Life in the Caribbean

Sunday is the Day of Rest in the Caribbean, so many of the locals and visiting sailors at St. Barth go for an abbreviated sail, then head over to the Columbier anchorage for a picnic, swimming, and some good old-fashioned chilling.

Among the boats that followed that tradition yesterday — and seen in the above photo — was the Nat Benjamin-designed 65-ft gaff schooner Juno that’s based out of Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard. Elegant in her simplicity, she was built using traditional methods by the Gannon and Benjamin Boatyard of Vineyard Haven. Promptly after her launching, she was sailed across the Atlantic to the Med, racking up a number of 200+ mile days in the process. She’s a lovely sight under sail.

Also looking lovely on the hook off Shell Beach was the great Briand 147 Mari-Cha III, which not only competed in the West Marine Pacific Cup a few years back — as did the 144-ft schooner Mari-Cha IV the next time around — but broke the monohull transatlantic sailing record. She’s a lovely proportioned yacht, the kind that really brightens up an anchorage.

The photo is not just of the ketch, but also of a weather anomaly — light winds and flat seas during the winter in the Caribbean. No matter if you call them Christmas Winds or Reinforced Trades, they normally blow like snot in the Eastern Caribbean from early December to at least early March. Even more troubling than the winds, of course, are the seas, which are big and relentless, having marched unimpeded across the Atlantic.

The winds blew strong and the seas were impressive all through Christmas, New Year’s, and the first week in January, but ever since it’s been quite calm with unusually flat seas. Even in the windiest years, you might see a day’s break in the strong trades and big seas, but it’s very rare to have it go on for more than a week. We’re told the calms are the result of a big low that’s interfered with the trades in the mid-Atlantic. We really don’t care about the cause, we’re just enjoying it. So are the skippers and crews of boats that have had to make what’s normally a rough crossing between the Virgins and St. Martin, or even up or down island.

One of those who took advantage of the mellow conditions for the sometimes rough sail between St. Martin and St. Barth was John Anderton of the Alameda-based Cabo Rico 38 Sanderling. Anderton came through the Canal in ’01 and has been cruising the Caribbean ever since. He’s spent six summers in Trinidad, and during the winters sails up to the Virgins, then back down for hurricane season. He’s only been home to see family and friends twice in all that time, and wasn’t impressed with life back in the States and Canada. "Everybody just watches television and bitches and moans," he told us.

As far as Anderton is concerned, "there’s no greater place to sail in the world than between Antigua and St. Martin, thanks to the reliable winds and good weather." It’s been his experience that south of Guadeloupe, the winds are more boisterous, in part because the channels between the islands are narrower. Nonetheless, his three favorite islands are all down there: Dominica, St. Lucia, and Bequia. We’ll have more on Anderton and his adventures in the February issue of Latitude.