Harbour Rot
Stream
Darrell Jackson and Sarah Barnes
Tue 14 Jan 2014 17:39
First can I apologise for Darrell's rant in the last update? He does have to get these things off his hairy chest.
Life on this Caribbean adventure is very different for me, as for the first time, I am not dictated by a timetable which is novel and strange. It is taking some adapting to, but I will persevere. I am trying to keep to my five a day, but Darrell keeps reminding me that should be fruit and veg, rather than cake, which is so unfair. This is possibly why he wants to drag me away from French St Martin as soon as possible. We have been doing our best Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood imitations in testing different patisseries, but we can't eat as many as they do. They must film it over more than one session! We have found that we don't like macaroons as much as we thought we would, and they looked so nice. But the cakes are good and I am even trying some of the tartlets, well they do have fruit on them and Darrell ends up eating most of the pastry.
Our days have been filled with testing various marine products for polishing and cleaning, which wasn't in the adventure description that I was given! But I have managed to Hoover the boat, which was satisfying.
All this domesticity meant, it was nice (no I really mean a relief) to have a day in the car exploring the island and some of its beautiful beaches. There are rather a lot of gated holiday communities, composed of hotels, timeshares, rental villas and homes. We stopped for a late breakfast in one, which was pleasant, but we did feel slightly uncomfortable as we are not use to that kind of environment. I prefer the beaches that are empty of parasols and sun beds, where you can walk along the sand without tripping over someone. We spent a good while watching the kite surfers and wind surfers at Lucas Bay on the exposed East coast. It is strange to see all the investment in the environment that the EU have put into the island nature reserves. I didn't realise that they put so much money into the Caribbean. As it was such a clear morning we could see Anguilla and further round to the south St Barth's and Saba. It is the colours of the sea that always impress me. They are so vivid going from a gorgeous aquamarine to a deep blue.
I also love the bioluminescence that you get at night. The disturbed water as you sail phosphoresces and glows, this also happens at night when you pump the toilet, an experience that brings the inner child out!
As part of our island trip Darrell took me to Maho beach bar, for those who don't know this is on the Dutch side of the island. It is at the end of Julianna Airport runway, and the big feature is watching the planes come into land over the beach. They come in so low you feel you could almost touch them. Obviously planes taking off create as much entertainment: watching the brave young things trying to stay standing on the beach, as the planes rev their jet engines for take off about 20 metres away. The force sends sand, hats, ruck sacs and ultimately the bright young things flying into the sea. It is not the quietest bar on the island, but it is worth a visit for this entertainment.
As we have been in St Martin for eight days in a marina, waiting for things to be mended and doing all the jobs we could, we decided to escape and go to an anchorage. A good chance to test the repaired windlass in non stressful conditions. Having no genoa it meant motoring up to Grande Case, after we had executed the perfect spring off from our very tightly spaced mooring, impressing the marina staff. Thankfully, after a dodgy start the windlass performed brilliantly, much to my relief as I don't relish doing it by hand alone. (Mind I haven't got the anchor up with it yet! Don't count your chickens!) There is a lot to take into account when anchoring; how much chain to put out, getting the anchor down quickly without the chain landing on top, but rather lying in a line along the bottom, how much the boat will swing without hitting anything else and that the anchor digs into the sandy bottom securely. I am always a little perturbed at how much we swing around in the wind and currents. More so when the other boats and catamarans don't always go in the same direction as us. I get very twitchy. As I don't want a repeat of Fowey, Cornwall, when we were on a mooring buoy and were woken at four in the morning by a very loud bang and shudder, which turned out to be a Westerly yacht hitting us on the stern, as she swung the opposite way to every other yacht on the buoys, during a mild summer storm.
We will have a day or so here before we have to return to Marigot Bay to collect our, hopefully re-incarnated, genoa (remember Darrell was continually told 'il est mort' and it would be too much to ask anyone to put one in their luggage to bring out to us.) Also, Darrell informs me that he has a date to drink wine with our Lithuanian (not Russian as we previously thought) supermodel friend from the super yacht. Although, she was not impressed that he left me holding up the dinghy to drain water out on my own, as he accompanied her back to her yacht. But apparently, they have no wine on their boat and we obviously have. She seems to think that our way of life on board would be more to her liking.