Our return to St. Maarten from Saba on February 22 with Bob and Beckie was timed to greet good friend Capt. Wally who would arrive the next day. We had asked expert yacht racer Wally to join us again for the Around St. Maarten Multihull Regatta being held February 25 as he had last year. He eagerly accepted, perhaps further encouraged by our plans to also enter the more impressive, annual St. Maarten Heineken Regatta the following week. This would be a chance for him to reunite as well with Bob, both of them having crewed with us on our November passages from the Chesapeake Bay to the Caribbean in both 2010 and 2011. Having Beckie with us was a nice bonus. Having all three of them to help crew in the Around St. Maarten Multihull Regatta was a real treat for us.

In the meantime we caught up with Mike and Suzi on Catana 431 Awakening and learned that they, following our earlier urging, had also entered the Around St. Maarten Multihull Regatta! This would be their first race with a standard yacht racing start and we all got together aboard Awakening to describe the race and starting procedures after they joined us in the Simpson Bay anchorage on February 24. Mike and Suzi had recruited another cruising couple to crew for them and we all had a big time ashore that Friday evening for the pre-race skipper's meeting and party before heading back to our respective boats.

The following day, Saturday February 25, was race day. At the skipper’s meeting the previous evening we learned the race course this year was to be counterclockwise around the island instead of clockwise as it had been last year. This decision was due to the forecast strong windy conditions – E at 18-22 kts. We didn’t really understand what difference that made as either way, the race started and finished at the same location. Regardless, this made moot all the pre-race strategy we had debated for the long, clockwise direction course’s windward leg in Anguilla Channel – stay close to St. Martin or tack all the way across to Anguilla? That’s where we thought we could improve over last year’s race, in which we placed third, but now comparisons became irrelevant as we would be traveling in the opposite direction.

This year there were seven boats in the "cruising" class and one of the two boats who beat us last year (whom we thought then should not have been in “cruising” class) was now registered to the “racing” class. The other boat that beat us last year was not present. But there were a bunch of different boats rounding out the cruising class and we had no preconceived notions of where we stood competitively, except for the assigned ratings. We were rated the second fastest boat in cruising class, behind a boat of unknown design, Passion III.

For pre-race strategy, knowing the forecast windy conditions for race day, Dave did not declare our large, light wind Code 0 headsail, as we had last year, to avoid paying a rating penalty for having that sail available for use. Use it or not, declaring it means it gets figured into the rating system used to handicap all the boats. Learning from last year, we wouldn’t consider using it in winds much above 12 kts anyway. Our rating thus became 0.948 without the Code 0 versus 0.954 with it. The rating is multiplied by the elapsed time of a race to get the corrected time, so higher rating numbers result in longer corrected times.

Race day winds proved pretty much as forecast – E at 18-22 with higher gusts, seas were around 6 feet in short chop. We set a single reefed main and planned to use the full genoa. The start was set in Simpson Bay and included a windward mark to provide for a standard yacht race start. Dave failed to duplicate the perfect start from last year, but only one boat started better than us, Passion III, and he soon erred by tacking too soon for the windward mark – apparently planning to make two tacks to approach the mark on starboard with the right-of-way. We held our tack for a bit longer and got a nice lift to be able to clear the windward mark on port tack and bear away on the first real leg of the race – getting there far in advance of any starboard tack boats.

In the counter-clockwise direction, the first leg after rounding the windward starting mark was one, long, close hauled port tack upwind in sloppy seas along the southern side of the island and we essentially blocked any potentially faster boats from passing us by holding the commanding upwind position.   Passion III caught up with us somewhat but could get only so close as he was trying to sail in our dirty air. No other boats were close, but when racing in a handicapped regatta, boats far behind can actually be beating you after applying the rating factor.

Things changed after tacking to north along the east side of the island. This became a close reaching leg and Passion III was able to catch and pass us. This set up the competitive downwind leg in Anguilla Channel. Passion III conducted a downwind jibing strategy whereas we sailed directly downwind wing and wing – with the mainsail on one side and the genoa on the other. We did shake out the reef in the main. We seemed to catch and maybe even pass Passion III for awhile, after which he would pass us again. He was ahead of us at the western tip of the island where the course turned back upwind to the finish. But was he far enough ahead since his rating was higher? (0.954 vs our 0.948) Now he wasn’t buried in our dirty air upwind and was able to stretch out his lead a little more. He was first at the finish with an elapsed time of 3:43:56 and we were 5:52 behind him. On corrected time we ended up in second place by 3 minutes, 31 seconds…a close race. On corrected time we were 6 minutes, 24 seconds ahead of the third place boat.

We were having fun and were happy with our performance as we didn’t make any serious mistakes. We enjoyed the post-race festivities ashore with the Awakening crew, having dinner together at a nearby restaurant (with three pet dogs along). For our second place finish we received a plaque, a $100 gift certificate to Budget Marine, and a bottle of wine. Thanks to Bob and Beckie and Wally for their excellent crew work!

On Sunday afternoon, February 26 we cleared out of Sint Maarten, departing Simpson Bay with Bob, Beckie and Wally. We sailed around to Marigot Bay, set anchor and went ashore to clear in with French Customs and Immigration. Walking or driving from one side of the island to the other is informal – no clearance/immigration process whatsoever is required. But go by boat and the rules relapse to full formalities with the attendant fees. However, the French side is very welcoming at the nearby Captainerie, a short walk from the dinghy dock through town. Clearance involves a brief session where the skipper sits down to a computer (upstairs) and declares his vessel and other details on an electronic clearance form, hits the “print” key and the form prints (downstairs) where he can then quickly pick up an official signed and stamped document and be off with nary a fuss in search of café and croissants.

We spent Monday exploring Marigot Bay and moved Tuesday to anchorage at Grand Case where a Tuesday night street festival takes place. Grand Case has a main roadway that parallels the beach, along which over 40 restaurants can famously be found, claiming the best French food outside of Paris. The street fair included arts and crafts but the parade of costumed dancers was eliminated this particular night due to a rain forecast. We selected a moderate restaurant for dinner and enjoyed our walkabout the town where all the shops remained open late for this particular weekly event that draws crowds from all over the island.

On Wednesday morning, February 29 we sailed back around to Simpson Bay on the Dutch side for Bob and Beckie’s departure and Paul’s arrival. We would need to be “legally” on the Dutch side for the upcoming Heineken Regatta. Dave went to the airport with Bob and Beckie and returned with Paul. Thanks to Bob and Beckie for visiting – we really enjoyed having you! With Paul (and Wally) here, we then turned our attention to preparing for the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, a three-day event that would begin in two days....