April 2012

April

The lagoon area in St Martin although 12 square miles of sheltered shallow water is by no means quiet. The main airport runway cuts through the lagoon near the middle and as such we are all anchored or moored less than a mile away; also, as there are two bridges to the lagoon, one to the North in the French side and one to the South in the Dutch side, there is considerable water traffic from one bridge to the other throughout the day and night. So we are in constant swell caused by boats passing by.

You can see the bottom reasonably clearly through water that is very yellow; it is this colour that puts us off diving in. Very little life can be seen in the water.

Sun 1^st

A trip out to use the internet. The signal in the lagoon is useless so connection is not possible afloat. We tour a new part of the lagoon on foot and by dinghy. We get free wifi at Pineapple Pete's and walk around the South side of the bay checking supermarkets and shopping. I have a “showarma”, a kind of messy overfilled kebab and have bad guts for the rest of the day. We find two supermarkets with amazing selection of goods and one has very reasonable prices, i.e. about the same as England.

Mon 2^nd

The Raymarine electronics engineer is expected today. We spend the morning fitting new bushes to our “goose-neck”, the joint that attaches the boom to the mast and main sail. Wind has dropped to zero so we spin about slowly in the lagoon getting very hot.

Tue 3^rd

We get a call to say that the electrician has a job that overran and it is unlikely that we will see him this week.

Wed 4^th

Go to Phillipsburg on a mission to buy a new laptop. We spend half a day finding the cheapest spot and get an ACER Aspire 1 with the long life battery, Intel Atom 1.66 GHz, 1gig memory, 250 GB hard drive a case an 8gig memory stick for £200, I hope that was a good deal!

Thur 5^th

We pick up our headsail from the sail maker and head back to pick up Sally and Chris, we drop them off at the airport dinghy dock and have a couple of beers before they go through. We go to the French side to get Internet and have a beer in the Cadisco petrol station! (beers as 1.5 euro) where the local French yachties hang out.

Fri 6^thTo Wed 11^th

Trying hard not to spend money shopping!

Thur 12^th

Andy the Electrician arrives early to fit our new log impeller. He looks at the job and says he will be back in the pm as he has another job to do first. We spend three hours dismantling the boat, unscrewing shelves, panels, walls and floors to find and provide access to the conduits so we can mouse the new line. True to his word he arrives and the job is completed. We then spend another two hours putting the boat back together. Stewart and Stephanie visit us for a jam session with two guitars and a violin, we plan to put a set together for Friday at Barnacles. By 10pm we have three songs, and the beer stops us continuing. We plan to continue practising on Friday pm.

Fri 13^th

Go to Barnacles for the jam session and food only Stewart plays as we did not get enough practice. Trudy has grilled prawns that are deep fried and I have a Greek burger, just a normal burger that has been stuffed in a pita with some salad. We are disappointed! Early on we listen to Stewart, Mason, Tony and a guy with a feather in his hat. All is good until a band comes on later that is so loud that your ears ring so we get an early night! (If its too loud you are too old!) Also music is rubbish, mainly shouting in the mike and the keyboard is playing loudly in the wrong key. It really hurt your ears.

Sat 14^th

Another day victualling the yacht; we split up as it chucks it down. Roads are flooded but we end up completing the second half of our big food shop. We now have tins and dried for about three months as here these are a third of the price on other islands.

Sun 15^th

Stay on yacht as wind is high.

Mon 16^th

Try to source half inch screwdriver to remove broken deck fittings. No luck. Go to Phillipsburg. On the way back we go to the bars at the start of the airport runway. There are two bars, one at either side of the runway and a beach behind where the planes take off. A road runs between the beach and the end of the runway which is protected by a wire fence. There are large signs saying “Beware of force from planes taking off and landing” “Danger of Death or serious injury”. However there are crowds that stand behind the jets, some holding onto the fence. They get blown away or blown horizontal holding the fence.

Flora from Folkloreic finishes our water catcher. This is the final job that we planned to complete before we leave, so we are now ready to go!

Tue 17^th

Except....Final shopping, (48 bottles of duty free), check out from French quarter, have lunch with Stephanie and Stewart from Matador and Simon from Bird. Lance and Michelle (new girlfriend ) should have been there with us but Lance lost her in the French marina, only a 200 metre walk around pontoons on the edge of the water! We fill with water, but there is no dinghy fuel. We pass out of the lagoon through the 16:30 bridge. I fit a hydrofoil to the dinghy engine. This is a bolt on fin that attaches to the outboard just above the prop. It is supposed to reduce fuel consumption, stabilize and help lift the dinghy onto “the plane” quicker.

Wed 18^th

Set off for St Eustatia, a good sail with full canvas up in moderate sea. We arrive and Trudy checks in, we can then both go ashore. There is a huge amount of smoke and clunking coming from the outboard but when it settles down the performance is a great improvement. (perhaps some swarf got into the intake? I hope not!) Oranje Baai is a quiet town on the coast and the top of a hill. There are many well preserved historic buildings from the 17c when it was the busiest harbour in the world. Mostly due to sugar and slaving. It is very quiet now and a delight to wander around. This is a place to chill, very different from the bustle of St Martin. We have a beer in the Blue Bean, there is a loud noise like monkeys fighting, we find out that it is the macaws that patrol at the start of the evening. We catch a glimpse only, nice to see them in the wild.

Thur 19^th

Leave Statia early and sail off to St Kitts. Another relaxed sail but with two reefs and a slightly bigger sea in parts. Trudy goes ashore to check in. The customs officer makes several mistakes on the forms so we need to go back again to get them changed. We wander around the town, most of it is designed for the cruise ships with designer goods, and when we get to the old town strangely the same Chinese souvenirs seen all over the Caribbean are on sale here. “Piccadilly circus” is a small roundabout that can be seen in all the brochures but there is not much more to see.

Fri 20^th

Late start and a leisurely sail for only ten miles to Nevis. We get some light rain which is very welcome. We pick up a mooring, one of forty and head to the port office and customs.

There is a sign on the dinghy dock saying do NOT lock your dinghy, we do anyway and ask why at the port office, I am told to go and unlock it (which I do) but given no reason. We go to customs and arrange the changes to the clearance form, this presents no problem other than they cannot get it to print. 20 mins later and we are off to walk around the town. Initially we walk through a cruise ship mall, they seem to be springing up all over the Caribbean with the same designer shops. Once through we get to a small town with a single road through there are a few local shops, several Chinese restaurants and not much else, an old machine gun forms a monument in the small town square.

Sat21^st

We get up at 5 and motor-sail all the way to Antigua. This takes 9 hours and ends with the last hour in a tropical storm with visibility down to about 50 metres. The start of the journey was interesting as the gps was showing us travelling backwards! After rummaging around in the Raymarine manuals we discover that the flux gate compass has reset itself 180° out. After further research we do two 360° turns slowly to initialise the compass variation, then get the chance to digitally adjust the compass to the correct heading. We waste about ten minutes performing this task and fix the problem. This then allows us to use the auto-helm. When we get to Falmouth harbour we have missed the customs office so cannot leave the boat. This is the island that fines up to $5000 if crew get off before the yacht has checked in.

Sun 22^nd

Trudy checks us in then we get off for a walk to the beach to see the Classic yacht race start. The yachts are extremely impressive, with beautiful lines and sail plans. We end up in English harbour where the yachts all parade through after completing the race. The evening entertainment is provided by Panerai the watch makers. We get free cocktails canapés, dinner and drinks and a band plays throughout.

Mon 23^rd

Stewart and Steph invite us on “Matador”, a Rival built in 1978. We head out to watch the racing close to. Some photos in our link.

Tue 24^th

When going ashore the dinghy prop begins to spin up. More work required!

Wed 25^th

Call Seagull inflatables, they can get a prop with a smaller pitch today otherwise there is a three day wait. We decide on the smaller one. I dinghy ashore at about 1/2 knot and walk a mile to Seagull Inflatables. I get a lift and help taking the engine off and have to provide boat papers and wait 3 hours for the prop to arrive. Once fitted and back in the dinghy the acceleration and planing is much improved so the smaller pitch was a good choice.

Thur 26^th

We go to the beach to watch the racing and then walk to English harbour and get a dinghy taxi across the bay to the Chandlers and back.

Fri 27^th

Mount Gay rum “Red Hat” party. If you have raced or drunk enough rum over the previous week you get a “free” Mount Gay Race week red hat. We got one. Another huge ambition realized! Party is busy and an active dance band are on. Also rum is free for a couple of hours.

Sat 28^th

Rest day!

Sun 29^th

Spent part of the day drilling out pop rivets from the bimini and inserting larger ones. This has been getting looser since we started. It is now tied down in place and the rivets are a vast improvement.

Mon 30^th

Return pop rivet gun to Jan,Check out at customs in English Harbour and get the boat ready to leave in the morning. We have stayed 9 days and the cruising and immigration fees come to about $100.

We have missed several days from the calendar during our time in St Maarten, this is only because we spent a lot of time sourcing parts and services. Also the bay is so large that you can spend ages just investigating the coastline to find dinghy docks (and bars). We also did a large amount of reading and got through about 5 to 8 books each this month.