The 30th Annual Heineken Regatta - St. Martin - Passages West Anchor to Anchor - Simpson Bay, St. Martin to Lindbergh Bay, St. Thomas (U.S.Virgin Island) - 25 hours - 115 miles La 18.19.9'N Lo 64.58.0'W We joined a group of 2 mega yachts and a dozen or so others at the 9 a.m. out-going Simpson Bay bridge opening and made our way out of the lagoon on Friday, March 5th. We knew the 30th Annual Heineken Regatta was in full swing but what a surprise it was to us to find literally hundreds of boats racing within view of the bay. The question that came to our mind was where did they all come from? They certainly didn't come out of the lagoon. Did they all spend the night anchored out in the swell in Simpson Bay? If so, it must have been a bumper to bumper parking lot out there. We enjoyed an up-close view of the action as we slipped between the races to open water. In light (under 10 knot) SE-S winds under full main and genoa, we set out on a course of 291 degrees magnetic for Culebra. During our progress in daylight hours we had a rather large, very low flying plane pass over us twice. The drone of it's engine could be heard in the distance for most of the day. We speculated that a grid search was underway to possibly locate whales as the humpback annual migration passed through these waters yearly at this time. We sailed on through the night in flat seas enjoying the fireworks of bio-luminesence in our wake matched by a spectacular sky above, gently averaging 4 knots. At 7 a.m. we had the U.S. Virgin Island, St. John, off our starboard beam and a very threatening squall line off our bow. With Culebra still 25 miles ahead and the weather channel issuing a flood warning due to heavy rainfall over the next 36 hours, we decided to take shelter in Lindbergh Bay, St. Thomas, and "wait out the storm". This turned out to be a wise decision. While snugly on anchor we endured many hours of teeming rain and 30+ knot winds.