St. Martin and Las Perlas

The past two weeks in St. Martin have had us really missing our family and friends back home. The boat we intended to sail across the Pacific continued to be delayed. On the positive side, the down time did give us time to get to know the island.

Unbelievable as it may sound, St. Martin produces nothing. Everything is imported, from food to material goods. We spent an afternoon visiting the first aquaponics effort on the island. The two people that started the community based farm gave us a tour of their small outdoor facility. They are starting off with home delivery of produce, as they do not have the permits to sell fish or produce commercially. Once they expand, they plan to supply to pricey restaurants in the area.

We visited Loterie Farm, an ecotourism base on the island. Loterie Farm was established in 1721 by an Englishman who won a “land lottery,” to start a sugar plantation. Today, the property is St. Martin's largest nature preserve and continues to protect the natural heritage of the generations of slaves that worked the sugar plantation. Looking to get some exercise, we choose the most challenging route up the mountain. After a rope assisted vertical climb, we were able to see beautiful views of the northern part of the island. This is the highest point in St. Martin, Pic Paradis. Over 1,000 plant species grow on the property. Apparently there are monkeys too, but we didn't see them.

We visited Maho beach several times. The beach is super touristy and located right next to the airport. Planes flying into St. Martin land 10 feet past the beach. We took some great pictures laying in the sand and watching the planes land overhead. Some people hang onto a chain link fence when the planes take off. The jet blast blows their feet into the air. Brian and I did not do this, as there were signs saying it could cause extreme bodily harm or death. Not to mention, hot spent fuel fumes in your face.

On Monday, it became obvious that our boat was not going anywhere... at least anytime soon. We started looking for another boat in need of crew. Very quickly, we found a brand new and well equipt cat going from Panama to Australia as part of the World ARC. We met the new boat “Dasha Way” in Panama and started sailing maybe 10 minutes after our arrival. We sailed the 60 nautical miles to the Las Perlas Archipelago, located in the middle of the Gulf of Panama to rendezvous with the rest of the WARC fleet. On February 7^th, we will set sail, weather permitting, for the Galapagos. You can also follow Dasha Way on the WARC Fleet Viewer. Dasha Way's end destination is Australia so the boat will not be continuing to St. Lucia as the route shows. We will be taking it a leg at a time, and hopping off the boat when we are satisfied.

The boat is a new Fountain Pajot Lipai 41, owned by Darrel Williamson. Darrell bough the boat new from the factory in La Rochelle, France in July and saied it around the Med/Spanish/Portugese coast for a couple months before setting sail across the Atlantic and Caribbean. He estimates that he now has over 6,000 nautical miles on his boat. He has installed solar power, bow sprite with Asym-Spin, SSB, SatPhone paired with GRIB weather data, etc. Darrel from Australia and is very accomplished in his work as an electrical engineer, later receiving his PHD from Harvard. He has lived in the US for 7 years. He is the father of 4 girls, which we find very amusing. I think he can really relate to the crazy Wargo household childhood stories. Darrel has a striking resemblance to our New Bern friend Dave McCracken.

The Las Perlas Archipelago is absolutely gorgeous. We arrived mid-day on Tuesday and were immediately thrilled to be in the Pacific Ocean. We are moored off of the island Contadora. It is the most developed of islands with two hotels, a few small supermarkets, and a small paved airport. Airport passengers wait at a picnic table under a palm tree. Contadora means the “counting island” because in the past, pearls found in the area were sent to this island to be counted and priced. Lauren is a huge fan of the TV show Survivor and is so happy to be in the same area that many of the shows were filmed. We walked around the entire island to scope out snorkeling spots. Tomorrow we will return by dingy to a few of the better spots. The UV index is 14, well past the 11+ designated as extreme on the UV scale. With 11+ UV, it is recommended to stay out of the sun from 10am to 4:30pm. It took about 30 seconds to toast Brian's skin..

Last night, we attended the WARC party. If was fun to gather for beer and appetizers with the other sailors in the group. The boats are all pretty nice, as the ARC has very strict safety checks for ever boat prior to the start of each leg. At night, the bioluminesce in the water is incredible. The water under the dingie and in the wake glows. Kicking the water on the beach in the evening produces millions of little swimming glow bugs to light up, almost like a science fiction movie.

We set sail for the Galapagos tomorrow!