How about a vacation?   A vacation from permanent vacation?  Sounds like fun.

Hung in Grand Case for a couple of days longer, was running low on provisions, so we explored the long way to the super market.  Down the less traveled path that the tour bus had brought us on a month back or so.  Walked through the town, instead of down the main restaurant row.  Made our way to find some bacon and couple other sundries to hold us over till we left for vacation.

Back on board for a lazy day, beer supply was holding out fine.  Decided about time to head to Baie Longue, or La Semmana hotel and chili out there.   Decided to get up early and make a fishing day of it.  Dropped the lines in and motored over what looked to be good contour lines and I could have sworn I saw fishing boats out in that direction before.   No birds, no flying fish, nothing even tickled the lures.  I pulled em in to check on them, and there was some small sea week fouling the hooks – ugh.  That definitely does not help.  In the process I managed to do my finest macrame of the starboard fishing line.  Well at least that gave me something to do as we motored along toward La Semmana.  An hour of something to do that is.  Forgetting that I was in the sun, and neglecting the sunblock and hat, I got a little red but eventually got the line sorted out.  Only having to start over twice.

We got up to La Semmana and the waves were rolling in, wasn’t too comfortable and the WiFi wasn’t cooperating so decided to bail and head elsewhere for the day.  We had made plans with our boat buddies on Contrary Mary to meet at La Semmana, they actually raised sail and showed up right as we were getting set to bail.  We settled on Mullet Bay, maybe it was a bit more protected, nope – smaller bay, not much protection so Marigot was the call.  Back to almost where we came from.

On the way, they spotted Baie Rouge, a nice gem of a beach that is normally pummeled with waves and boats don’t often get to go there.  Given the conditions, there was one monohull up in there, and shortly 2 cats followed.  Perfect conditions for stopping there.  We got the explorer itch, as we hadn’t been there. Called on the VHF and got no takers on a beach walk, so we swam ashore, dragging money as there were 2 beach bars that looked like well deserved watering holes, Gus’s is where we stopped.   Didn’t take a camera / iPhone as it was a rather long swim and trusting a waterproof bag didn’t seem like a good move.  Swam a shore with mask/fins/snorkel/hat and sunglasses and the cash in a ziplock baggie.  Found a place to leave mask and fins while we wandered the beach.  Was a nice beach, a long hard walk as the sand was really soft.  Lots of nice houses on far end from the beach bars but we made the entire beach before turning around.  There was this large pelican sitting on a rock that would have made a great picture as the sun was behind him.  Oh well.

Gus’s Beach Bar close to where we anchored

Exhausted, plopped into the seat at the beach bar – it was happy hour, damn the luck.   That means 2 for 1 drinks.  Score.  Beers and Frozen drinks – you can guess who had which.   I wandered over to check on the mask/fins while Christine was ordering – all good still there.  Cheers, the table of Canadians next to us – super friendly but wasn’t sure she knew where Canada was.  Then in the conversation they asked where we were from and of course Texas is the answer, not USA – Texas, the big country of Texas.  And then the strangest comments, yeah, started with the political theatrics with our current president, but followed shortly with “You got Chevy trucks in Texas”, and me being the smart ass, replied, “Yup, we got Ford pick em ups too”.   Un-phased, the guy said he really wanted a short-bed chevy, used to own one and wants another and even follows a Texas blog about them.  Oh my. Would you look at the time?  They were on their way out, we finished our rounds of drinks.

The chairs were being piled high, the sun was getting lower, I went to get the gear while.  Found everything except my mask, the snorkel was removed and left but the mask was gone.  Was going to be a long swim with just a snorkel.  Looked everywhere, Christine asked the chair guy, and a couple others on the beach.  Nada, Oh well, I guess it happens.  But just an old mask?  Not the fancy flippers and why leave the snorkel.  Looked a bit more and then resolved to swim back to the boat with just a snorkel, as I didn’t bother with bringing my fins along.   Walked down to the waters edge with just the snorkel while Christine was looking under and behind the stacked chairs and then gathering her gear, and a guy comes running out of the water and hands me my mask.  He said he thought it was “abandoned”.. Uh-Okay. Thank you.  At least I had it back and the swim was much easier than keeping your head out of the water for that long.

Christine wanted a beach BBQ as there was secluded section, but we were low on something to cook and all, luckily we are boaters and schedules / plans are subject to change – our friends on Contrary Mary had us over for dinner while watched the sunset go down on another great day in a new anchorage.  Cheers.

Dropped our stinky trash, raised anchor, and opened up the jib in search of the oracle of goats. Down wind for a short 3 mile run to a “new to us” island, Ile Fourchue. We scored the last mooring. The goats were the last inhabitants of this private island, they ate themselves all the vegetation, which is only now starting to come back, but it was a delightful place to stop. Away from everything, not even cell service was abound and the boats that were there too were spaced out and well behaved.  well most of them. Some of the day charter boats come in and are loud and pick up the moorings like they own the place. At least in here and in Columbier we did see dive crews working/inspecting the moorings and anytime a 60+ footer picked up a mooring they would remind them that they were too big and asked them to move off the mooring ball. Snorkeled a bit on the suggested dive sites, was a bit silty with the wave directions and not a whole lot to see, but we tried a couple of places. Friends were more successful spotting a nurse shark under a ledge, but another relaxing day – tho the mountains were calling.

I got this

Entertainment was watching the “Moorings” boats come in, as it is the first stop  to try and to find a comfortable place to anchor or stop for the evening. The charter boats do not have marks on the anchor chain, so you don’t know how much chain you have out, or how well it will hold. Most charters are not normally used to anchoring out either so its always entertaining. One particularly good show was a moorings boat number 1 came in, with a pretty good crew with the understanding of trying to count the chain as it goes down, select a nice spot and get a good hook. Then a hour later another moorings boat comes in number 2 and anchors on top of  number 1. Number 1 lets it ride till it starts to get late and realizes number 2 is staying. Number 1 picks up and moves, this time takes 3 times to get a comfortable hook for them. Then number 2 decides to move as well, and moves into the spot where number 1 had been all along. Oh well. The best show was when an almost 50 foot monohull comes in just before dark, and tried to anchor but doesn’t get the anchor to go down, and gets “looks” and “bitch arms” (you know when you put your hands on your hips and get in the fighting stance) from already moored boats as they were too close. I was one of the ones who thought they were too close. They tried over 3 times to anchor before they decided to try to pick up a mooring ball.  I kept an eye on them for a while watching as they attempted 6 times to pick up the last remaining mooring ball in the anchorage. I thought, did Moorings checked out the captain’s credentials? Oh well, dropped the dinghy and went over to help them in, just barked orders as to what they needed to do and was able to get them safely on the ball for the night.

Sun rise over the ravines

Squalls at night and we spun around our mooring a few times, and some gusty winds in the valleys between the peaks a good reason to have the boats spread out in that anchorage.

We were up early and had saw another boat dinghy to shore and find a trail to hike on, so we had breakfast and followed along.   They were from Canada and made it to the center valley and we wanted to make it to the peak.

Known for stickers and rocks we actually took shoes on this hike. Some thing really strange about wearing shoes for the first time in months, but definitely came in handy on some slippery rocks.

We hiked to one of the tallest points, using both hands and feets to get over some of the slippery vertical sections. Rewarded with some good views and serious gusts of wind we were still hanging on or sitting down when on the top of the peak. Made it back down and over a few more peaks for fun, took a few pictures and it was about time to head back to Saint Marten. Not sure where we were heading we heard from our fiends on the VHF that the southside was a bit rolly and they were heading the french side – we opted for an around the north side of the island run which was a downwind, in just enough breeze to run on the jib alone for what turned out to be an 18 mile run. We had some decent sun on the solar so we were also making water and just taking an slow run to somewhere.

Half way up the hill

Atop Pikes Peak of Ile Fourche

How small we look from up here

Previous hikers left a heart in the valley that screamed of a photo op…

Sunset at Ile Fourche

Closer to the Sun

Somewhere turned out to be Anse Marcel – another new stop for us.