28^th February 2009

Today we will sail from St Barts to St Martin, Grand Case, we made this into an 18 mile trip by going round Tintemarre.

First blood to me today, but it was another Barracuda. So now the Brits were one up whichever way you look at it. You noticed I said Brits; this had become an international clash of some proportion. Connor countered with a small but very edible Oro, this led to another protest as the fish was clearly undersized for family use. John claimed that if sushied with generous amounts of sticky Japanese rice it would easily feed a family. This friendly banter demonstrated how difficult it is to right the rules to any competition, no matter how small, or alternatively due to the lengths people will go to, to win!

No more fish were caught that day, so at the end of the day we agreed on a score draw over a glass of wine, well in mine and John’s case a large tumbler of rum and coke, and of course my Spanish Mackerel. The fish was not only special it was wonderful!

Tomorrow then would be winner takes all.

27^th February

A quiet night at anchor, the next morning over breakfast we decided to go out around the rocky islands north of St Barts to continue the now disputed fishing Derby. We took with us Barry and Alison and their two children. The cat swallowed us all with ease.

I broke my duck with a family sized Spanish mackerel, which by the time we got it on board had lost its tail to another predator! This was a qualifying fish and so I declared one up! This was hotly disputed by the Canadian’s who were now challenging on the basis that the fish was not a whole fish, as it had lost its tail and should be counted as half! At the time I caught this fish Connor had hooked a fish, which he lost. There was suspicion it was this fish that had revengefully bitten the tail off mine, so they were playing dirty and even training their fish to maim ours!

 We returned to the bay, where we had left the dinghy tied to a buoy, a sort of German beach towel on deck chair behaviour. Suddenly a police boat appeared, oh dear have we done wrong with the dinghy, but no he had noticed the dive gear on board wind dancer and wanted to know if we had permits for this bay. On St Barts you need permits for each bay, they are specific and one dollar, but if you dive with the wrong permit that is a $200 fine! We hadn’t dived we assured him and he went away.

On the way in we noticed a Leopard 47 cat called Sky, named after their younger daughter. We had briefly encountered the elder daughter, Jamie, a size zero thirteen year old who arrived on Windancer via her kayak in Gustavia. She announced who she was, where she was from and said she had seen we had kids on board and had decided to come over. She was from the USA. They had decided to follow us up to Anse de Colombier, and also wanted us all on board for spag bol and a movie the pink panther. As we had my Spanish mackerel to eat we declined the former and said we might join them for the latter. In fact we ate Becky’s curry and let the fish marinade for tomorrow’s dinner.

Sky was anchored right next to us: suddenly the spinnaker pole was lashed to the forestay, a screen dropped from it, a projector placed on deck with speakers and there for all the bay to see was the latest Pink Panther film in 10 by 10 Leopard Cat Cinemascope!!! We joined them but only because Becky and I wanted to nose around the cat, it was new and impressive....we are seriously getting into cats! The parents of Sky and Jamie turned out to be Po and John. Nice people of a generous spirit and into their cat sailing.

Another good day

26^th February

Good night’s sleep on Windancer IV and then into Gustavia to explore and get groceries. Great place to visit but all women should have credit cards removed before entering. Lots and lots of designer shops, they are all here. This is a rich island with an interesting history, it was sold back to France by the Swedes in 1878 for a few tens of thousands and it has remained in French hands. You do find that the French Islands of the Caribbean tend to have a certain Gallic style about them that adds that je ne sais quoi.

After the hazardous shopping trip we set off to sea for our first experience of Catamaran sailing. You soon got used to the very jerky movement, Becky fell in love with the lack of heel, and I was impressed with the pace: 7, 8, 9knotts and we got close to the wind 40 degrees. Before leaving Ziggy had professed her love of fishing and had declared a fishing derby (derrrby as she said it and darby as we said it! This got us into a whole round of potayto and potato and tomayto and tomato etc etc). Zig went one up when she landed a barracuda, I argued against this as a catch as it was not edible and the rules of the Derby had clearly been agreed that the fish had to be family sized and edible. At 8Ilbs it was an impressive fish with a mouth and teeth to match.

No more fish that day! We headed into Anse de Colombier, a delightful bay with buoys and lots of turtles. We went snorkelling, terrific multicoloured reef fish and a young turtle feeding on the weed around the rocks.

The evening saw the mackerel marinated in soy, ginger, garlic and lime, while we ate the curry Becky had brought. We met up with Barry and Alison on Solitaire and drinks were had by all.

25^th February 2009

Up early today, got to get the boat across to KPG where the winches are going to be sorted and the davit up hauls. The route across the bay to KPG is hazardous as there a.re sand banks that move across the bay and the markers also seem to be a moveable feast. So I got instructions from KPG that comprised go past the stern of that white boat there, which was useful there being about 200 white boats in view! Our trepidation on the crossing was rewarded with a thorough grounding as we tried to perform the necessary zig zag. The bottom is only sandy mud so we managed to spin round with the bow thruster but unfortunately ended up right under the huge bow of a super super yacht. We caught one of her huge anchor chains, much to the derision of the crew on board. We pulled ourself off the anchor chain and radioed for help. A dinghy arrived from KPG and took us across the bay, our mistake had been taking the green buoys as the markers for the channel, and in fact they had drifted onto to the sand bank so they had neatly guided us into trouble.

We docked at KPG only to be told to re-dock on the other side of the pontoon; time was running out as we needed to get a taxi across the island to Oyster Pond where we would catch the ferry to St Barts to join John and Ziggy on their Cat Lagoon 44.

We dropped the keys at the KPG office and waited and waited and waited for the Taxi, we are in the Caribbean so you wait. A mini bus arrived and took us to Oyster Pond in good time, where we had a light lunch before boarding the ferry from hell. Out it went into the surf of the tricky Oyster Pond entrance as soon as it was clear of the red markers the engines were wound up to full blast, the whine of the turbos sent the dog berserk, Molly tried to abandon ship by sliding under the seats (we were on the top deck and the seats formed the barrier to the sea! The sex and the city girl sat directly opposite us discovered that 4inch heels, a puffy dress and immaculate hair soon got into disarray as the boat bucked and crashed its way at 20knotts through the considerable waves. Her face disappeared in a mass of tangled curls and her dress crowned the lot by blowing up over her head! Her designer knickers made regular appearances as both herself and her beau struggled to gain control.

After 45mins of this ordeal we arrived in the calm waters of Gustavia, St Barts. As we went in we passed the Maltese Falcon, a yacht of huge proportions and revolutionary sails. John was there to meet us and we shot off in the dinghy to Windancer IV anchored in the lagoon.

We spent the evening catching up with John and Ziggy and their 10 year old daughter cooked us a very good spag bowl.

24^th February 2009

Chore day to today, I am doing emails and ENFSI work and Becky invoices and expenses.

Early afternoon we chilled out at Port de Plaisance in a little restaurant that did light food like beef carpaccio and sashimi tuna, both very good washed down with some white wine.

More toil in the afternoon and then back to Jimbo’s for happy hour.

A very cool day off to St Barts tomorrow.

23^rd February 2009

Today we will stay in St Martin and get a few jobs done. First on the list is the split pipe on the generator. Becky went off to get some pipe yesterday but came back with a size or two too big, so I will go back to Island Waterworld to get some more.

I managed to fit the pipe; Becky started the generator and off it went but did not generate any electricity! We had one of those sodding boat moments. Becky got the manual out and it said something unintelligible about the innards of the thing and something about incompatible source requiring electricity. I had some inkling of what that meant so we switched everything off and tried again. Now we had electricity again and all was well with the generator, we switched everything back on one by one to find the incompatible source but never did.....................there is much I do not understand about this boat!

Island Waterworld is a great store and very tempting, Becky returned not only with the pipe but with more glasses for the boat and a fishing book for herself! I returned with some stainless steel rubbing strips to replace our rather tarnished chrome ones! I fitted a pair of these on the side and will do the other side OK but the ones at the stern have a curve to them, so how do you curve a slightly ribbed piece of stainless steel? 66% success I guess.

By this time it was lunch, Becky did potato rosti, chicken creole and salad, we had a bottle of dry rose to go with it, the sun shone and all was well with the peaceful world in which we lived: DAY TWO WITHOUT THE KIDS!

In the afternoon I pottered to more marine shops: to a fabricator to get the bimini pole manufactured, which Jordan had previously managed to throw overboard ($155!) and to book someone to come and look at the winches. One is squeaking, as in Gran Canaria, I know this is a sod of a job the whole winch has to come off. It took Roland the winch man and I, an hour and a half banging away with wedges to prize the electric motor off the shaft: he said the trouble is at manufacture they never grease them!  

Becky decided she would like to go to a place called Gourmet Marche in search of diet tonic, the one thing she is really missing out here (and she says the cause of her weight gain!!!!). Off she went in the dinghy to return a few minutes later, shaken bruised and wet. Apparently she had to go fast to make the dinghy plane across the top of the water but got out of control. Spun the thing round, shipped a fair bit of water and ended up in the bottom of the dinghy fearing for her life: visions of being attacked by a screaming out board! I dropped everything and went with her!

Gourmet Marche had a bit of gourmet but no slim line tonic: but by now it was happy hour (5 to 7pm!!) at the local Simpsons bar and two Margaritas later (well four really, two free and two paid for) all looked a lot better. We retired to a light supper and watched ‘Bucket List’, with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson, with the generator singing away and the air con on!

A good day 

22^nd  February 2009

Our first whole day without the kids! Now we have fixed the alternator problem, I can pull apart the generator, I am a bit daunted by this as the pipe I need to get off is so dam inaccessible, it is short and connected to a stainless steel elbow at one end and an outlet on the generator at the other. It is also in the bowels of the boat! After a relatively short knuckle skinning time it came off but as it is Sunday in the Caribbean I cannot get another one. Per stopped by to offer me some clear plastic pipe but that is not really suitable, and he invited us along to his boat, we must do that.

As we still have the car we decided to take a trip around the Island. St Martin is small only a few miles across and nit many more in length. We went up to Marigot Bay, where there was a carnival on. Took lots of pictures of mainly the fair sex strutting their stuff in fancy elaborate costumes. The day was red hot and the atmosphere great with music that throbbed in your chest as the floats went by.

We followed the coast line up to Waikiki beach resort where according to the brochure clothing is optional. We must have got there too late! But the sea was great, sandy beaches with Atlantic breakers coming in, guys windsurfing and gliding and bars with good music. We were entertained by a group who had been at the rum punch for some time and were now dancing a little bit club but much disco to the music: it reminded me of Peter Kay’s dancing to the dance floor at weddings sketch. Becky found retail therapy heaven and bought a little black number from a little boutique. This was based on she would throw two things away when she got back to the boat!

From Waikiki beach we went back to Oyster Pond where we ate at ‘Big Fish’ a great little restaurant jutting out over the bay. Perfect surroundings and great food.

We returned to Chilli Oyster late.

 

Home Alone!
February 22nd