Another beautiful winter's day in St Martin

Can't believe it is the last day of January already. Where has the time gone?

I just wanted to share this photo that I took this morning from out of our forward hatch. Not a bad winter's day, is it?


We are anchored in Simpson Bay, Sint-Maarten, Netherland Antilles. Just a 10-minute dinghy ride through the Lagoon over to Marigot, St. Martin (the French side).

Hope you had a nice day, too!

St Maarten Dinghies

Earlier this month (January 2008) there was a fatal, night-time dinghy accident in the Lagoon over by the French bridge (two dinghies). We've been told that since then that the Sint Maarten Coast Guard has been requiring that dinghies need to have a life jacket for each passenger, an anchor, oars, and an all-around white light (or maybe you can squeak by with a flashlight).

The Coast Guard does not display navigation lights on their dinghies so be careful. We spotted them one night just inside the bridge waiting for non-compliant vessels. Two nights ago I heard voices at about 2a.m. and they had stopped a couple in their dinghy and were by the sand barges. Afterwards, when the dinghy passed by our boat I heard the couple say something about flashlights. They didn't appear to have one...

Also, there are some new buoys in the Lagoon so be very careful, especially watch out for the half-sunken ones at night.

You've been warned :)

Funny cat photo

Here's a funny photo that Bob directed my attention to this morning. Pretty good expressions on the kids, too!


This picture came from Mr. Boat Blog, Everything Wet ... don't know where he found it, but thought we'd share...

Amazon's Kindle Reader - New in our Amazon.com Store

We like books, but unfortunately there is not enough room on our CAL-34 for all the books and everything else we would like to have with us.

We do have a few electronic magazine subscriptions with Zinio which is cool. We have subscriptions to American Cinematographer, Mac World, Cruising World, Saveur, etc. I prefer to read paper but the magazines are easily damaged (especially now that we have two kittens!) and they are heavy and space-consuming things. I find Zinio's interface easy to use and easy to read.

So, now Amazon.com has come out with their new-fangled Kindle Reader. Cool. They have thousands of books, plus magazines and newspapers!

We have added a KINDLE section to our AMAZON STORE: CLICK HERE

I also included the new Apple MacBook AIR computers to the store: CLICK HERE

Write a bit more later, as I'm now busy adding stuff to the store.

Nice day today in SXM... a bit breezy and a few drops of rain but definitely better than a lot of places!

FRIDAY CAT BLOGGING - My Brother's Ragdolls

No, they're not boat cats but they sort of qualify because they are my brother's cats.

There are six Ragdoll cats testing out the new quilt that they helped my sister-in-law make.



Front left is Koko, then Edgar, Brutus, Priscilla, Aquila and Frankie.

It looks like they've left room for Jet the dog to join them :)

DOME ENVY

The gang is back... The megayachts have returned to St. Maarten after their holiday charters. Boats with domes everywhere!



Here's the winner (below) with the largest dome. Does size matter?


Don't see many megayachts with a Canadian flag.

Budget Marine SXM - Unmarked Price Hikes

I just wanted to warn people that Budget Marine in St. Maarten has raised their prices on most items so check your receipt...

Monday when we were at Budget Marine, Bob picked up a pair of small fittings and was talking to someone while I paid for them. I thought they were pretty expensive but so it goes.... Bob was surprised when I told him they were $8.30/each and with our 20% discount for this item it came to $11.65.

Budget has been bad lately. Most of their items are not priced and only have the bar code. If you are lucky, there is a price tag sticker on the shelf or at the end of the rack. This one had a ticket at the end of the rack and it said $5.60. That's a big jump from $5.60 to $8.30 so I went to the cashier and I expected her to refuse my complaint and just tell me that the sticker is wrong and the price in the computer is right (I've had this happen too many times). But surprise... she gave me a refund! Plus the old price had a 30% discount for my account, so I only charged $3.92 for BOTH items and got $7.70 back. Wow, I was pleasantly shocked!.

DOLPHINS CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR WITH DRUMBEAT

Linda from the 72-foot charter yacht Drumbeat (one of our favorites) sent us an email today along with 14 great dolphin photos.

See the post and photos CLICK HERE

Thanks Linda!

NEVIS - New Yacht Mooring System

When we were attending the Charter Yacht Show in Antigua a few weeks ago, we were visiting a charteryacht and when we came back out into the cockpit to inspect the exterior of the vessel, there was this horrible little man monopolizing three of the yacht's (female) crew members showing them a promotional DVD about Nevis and spouting off about something... It was so loud we couldn't talk to the captain and the captain requested the man to leave as he was disruptive and annoying.

I managed to snag a Nevis Air & Sea Ports Authority (NASPA) Yacht Mooring System pamphlet from him. As you can tell, we did not hit it off. He was very rude and had a superior attitude... like I was "just a woman"...

Anyway, that's enough of that rant... now let's look at their new mooring policy...

NASPA Moorings are found along the West Cost of Nevis from Windy Hill to Charlestown.

Conditions of Mooring Use and Regulations:

1. All vessels must comply with the Immigration Nevis Air and Sea Ports Authority (NASPA) and Customs laws of St. Kitts and Nevis.
2. All vessels approaching Nevis are required to contact the Nevis Air and Sea Ports authority (NASPA) on VHF Channel 16 in order to be assigned a mooring within the first 24 hours upon arrival.
3. Vessels qualifying for mooring use must proceed to specifically-designated mooring after clearance.
4. Coastal mooring permits must be obtained prior to proceeding coastwise.
5. No vessel may use the moorings at any time unless authorized by the NASPA.
6. No anchoring of any vessel is permited without the authorization of NASPA.
7. The discharging of any bilge or sewage or the dumping of any form of litter or pollutant into the water is strictly prohibited.
8. All moorings may be used for short or long-term use.
9. Spear fishing is strictly prohibited. Harvesting of immature conch or lobster or an endangered marine species is strictly prohibited.
10. No flora, fauna or artefact may be damaged or removed during mooring, snorkeling or any other activity.
11. Water skiing may not originate from any moored vessel without permission from NASPA.
12. Jet-skis or other water sports vehicles must be registered with NASPA before use.

Mooring rates for 2008-2010:

- Class 1 : 0-35 feet
Up to 2 days: EC$ 27 / US$ 10
2 days to 1 week: EC$ 40 / US$ 15

- Class 2 : 36-60 feet
Up to 2 days: EC$ 40 / US$ 15
2 days to 1 week: EC$ 54 / US$ 20

- Class 3 : 61-90 feet
Up to 2 days: EC$ 54 / US$ 20
2 days to 1 week: EC$ 67 / US$ 25

Here's some other info from this pamphlet:

It's the Law

• Animals are not permitted to come ashore unless cleared by the Veterinary Officer.
• Do not bring ashore any fruits, plants or plant parts without the permission of the Department of Agriculture.
• Do not dump refuse in our waters or along our coastline.
• Do not take any coral, sponge, marine algae or starfish from the waters or beaches.
• Do not damage coral reefs by anchoring. Use the moorings provided by Nevis Air & Sea Ports Authority.
• Do not remove, damage, empty or cast adrift any fishing net, fish pot/trap, gear, tackle or other fishing equipment while in the waters of Nevis.
• Do not use spear guns for fishing in the waters of Nevis.
• Do not dive without a locally-licensed Dive Operator.
• Special permission is needed to pass through Fishing Priority areas or Marine Preserves when entering or leaving port.
• Do not anchor in any designated "safe swimming zone."
• Do not exceed a speed of 2 knots when operating tenders or other water crafts in the swimming zon right-of-way to the beach. All operators are requested to keep a sharp look out at all times when making way through this passage.

Another place off our list!

So it goes...

BUFFY & WILLOW - 2 months old

Buffy & Willow are 2 months old today (born Nov.1,2007) !!!



Willow likes cider. Last night she had her nose in Bob's glass and was trying to lap it up! We'll have to watch out for this one :)

They like to sleep on the quilt that Auntie Laura made for Bullwinkle.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 - So It Goes

The beginning of a new year is always exciting. New things to come, new things to look forward to, etc.

It is another beautiful day in St. Maarten. Here's a photo I took around 10am this morning. Nice start to the new year.



Still lots of private planes at the airport. Sorry, but I didn't have the energy this morning to dinghy over and get a closer photo. You can click on the picture and get the full-sized picture if you like. There are more than a dozen over there...



We are going to have a wonderful New Year's brunch... Blinis, Scottish (of course) Smoked Salmon, with Sour Cream... and perhaps a nice bottle of French Normandy Cider.

Bonne Annee!

Kittens everywhere!

Blondie wrote to us to congratulate us on our new crew members, Willow & Buffy. She also adopted a new kitten on the same day... cool.

Check it out on Blondie's web site My View From 30,000 Feet

I find her blog very interesting... especially her recent post on delayed, cancelled, and overbooked flights over the holidays. Don't the airlines realize that many of their crew will "time out" by the end of the year which is the busy holiday season???? duh!

Here is a picture of Annette's (Blondie) new kitty, Emmie...



All the best!
Sheila

2008 - New St. Maarten Fees

Since today is December 31st, 2007 I thought we should go and pay our port fee for last week before the rates go up tomorrow.

Last week for a 9-14 metre boat (we are documented as 33.5 feet) we paid $10.30

For the coming week, for an 8-13 metre boat it is twice that... $20.65

She told us that she didn't charge us for the bridge though. What? We are out in Simpson Bay and do not intend to come into the Lagoon. I asked her about bridge fees and she said for a boat our size, it would cost $10 each time we enter the Lagoon.

I went to their web site http://www.sxmlagoonauthority.com/ but they don't have the new fees posted.



So, it will be interesting to see what happens. Will we have more neighbors out here in Simpson Bay? Most people think it is too rolly. Or will they not want to pay twice as much and go over to the French side?

I'd like to check out the French side and see what is happening there. Last July, the French Port person told us that they have mooring fees in place but they haven't enforced them yet. He said that they probably would in the coming season.

So it goes :)

FRIDAY BOAT CAT BLOGGING - Buffy & Willow

The population on So It Goes has doubled this week... Meet Buffy and Willow.



We adopted the little girls last Thursday and brought them home Saturday. They are now 8 weeks old and are quite a pair! They have quickly adapted to the boat.

We adopted them from the animal shelter at our vet's (ANIMAL HOSPITAL OF THE NETHERLANDS ANTILLES) in St. Maarten. See a previous posting with a photo of how to get there... CLICK HERE

I think it is best to park the dinghy at the PdP (Port de Plaisance) Marina and walk up as shown on the photo but you can also get there easily from Island Water World but that road is not as good to walk on... not much of a shoulder when there is one and lot of cars. From the PdP marina you walk up through the parking lot of the casino/hotel to the main road where there is a sidewalk.

Lots more to come... Sorry for being so far behind with the blogs.

Happy holidays!

Gosh, it's almost Christmas

We have been so busy sailing to the various boat shows the past 6 weeks that Christmas has once again snuck up on us. I can't believe that it is almost the end of 2007. Time flies, even island time :)

So, what to do... I'm going to send some Amazon Gift Certificates. They can be sent via email, by "normal" mail, or along with an electronic greeting card. Not as personal as a specifically chosen gift, but I'm sure they will be very useful & appreciated.

Here's a link:
CLICK HERE for AMAZON GIFT CERTIFICATES

Happy Holidays!

Sorry for no posts, been busy

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, but we've been busy with the two charter yacht shows in the Virgin Islands and also the Antigua charter yacht show.

We just arrived in St. Maarten yesterday (Monday) after an exhilarating sail from Antigua.

More soon come :)

St. Maarten fees going UP

Just saw in the paper (CLICK FOR ARTICLE) that the fees are going up.

The exchange rate for Dutch St. Maarten is One US Dollar = 1.80 NAF but what they call Guilders in St. Maarten (Netherland Antilles Florins)... go figure :)

The new departure fees, commonly called bridge fees, for cruise ships (megayachts) per one-week stay or part thereof will be NAf. 18 for vessels with a length of nine metres or more but fewer than 14 metres; NAf. 27 for vessels with a length of 14 metres or more but fewer than 20 metres; NAf. 45 for vessels with a length of 20 metres or more but fewer than 28 metres; NAf. 81 for vessels with a length of 28 metres or more but fewer than 36 metres; NAf. 153 for vessels with a length of 36 metres or more. For all other vessels the fee will be NAf. 18.

The new harbour fees that are due for passenger ships or yachts per one-week stay or part thereof will be NAf. 36 for vessels with a length of 8 metres or more but fewer than 13 metres; NAf. 72 for vessels with a length of 13 metres or more but fewer than 18 metres; NAf. 108 for vessels with a length of 18 metres or more but fewer than 23 metres; NAf. 162 for vessels with a length of 23 metres or more but fewer than 28 metres; NAf. 216 for vessels with a length of 28 metres or more but fewer than 33 metres; NAf. 270 for vessels with a length of 33 metres or more but fewer than 39 metres; NAf. 324 for vessels with a length of 38 metres or more but fewer than 43 metres.

We just did a week in Simpson Bay and it cost us $10.30 for 2 people aboard a Cal-34. Then when we checked out there was a $2.07 fee. Not bad... Antigua is costing us $44 for the week but that does include a months' cruising fee.

So it goes....

MAIL SERVER DOWN - VIP HOSTING

Aaargh! This is very frustrating. Our hosting company, vip-hosting.com is having serious problems with their email server. I actually talked to a real person yesterday morning and he thought it might have been because they were overwhelmed with spam and that the admin would have it straightened out in 15 minutes... Well, 20 hours later it is still down.

I called again yesterday afternoon and the woman was trying to get all my personal details which I didn't give as I just wanted to know the status of the email problem. She was not aware that there was a problem. She was based in the Philippines... I can't believe that they are trying to farm out the support overseas again. They did this a few years ago and I had major problems getting any service and started to look elsewhere.

I just called again this morning and they are not taking calls, just voicemail. Don't blame them as probably ALL of their customers are calling them.

They no longer have a notice concerning the email problem on their website so I thought it had been solved. Nope. If you go to network status on their support page http://www.vip-hosting.com/support/network_status.php , it shows a red light on POP and SMTP.

RANT, RANT, RANT !!!

WIFI in St. Thomas, USVI

We are currently anchored in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands in Long Bay just off the green Legislature Building near the US Coast Guard dock.

We arrived on Thursday just after midnight about 10 days ago to attend the VICL Charter Yacht Show. We hooked up our equipment to see what WiFi was available. BBW was the strongest signal followed by Choice HotSpot. We didn't have time to mess with it then and we went to bed early that night, but we checked signals and they were still good.

Friday morning we decided to subscribe to Choice as they are the providers of wireless TV and they are ISPs (used to be viaccess.net which should have sent out danger signals). Choice said that they have many hotspots so that would be handy when we change our anchorage. So, we got their signup page, gave them our credit card info and signed up online. After signing up, I tried accessing the internet. zip! I did manage to log into our wifi account to see if they gave us the correctly alloted time of one week for $25 and we were unable to do anything else. I had a partially loaded weather page and that was about it. We went to the boat show and planned to check our email back on the boat at lunchtime. We spoke to many charter yachts who also were having poor service (or lack of) and were not able to reach support. They also complained about Choice is in general.... No further internet access that day.

Saturday morning was the same. We decided to try BBW (Beans Bytes and Websites) hotspot as they are an internet cafe located on the waterfront at the Royal Dane Mall. They still had the strongest signal and since we planned to be "downtown" anchored in the same spot we decided to sign up with them for a week. You cannot register online, so we took the dinghy ashore and went into the coffee shop. I told the guy about our bad luck with Choice and even though they are NOT affiliated with Choice, he gave me a $5 discount as an apology. Amazing!

I believe BBW associates your subscription with your computer's MAC address, so be sure to initially log in with the computer you intend to use. You cannot use the same account with more than one computer. Our signal is picked up by our external bridge which is connected to our Router/ Access Point and then we access that signal with both of our MacBooks with our Airport cards. If we have a couple of leftover days on our account we cannot give it to another boat, which is too bad but so it goes...

We have had excellent service with BBW (a few slow periods but so much better than our SXM experience). We are still at anchor in Long Bay in a slightly different spot as the USCG had us move because the Disney cruise ship anchored but another boat then took our spot so why did we have to move??? so it goes...

Anyway, we have signed up for a second week, even though we hope to up anchor and sail over to Christmas Cove on Wednesday to have dinner with Marolanga and meet Sasha, their Persian cat. It will be so nice to go swimming. We'll probably also be testing our windvane self-steering gear on the way.

Oh yes, almost forgot. We signed up with Choice on Friday so we waited until Monday to call to discontinue service as we didn't expect any results over the weekend. I told the lady that I wanted a refund as we did not and could not use their WiFi and she gave me to support where I was on hold for so long that I had to leave a voice mail. Well, nothing became of the voice mail and I sent an email, and another, etc. By Wedneday, I said in an email that I would come to their office to get my refund. They actually answered my message and said that they would refund the unused portion of my subscription. I told them that I expected a full refund of $25 as I did not use them for the week. The next day they wrote back to say that they had refunded my credit card $24.15... Can you believe it? They kept 85 cents :)

So, in my opinion, do not choose Choice...

and thanks for your patience with my rant :)
.

Evening aboard Hanalei Bay in St. Thomas, USVI

Last night we had a wonderful evening aboard the charter yacht, Hanalei Bay, while we are still in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.



We had a simple, but SUPERB, meal of pork stew with sides of rice, potatoes, and mixed vegetables. Diane made a wonderful chocolate cake that I have been longing for... perfect!

Thanks guys, for having us over. It's always great to see you!

By the way... if you are interested in chartering, or perhaps know of someone who would like to charter a yacht...

Hanalei Bay is currently available for Christmas 2007!
or how about spring break with the family?

View Hanalei Bay's brochure: CLICK HERE

Contact Paradise Connections: CLICK HERE
.

We are in the Virgin Islands

Howdy! We sailed over to the Virgin Islands to attend two charter yacht shows. The first one was at Village Cay, Tortola and the second one at the new Yacht Haven Grande Marina, St. Thomas.

We were delayed leaving St. Maarten because we decided to replace the crappy Forespar winch we had for our roller furling jib with a small Harken. We bought a pair of the small Forespar winches to control our boom brake on the port side, and the furling jib on the starboard side. Shortly after installing them they both froze up. You could get the drum to turn a bit if you were highly motivated and stressed, and saying some magic words. It says not to lubricate. Bob has taken them apart but there are not any noticible defects. It was well worth delaying our passage by a day to buy & install the Harken as it works properly and it is now easy to reef in the jib.

Then we were delayed another day because we had to patch the dinghy... 'nuf said about that :)

There was not much wind a few miles after leaving St. Maarten and it was directly behind us. We arrived around 5pm at Baugher's Bay at the opening to Roadtown harbor on Tortola and took Promenade's mooring (Thanks, guys!). We had to take the dinghy off the deck, mount the motor, and get our papers together but we were very pleased that we made it over to Customs & Immigration by 5:30pm. We found out that overtime rates begin at 4:30pm and we were told that Sunday costs double for Immigration (not sure about Customs). I think we paid about $28 to clear in.

We went to the show the next morning and started our day with Yes Dear who had invited us for breakfast (very good!). Even though it was the last day of the show, we saw all of the boats that we had planned to see. Oh yes, except for one big cat that was too busy to see us and after finishing the can of Coke they had left us with in the cockpit we decided to go see other boats. Never got back to them since they were at the end of the dock. We'll probably go aboard at the Antigua show.

The next morning we left for St. Thomas whose show was to begin the following day. There was just a breath of wind as we left Roadtown and zip wind later. We did reef down once (hurray new winch!) as we had a short squall followed by no wind. You know the type where you spin in a circle? Well, at least the current was going the right direction :) We decided to turn on the electric motor and after about 2 minutes we felt a light kiss of a breeze on our cheeks and switched it off. Our CAL-34 is really impressive that it can sail in such light winds... our charter friends with their big 52-72 footers can take quite a bit to get moving. AND I must say that Bob did an excellent job of keeping a steady and proper course in such conditions as well.

We arrived in Long Bay, St. Thomas just after midnight and even before we put the anchor down we were greeted with the sound of a gunshot... welcome back!

Dollar Buses Fare Hike - St Maarten

Dollar-and-a-half buses just doesn't have the same ring to it... but, the fare hike is supposed to be ratified by the powers that be by November 1st (isn't that a holiday?) or the bus drivers will take action.

They don't mention what the rate increase will be, though we did hear one report that it was going up by 50 US cents. So, remember to take quarters with you as you know how they don't like to make change.

I think St Thomas's dollar buses (Safaris) went up to $2 a couple of years ago....

Well, the price of gasoline is over $4/gallon, so it is understandable... Simpson Bay all the way into Philipsburg for $1 was quite a deal!

I haven't heard anything about the French buses, such as Marigot to Philipsburg, which did cost $1.50.

So It Goes....

Palapa Marina, St. Maarten Dinghy Dock

The other day when we went to check mail at The Mailbox, and rent a DVD at Island Video (both at Palapa) we were surprised to see a little mountain of dirt piled up near where the marina docks their dinghies.

Wow, there is now water in the corner by The Soggy Dollar Bar! Maybe people won't raise their outboard legs anymore (one can always hope). It was getting to be quite a beach in there.

I'm tempted to claim this little island for our own and plant a little moose flag at the summit :)

Sorry, I keep forgetting to take my camera... maybe tomorrow when we take out the garbage.

Added SEAMANSHIP books to aStore

We just added a few SEAMANSHIP books to our Amazon store.

Let's see if this fancy widget works! We are having a slow internet day, hope your connection is faster...



Enjoy!

Thanks BLONDIE for the link

Blondie, author of the blog My View from 30,000 Feet, has placed us on her blog. Thank you, very much and we are glad you enjoy All About Boats.

My View from 30,000 feet is very interesting as Blondie is a flight attendant so she sees a lot of the world and shares her experiences with us.

Check it out!