Mistress of the Wind

Galion Beach Restaurant, bday lunch

school kids waiting to go swimming in the lanes

walking over the rocky path to Galion Beach

Galion Beach, the other side of Orient
I was completely enamoured with this. In the middle of the beach was a swimming area cordoned off for lane swimming. What a great idea!

Ile de Pinel another anchorage in the distance

Birthday Breakfast

lamb roast at Barnacles

Barnacles

view from Barnacles

January 23...

new anchor

sweet, hope it was worth it!

Clem and paddle boarder

Jock's boat

Jellyfish friend, another reason not to swim off the boat

trying to move a boat that had sunk and now is stuck in the mud, it will be stripped inside and out

our new toy, does it work? we find more than we want to know about!

calmness in the lagoon

Grand Case

Still very calm in the Lagoon and work progressing. Have now decided to keep the recommended size of the anchor. The radar pole is almost complete but the radar has to be connected. Fuel has been topped up.
Snorkeling this afternoon in a small bay by Maho Beach.
Some interesting companions we have met and been surrounded by - there is Jock who lives on a grounded boat and partially works to fix it up. He also seems to scavenge stuff from the shore. There is Clem who rows every day back and forth to shore and the funniest one is F## F### Gary who is a whiz at fixing small engines. The friend we had on board while Emily was here seems to have disappeared which is a relief.

January 22...The phone company, TelEm is finally back on track working again and we are online from the boat.
Who knows what the problem was and I am not sure they know either. Still at the dock here and the mosquitos are raging. Very calm in the Lagoon and this morning I saw someone actually waterskiing in the Lagoon. Not something I would want to do.
Anchor locker is complete but having second thoughts about the size of the anchor. It possibly is too big. A day will be spent checking that one out.
Dinghy is fully operational and really moves!!!! A manufacturing defect. Radar mast should be ready to go by the end of the day!
Winds appear to be constant and favourable over the next week and may head out in the next week although there are still a few things I would like to do and visit.

Grand Case last week

January 20...Just heard this a.m. that Marie has broken her wrist. Oh dear, what a pain - probably about 6 weeks to recover and then physio. Found some more pictures from our visit and thought I would post.

Calmos Café at Grand Case - who had this?

who had this?

and this?

patiently waiting

relaxed

Santa at Grand Case

nice boutiques here

French architecture

At Maho watching the planes land

Sunset Grill on Maho, bucket of beers

January 19...Still at Bobbys and work is proceeding. We are anxious to move on but just have to be patient. Finding small jobs to do while we wait. Anchor light replaced today, laundry, dinghy and general clean up. Trying to lay off the food as last week was a swinefest! Saying that we are sitting in The Taste Factory for lunch and using their email.

view from the tope of the mast

up the mast

view from the top

view from the top - mast light is now working!

January 17...

goodbye emily

Well you have all probably wondered what has been happening. Very busy time with Emily at Mullet Beach, a beautiful beach on St. Martin that is not too far from Bobbys. A morning of scuba diving, breakfast every morning from ZeeBest, lunches out and dinners at BoatHouse, Lagoonies and the Yacht Club's best grouper fish and chips. A trip to Marigot and a walk to the fort and the week was over very quickly.

Mullet Beach

fort at Marigot

Calmos Café at Grand Case

Grand Case

Overlooking Marigot from the fort

scuba diver

under the sea using the Go Pro

Simpson Bay Beach after scuba diving

dinghy dock at Simpson Bay Beach

January 12...Emily arrived and good to see her. Her flight was delayed from Toronto for an hour because of de-icing but she was glad to be out of the cold. Tired as she worked late the night before and then had to get to the airport for the 6 a.m. flight. And hungry so we went to the Yacht Club for a bite to eat first. Then to the boat for some down time, dinner on board. Because we had a rental car, we decided to do a tour of the island - we did Oyster Pond and Orient Bay. Oyster Pond was fun......yes, did a time share tour.....yes, it was a bit of a scam...actually a lot of a scam but we did survive it. Romeo with the pointy shoes just didn't understand why we didn't buy a condo. On to Orient for a wonderful lunch of tapas time two.....calamari, shrimp, jalapeno and cheese and wings, then a beach chair to relax. We intended to make it to the Yacht Club again for the bridge opening but missed it. Today, Monday, Emily and I walked to ZeeBest for croissants and had a lazy start to the morning. Then off to book diving for Thursday and we were going to take the ferry to Saba but only one is operational and doesn't go until Friday. Nix on that so today found a case wine store, went to Grand Case for lunch, my fav restaurant and the to Maho Beach to watch the planes come in. Bucket of Carib at Sunset Bar and then back to boat for dinner. Lots of pictures taken in the last couple of days....with the GoPro camera that Emily brought. Terrific pictures.

view from the lookout

view of Simpson Lagoon from the lookout

looking toward Ille de Pinel from Orient Bay

Orient Bay

January 9...Correction...did I say miles per hour for winds? As all you sailors know, it should have been knts. I am still learning.....
We are presently at the dock at Andy's and the anchor locker is in full swing for renovation to accommodate our brand new 60 lb Manson purchased at Island Water World.....they were all out of the Rochna at Budget so decided on the Manson.
Yesterday Peter checked in on the Dutch side even though we had checked in on the French. We are now on the Dutch side and apparently the customs for both the French and Dutch are patrolling the waters to make sure everyone's papers are in order. The French checked 45 boats the other day looking for drugs but found nothing!
Yesterday, I went in to Phillipsburg on my own and had a great day just looking around all the stores. There were four cruise ships in so it was very busy. Apparently the best customers for all the shops there are Mexicans and Brazilians. And there were many Spanish speaking people on the streets.
Today will be a major shop day...we have no food left and more importantly no wine. Emily will be coming in tomorrow which is quite exciting. The winds are supposedly going to be high for the next little while so perhaps will rent a car for a couple of days to tour the island.

yesterday at Phillipsburg on boardwalk

new anchor awaiting installation

anchor locker under renovations

cruisers helping cruisers

getting the weight on the bow - they don't call it Sandy Ground for nothing

January 6...Yes, we still are alive and well. Today we moved from a mooring to Bobby's, actually Andy's workshop where the anchor locker will be rearranged with a new windless and anchor...Rochna, I believe. Still very windy although the winds are supposedly going to die a bit tonight and then pick up again on the weekend. Christmas winds I guess.

January 1 - 5...December 31 was spent at H2O, a floating bar, in Marigot Bay, although it was at a dock because of the high winds. Many Canadians and friends joined us, Latest Caper, Much Mischief and a few others as well. Couldn't beat a hamburger and two beers for $6 and any additional beers or drinks were $2. We didn't stay late, approximately 9 p.m and headed back to the boat for champers. Although we did have a couple of bottles we decided not to open them. There were promises of fireworks at 9 p.m. but none materialized until later and very sporadic. Could see some of them in the Lagoon and as far as Anguilla.

On New Years Day we caught the 9 a.m. French bridge opening, one boat ahead of us and one behind. Then the fun started. The boat in front of us ran aground, we turned to avoid the area and promptly got stuck as well. The boat behind us went somewhere else and also got stuck in the channel. There are no channel markers and apparently the French are a bit slow in getting them set up because they want to make sure that everything is A okay. Well, it has been 1 1/2 years. Back to us....several dinghies came around and helped push, many differing opinions on what should be done and how and 1 1/2 hours later we were off. Pusing the boat from port to starboard, stern and bow did not meet with success. Finally, the main halyard was taken by a dinghy and tilted the boat so we could float free. Got to where we believed was our mooring and stayed there to make sure and around 4 p.m. a very nice man in a motor cat came by and pointed first to himself, then the mooring and we realized we were in the wrong spot. No real problem there, found our mooring and stayed put. All in all, it was an exciting day, no one died, everyone was calm and it was a good start for the new year. Cocktails were had with Latest Caper.

The next day odd jobs were done. Wind is high even in the Lagoon. We could not imagine what 100 mph winds must have been like with Gonzolo. Winds are now ranging from 20 - 25 and will continue for a couple of more days. Difficult to go anywhere in the dinghy without getting wet, although we did manage Lagoonies for fish and chips on Friday night to celebrate Apple's birthday with Hilda, Michael, Marty and Deanna and Stuart from Pembroke. They are leaving on Thursday as they want to go skiing at Tremblant - wow, in January that will be really cold!

Sunday was rainy, and another hat was lost but will be easily replaced as it was a St. Martin hat. At least we had food, good books and a very reasonable bottle of French wine.

hurricane damage

more damage

Yesterday, January 5, off on the bus to Phillipsburg. A pleasant day and bonus.....new tablet for me. Very exciting. Nice boardwalk along the harbour and not very many people as there were no cruise ships in.

December 31... HAPPY NEW YEAR...Back to Telem today again to get the hotspot working....no luck, will have to go to Phillipsburg on Monday to see a technician. While there I'll have a look at tablets or whatever so that I can access my stuff as well. I don't have Skype but that doesn't matter anyway as we don't have Internet connections.

the freighter apparently took the sailboat with it in hurricane Gonzales

this freighter is on the sand against the rock

Marigot French bridge into the lagoon

December 30

Anchorage was good last night in Marigot Bay but it is a pretty long ride into the Lagoon. We talked to Andy today and he will look at the work to be done and we will move into the Lagoon probably on New Years Day. The winds are forecast to get pretty high and heavy 20 plus for the next couple of days so we will be more protected in the Lagoon.
The worst damage from Gonzolo seems to be at Bobby's Marine where the boat was left three years ago. The docks and the boats at the dock were destroyed. Interesting though the boats on the hard were not touched. I guess if we had left the boat there as we had been planning last year, we would have been safe. But.....who knows.
Bought a new phone today, which we cannot use because of roaming charges and we have to wait until we get to the Dutch side. We also went to Simply, formerly US, and bought some great cheese, smoked trout and baguette of course which we had for lunch. Dinner tonight is stewed chickem and rice. Yum, Yum. Final plans have not been made for New Years Eve as yet.

December 29
Peter has been at customs for over two hours....a story to tell! No real story, just customs was closed for a long lunch and then they were late. Two other guys were waiting with him, one from Mississauga and one from Barrie.

St Martin in the distance

Point Basse Terre, St. Martin

At the point and being passed

boat wake, pt. Basse Terre on way to Marigot Bay

December 26

After preparing the vessel for transit, we got away from Jolly Harbour at 10 a.m. Had a pleasant sail over to St. Kitts. We went through the channel between Nevis and St. Kitts and took the sail down a bit early due to the unfamiliarity of the channel and the fact there was some shallow water and were told it was a bit tricky. Had we known though, we would have left the sail up and perhaps gotten in to White House Bay a bit sooner. We choose not to stop at Shitten Bay and motored right past Booby Rock - who thinks up these names - and picked up a mooring ball disguised as a crab pot. There is still a bit of a leak in the engine compartment and pumped out about three gallons of water with our best purchase ever - the shop vac brought down in my carry on! Hopefully we will be able to source that leak.
We have decided to spend two nights at White House, lovely anchorage and then go directly to St. Martin and not stop at St. Barts. We are going to spend the free extra day doing more projects.
The wind direction and currents in this Bay because of the hills keep us pretty much going in circles. Glad we are on a mooring ball. There is a new bar in the bay here which apparently is quite nice - lounges and chairs on the deck but we will not be going in for happy hour as we are flying our Q flag and the dinghy is on the deck.
There are about eight boats in the harbour, three of which are unattended, one Canadian boat, Easy Listening, another Al and Michelle from Lunnenberg, and Apollon from Praha who come over on the 2014 ARC.
Early morning on the 28th, 8 a.m., we left White House Bay, winds, swells, waves were all good. A very nice sail until we got to the outskirts of St. Martin. Rain, winds picked up for a short while. We decided to overnight in Simpson's Bay along with all the other very large vessels. There is not much action on the opening of the bridge, actually only two boats came through and there were no boats incoming. They did not even open the bridge, just in case.
The anchorage was hell! Another Roadtown in the BVIs or the main harbour in St. Kitts. Swells and rolls continually and they were off and on. So for a minute calm, then building up to huge - I had to get up in the middle of the night to put the dishes away....everything was rattling and creeking. Of course, only I heard all the sounds.
This morning, December 29, motored to Marigot Bay so that we could check in. Hopefully this will be a better anchorage, if not, into the lagoon we go!