropped and of course turned against me, so last 25nm took sort of half a day, but weather perfect, so, no problems, nice sailing, 30C or close, so even at night simply shorts are enough outside.. Water temp is 29.5C, so even a spray of water not bad..

So almost 3 days, 5kn average, so be it..

 I saw realy only this big container boat in 3 days, and some dolphins..

 Upwind, from the pots on the stove u can tell...

Thursday morning, passing Saba..  the highest point of the Netherlands..

 1700 Anchored now at Simpson bay, St Maarten with Saba in background, 30 nm away..

Sophie a bigger pot..

 I bought Sophie a year ago on Bonaire for 10usd, now a year later I take plastic of and in a bigger pot.. In the last year she has lived on my aft deck, and definatively has had her share af salt water spray during sailing.. but she seems strong, and maybe one day big enough so we can relax in her shade..  nahh, we'll see.. 

This was here first trip last year, Bonaire Curacao

Sunday.. Clarkes Court Bay to St George with Rees and Josh

Sunday we sailed back with 12 knots wind down wind, Rees sailed the laser all the way back, and somewhere half way we anchored on a reef (only .5m under the keel) for snorkel session and Josh had his turn in the Laser...

Josh at the helm..

Cool... 

Anchored on a reef half way

Josh

Not much room left under the keel, but enough..

  
 
Grenada nice green island..
 

 Jack and Sophie visit swimming from their Modesty..

Looking at the Modesty in the left top corner, and they also swam back after the koffie and Coconut juice

Dinner.. just meat