St Martin

MALARKEY
Jo & Trevor Bush
Thu 8 May 2008 19:58
According to the pilot books, the Anagada passage can be a bit testy at times and has claimed many a well found boat. And as we were heading east to St Martin, right into the teeth of it, we figured we best look for a weather window. 
 
Well we found one, a perfect one, the very first glance at the forecast. The gods were clearly on our side....the wind was due to veer to the south. This meant that instead of a sloppy beat to windward in lumpy seas, we'd have a reach all the way to St Martin. Malarkey eats up reaching for breakfast and spits out quite impressive speeds, so instead of having to accept a crap crossing, we were looking forward to this one. And it turned out just like it was forecasted and we had a faster sail going back to St Martin than we did on the downwind leg going the other way. Splendid. Could this be the sign of our forthcoming luck in St Martin.
 
Well I am pleased to say yes it was, even we have to get some good luck every now and then.
 
We met up with Ylva & Jhonas, our Swedish cruising pals (S/Y Lena), which was a real nice surprise. Well maybe not so much of a surprise as they often seem to turn up unexpectedly in the same place as us. They were getting prepared for their TransAtlantic return trip back to Sweden. They were pretty much ready but the St Martin carnival was due to start soon and Jhonas & Ylva are never ones to shy away from a party. So they stayed and partied with us for the duration. 
 
  
 
Jhonas gets into the spirit                                            Ylva gets arrested for D & D                     Jo does the dutiful thing & collects free beer
 
  
 
Pink carnie queen                               Blue carnie queen                               And spot the white girl
 
We love carnival. True it wasn't anywhere as big and as impressive as Trindad's but hey, it was still carnival and we had great fun.
 
And the entertainment didn't finish there. We had the St Martin Fish Festival to look forward to!. Which, unlike its naff title, was all rather splendid. It all seemed like a good excuse to party, eat lots of fishy food and drink loads of fishy booze. Well we obliged in all departments.
 
  
 
Fishy calypso band                                                                        A different kind of 'cock pit'                          And even more free heineken
 
We also even managed to get what we actually went to St Martin for. We got our anchor chain, plus a ton of other boaty bits and at pretty good tax free prices too. All in all, this time around, we have a completely different view of St Martin.......it grows on you.