Land Ho, The end and other bits

Nenne
Wed 6 Dec 2017 13:11
 
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