Sailing St Maarten & Anguilla – Grassroots Sailing 20th to 27th February 2010

Class of February 2010
A week-long Basic Cruising class under the Canadian Yachting Association syllabus, we spent a couple of days on a 20 footer in the Lagoon before venturing to Grand Case & Anguilla on IBIS.

CYA Basic Cruising Course

[dropcap]R[/dropcap]ick Butler of Grassroots Sailing in Canada arrived into SXM with a group of 4 keen students; Debbie, Deborah, Lee and Zoran. I anchored Ibis in the St Maarten Lagoon for a couple of nights as we took command of a Jeanneau day boat for everyone to learn the basics before trying their hand with a 48 footer! It was a fantastic group and there was a lot of laughter on board as you can see from the pics!

[pullquote_right]”everyone soon got the hang of the man overboard manoevre”[/pullquote_right]We had great fun tacking and gybing a little boat and everyone soon got the hang of the man overboard manoevre in the sheltered waters of the lagoon. In most places it’s only a couple of metres deep and you need to worry more about running aground than falling in.

Grand Case Mardi

Tuesday we headed round to Grand Case for the evening, practicing our reefing and heaving to along the way. Tuesday nights are a fun time in Grand Case as they put on a “Mardi” celebration with stalls lining the streets, local music, a marching band and small carnival parade. We stopped for dinner in a local eaterie where barbecue is the order of the day, served with rice and beans.

The following is a montage of all the great pics on the side of the page…..with music.

From Grand Case we sailed over to Anguilla and into Road Harbour for the night. There was a bit of a hiccup with Ibis’ charging system which meant that Skipper spent most of the evening with her head in the bilges, but things were eventually resolved in time for drinks ashore and a bite to eat at Elvis’ Beach Bar.

From Road Harbour we sailed to Prickly Pear Cay for some snorkelling, before heading back to St Maarten via the stunning blue waters and white sand of Maundy Bay.

To see when we’re next sailing in St Maarten & Anguilla, click on our Caribbean Sailing Calendar, or the main menu links at the top of this page, or contact us if you’d like to find out about a sailing school charter on Yacht Ibis.

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