The small island of Saint Martin is divided between two countries. The northern half is an overseas collectivity of France called Saint Martin. The southern half, Sint Maarten, is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. There is no border control between the two sides, so you can freely cross from Dutch territory to French territory.
After departing the Dominican Republic, we spent a day crossing the Mona Passage, which is notorious for rough seas and thunderstorms.
After tying our boat to the dock, we were greeted by the marina staff. Within just a few minutes, officers from the Armada, the Military Intelligence Service, and the Bureau of Narcotics boarded our boat.
The Gulf Stream flows from the south, so when the wind blows from the north, in the opposite direction, the waves build and the gulf stream can become dangerous to cross in a sailboat…
Right away, we set out for Hoffman’s Blue Hole, a large, underwater sink hole in the middle of the island. It’s about 600 feet in diameter and over 500 feet deep.
We dropped anchor in beautiful turquoise waters in front of the Lorraine’s Cafe. Eager to get to shore, we ate dinner at Emerald Sunset View Restaurant, where they also refilled our propane tanks.
Compass Cay is known for it’s large population of nurse sharks, so the boys had been looking forward to this destination for quite a while.
We left Highborne Cay on December 16th. During our two hour sail south, we hooked (and lost) two large wahoo. We anchored next to a plane wreck on the south side of Norman’s Cay, which was was formerly owned by Carlos Lehder of the Medellín drug cartel.
We spent an unforgettable week exploring beautiful Highborne Cay and celebrating Abel’s birthday in the Exumas.
After departing Bimini, we spent a week Great Harbor Cay. Great Harbor is located in the Berry Islands, a chain of over 100 sparsely populated islands. It was the kind of destination we’d been dreaming of since we moved aboard our boat.