St. Martin charter - islands to include

[Mkronquist]

We are chartering a Leopard 44 from Sunsail at Oyster Pond in October. I hear that less wind comes with the lower price in October. Hopefully there's enough wind to avoid motoring around... Are we best off sticking to St. Martin, Anguilla, and St. Barts? Or is it realistic to also visit Saba or Sint Eustatius in that 10 day time frame? Sunsail has a sample 14 day itinerary that includes all the aforementioned islands plus St. Kitts and Nevis. We'd like to make some longer passages but don't want to feel rushed. I know we'll have to do the final planning based on the weather but any general advice would be much appreciated.

[Zanshin]

October will still let you see some winds, but you are in the high season for hurricanes (or TRSs if they don't grow up enough to get a real name) and you will need to keep an eye out for the weather. I helped return a cat to Oyster Pond yesterday and the entrance was pretty rough and becomes impassable in very heavy weather.

Saba is great at your time of year, since the winds and swells that otherwise make that open anchorage uncomfortable might not be there.

St. Martin, Sint Maarten, Anguilla and St. Barths have a lot of things for you to see. St. Kitts & Nevis have some noteworthy sites (Brimstone Fort, for example) but the anchorages that are comfortable have nothing ashore, and Basseterre is, in my opinion, usually untenable. So unless you really want the sailing miles, you might want to visit St. Kitts and Nevis some other trip and get more quality time in anchorages such as Ile Fourchue, Ile Tintamarre and Anse Colombier.