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| The reason why the sea was choppy |
Can you believe people rent dinghies to race around the bay? They all follow the leader in a long line, not passing anyone, jumping through the bumpy waves. We navigate the bumpy water in our car (dinghy), trying not to get wet, to go to the shore!
Marigot Bay is huge, and it was quite far to dinghy into the cut to the lagoon. We had to go to Ile Marine, the chandlery, to check in, again on a computer, this time for free!
After checking in we went further up the cut into the inner bay and went exploring.
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| The bridge opens to let big boats through |
We discovered that this area of the town was less busy for some reason. The shops looked very nice but it was not on the route of the cruise liner passengers. We also walked miles to a dodgy side of town where we found the local mall with the supermarket called Super U. It seemed to be the best one on the French side.
Hurricane Irma devastated this island in 2017. Although a major amount of rehabilitation has taken place, you can still see evidence of Irma. There are derelict boats washed up on the shore, up against dilapidated houses. Some houses and buildings have not yet been rebuilt. We noticed some buildings with aluminium roofs rolled up as if they have peeled off the house like the lid of a sardine tin.
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| Some buildings are still derelict |
The town is small with tiny one-way roads. In every town there seems to be at least one dodgy person who either follows us or asks for money. We ducked into a few shops and alleyways to avoid one such chap while walking around the town.
After a few days of rollyness and speedsters racing past us, we decided to go closer to shore on the other side of the bay, closer to the industrial area. Even with the noise of container ships being loaded, it was far quieter, with a lot less roll – we should have done it sooner!
St Martin is divided into two countries. The Dutch occupy Sint Maarten in the north and the French occupy Saint Martin in the south. The tale as to how the island was divided goes like this: both the French and the Dutch decided not to fight over the land, but rather be quite civil and put it upon two men to do the deed. The Frenchman, armed with a bottle of wine and the Dutchman, with a bottle of gin, were to walk across the island toward each other. The border was the line they formed as they walked, meeting in the middle. The reason why the French side is bigger than the Dutch side is because gin is stronger than wine. Apparently the Dutchman met a woman on the way and slept off the after-effects of the gin. This story is not historically correct, but it is more fun than the way it actually got divided.
As South Africans, travelling on the green mamba, as it is affectionately known, we cannot sail or fly into Sint Maarten without a visa. However, we can take our dinghy across the border, walk across, or catch a bus to the other side. Strange but true.
Andrew, Laura and I did exactly that. We dinghied over to the Dutch side. The super yachts on the Dutch side were amazing.
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| Under the bridge, into Dutch Territory |
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| The Big Easy |
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| Andrew being no help! I'll do it myself |
Brandon, on Viento del Mar, arrived not long after us and met up with his friends, Linda and West from South Africa. They are going to sail with him for the next 5 weeks heading for the Bahamas.
One afternoon, we hopped on a bus with Brandon, Linda, West, and Eli (crew on Sea Dancer), and drove to the border where we climbed 2km up a mountain. Andrew, Laura, and I don’t learn that when Brandon says it might be a bit of a climb, and it might be a bit rocky, that he actually means it is a hike up a steep hill through muddy, slippery, gravelly, eroded paths. Yes, we wore our slip-slops!! But we made it and we were rewarded with the beautiful views of the Dutch side. I was a bit worried about the trek downhill, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought. The ground had dried a bit and none of us fell or slipped! It was so worth it.
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| Eli kindly making sure Laura didn't get left behind |
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| Only the last bit was cement road |
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| Eli, West, Linda, Laura, Siobhan, Andrew - oops no Brandon |
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| Brandon making sure he was in this photo |
Andrew, Laura, Faye and I decided to catch a bus to Philipsburg on the Dutch side. This is the town where all the cruise ships come in. Thank goodness we were there between cruise ships. They had left the day before and more were only due to arrive the following day. It was quiet and empty. Again, we could see the after-effects of Irma, but it seems that the Dutch have done more reconstruction than the French.
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| Can you read the sign? |
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| One hand clock |
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| Empty boardwalk |
We had a lovely morning, walking around Philipsburg. One street, parallel to the beach promenade was a street of jewellery stores. We got accosted by ladies telling us that they had 80% off and we MUST come in and look. Every few meters a policeman stood watch with his big guard dog at his side. The dogs were beautiful. I wanted to take a picture but wasn’t sure it would be allowed.
We hopped on another bus to take us to Maho Beach. The airport runway is right next to the beach which mean the planes fly in over the sea and land right there. When planes take off the blast from the turbines often knocks people over and sends hats and towels flying. It is one of those things that one has to do, crazy as it sounds. We waited for a bigger aircraft before standing behind the plane as it took off. The wind was fierce and the blast was hot! But it was one of the best things I have ever done.
The canasta feud continued. We played a few games and I am pleased to say that Claire and I definitely upped our game with Claire winning and me coming second a couple of times, leaving Jim and Faye a bit frazzled that their winning streak was over! I managed to get a few sambas, which gives a score of 1500 points per samba. A samba is when you have a run of cards of the same suit. You need 7 cards for it to be complete. It is not an easy thing to do with three other people collecting the cards you need. Luck was definitely on my side! Claire and Jim call it a canoodle, which is a much better word, I think. Claire had one or two of her own and she went out first which also scores extra points.
We all went for a walk up to the fort. This time it was a mild little stroll!
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| Spot Calypso |
There are two things about this lifestyle that nobody can prepare you for, the first is missing friends and family back home. The other is saying goodbye to friends you make along the way. I was dreading Christmas, knowing I would miss Matt and my family so much. We managed to organise gifts for Matt and Kay so they had a few things to open from us. Thank you Kay for running around for me, Matt for finding gifts for Kay and Woolies online for prompt delivery!
On Christmas Eve, Bev and Andre very kindly invited us all to their boat for drinks. Their crew, Eli, was leaving them, so it was nice to see him again before he left.
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| Laura, Bev and Eli |
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| Andrew, Brandon, West and Linda |
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| Andre |
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| Ian and Faye |
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| One of Bev's dogs |
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| Faye and Claire |
Christmas morning on Calypso was very different from previous Christmas mornings back home. Presents were scarce, there wasn't a tree, flickering lights, or tinsel to be found!
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| Bottle opener |
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| T shirt |
We decided a while back that the three buddy boats, Calypso, Bully and Gumbar would do something special on Christmas Day night. We planned a meal where each family would provide a main course and a pudding which we shared. At the last minute we decided to do a Secret Santa. The catch was we had to find something on our boats that we didn’t want anymore. It was such fun! There was a buoy from a fishing trap that Ian had cut off his prop that we have affectionately named Wilson, two cans of food, tea light candles, no-hanger hanging hooks, a cap, a nail file and a shackle, which was probably the best present. We had a wonderful evening with delicious food and even better company.
We met another couple who own a Montevideo. Their boat was damaged in hurricane Irma and they are trying hard to fix her up. Trevor and Sarah came to visit us to see the layout of our boat and talk about boat systems. On New Year’s Eve, after a crazy afternoon of canasta with the others, Andrew and I went to visit them. Their boat is nice with a similar layout as ours, but slightly different. It was nice to see another Montie and I am pleased they are giving it the love and attention it needs to get it back on the water.
We had a few ganders around the town. Andrew and I went to the shop which was a good 2km walk from the dinghy dock. Our shoulders were finished by the time we got back to the dinghy with supplies of meat, cheese, wine and beer. We also took a bus into the Dutch side as we had heard that the supermarket there was better stocked.
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| Roof peeled back from the wind |
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| Spot the baguette |
We celebrated New Year on Brandon's boat. We had supper before we went across and had lots of fun chatting with friends, old and new. We all managed to stay awake to see the fireworks displays across the bay.
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| Drinks on our boat - passage planning |
Have you seen this sport? It is all the rage. You seldom see an old fashioned windsurfer these days. It looks amazing but I think your upper body strength has to be quite good to do this. You stand on the board and hold the wing and if you are lucky you get up on foils.
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No need for a dinghy - chopper will do
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Andrew keeps taking random pictures of me without me being aware of what he is doing. I thought I would leave this one in. As you can see by the fierce concentration, I am working hard on the blog, which takes me hours to do!
We decided to take advantage of the good weather window on the night of the 1st to high tail it to the British Virgin Islands. Viento Del Mar, Bully and Calypso bade a sad farewell to Ian and Faye on Gumbar as they are not coming any further north with us. We will miss them!
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| Pic courtesy Faye |
Our first impressions of St Martin were not good, however, by the time we left we agreed that the island had grown on us.
The overnight sail wasn’t great at all to the British Virgin Islands. There wasn’t enough wind which meant we were flogging a lot of the time, and the sheet from the jib kept hitting the deck. Down below the sounds are magnified and the jib sheet sounded like a cracker every time it slammed down. Laura slept peacefully in her old cabin while Andrew and I kept watch or tried to sleep. But we got to there eventually! And boy was it worth it. If you think the sea looks blue in these pictures, wait until you see the BVIs!
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