Land Ho, The end and other bits
Nenne
Wed 6 Dec 2017 13:11
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18:04.12N 063:05.13W
We woke up on Sunday morning and there it was. Land at
last. By that stage we were about 30 miles out and we could see the islands in
the distance. It was surprising, after the distance we have covered over the
past month, how long it took to cover those 30 miles, but we finally reached the
harbour, Marigot Bay, and moored at around 12:00.
I am sure you can guess what happened next. You are
right, we cracked open the booze locker and got ourselves a beer.
Sunday afternoon was spent having a look around the area
close to us. It has been 3 months since the hurricanes and, although they have
been busy cleaning up, the place is still looking devastated. Looking around the
houses and buildings there are very few places that do not have some part of the
roof covered in blue plastic where the roof sheeting has been blown off. The
marina we are moored in still has a couple of sunken boats which still have to
be salvaged. Just down from us there is a broken mast sticking up out of the
water, the rest of the boat is obviously still on the bottom. Near to that is
what's left of a large catamaran with its bows resting of the quay where it was
dumped by the wind.
Monday the three of us were packed off to Philipsburg,
the main shopping and tourist area on the Dutch side of the island. Once again
the evidence of the storms is all around. In the aftermath of the events, it
appears that the darker side of humanity came to the surface with wide spread
looting. Shops, boats, in fact anything that could be broken into was. It seems
that there was a fair amount of mob violence as well. Why people suddenly think
that, in the aftermath of a disaster, all the normal rules of society can be
abandoned and they can behave like animals is beyond me.
Yesterday it was off to an area near the airport for
more shopping and then a stop for lunch and a swim at a spot called Smugglers. A
couple of beers, spare ribs for lunch and really just biding our
time.
Enough of that!
This chronicle was always going to be about the journey
and not much about the destination. The three old men hope you have had a bit of
fun reading about our adventure. Maybe check back here again from time to time.
Hopefully future passengers will post the odd update.
Cheers from the three old men,
Jeremy, Alan and Duncan
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