Catch up on last few days (long blog)

First a little more info on our crossing. The original intention was to sail from Nanny Key to The Baths, rest there then head off to St Martin around 5pm. Going to The Baths would have meant going past Round Rock Passage where we intended to leave the BVIs. Helen suggested we stop off somewhere before we get to the passage which was a far better idea. We therefore stopped off at Cooper Island.

An hour before we arrived we popped our Bonine pills. Neither of us wanted to run the risk of seasickness on the overnight passage. We figure taking them an hour before our rest stop would help us doze off and get a little early sleep.

We both managed some rest but we spent most of the time chatting and planning. Our minds were spinning with all we still had to do.

We left the BVIs around 4pm. We planned on taking 3 hour shifts through the night. These kicked in at 5pm once we were clear of the islands. I’d had a bit of a restless night prior so Helen took first shift. She woke me once to discuss a boat we were approaching. The night was pretty uneventful. We sailed with the mainsail up with one reef in case we hit a squall. Initially we had winds about 25 degrees off the bow but after a few hours they turned onto our nose and stayed there throughout the night. One of my shifts I experimented with sailing off course to see of our VMG (velocity made good – the velocity component towards our destination) would improve. It didn’t so it was back to motoring into wind. While each of us was on shift, the other slept on the outside seat by the generator so we were close together throughout the night.

Winds varied from 13 to 17 knots and sea height was 4-6 feet so an average of around 5 knots was not too bad given we were head on.

We arrived on the French side of St Martin at the port of Marigot. We went straight into Fort Louis Marina as we had no dinghy and needed to be able to step off the boat. We had to berth stern to which involved getting a line to and from a mooring ball from the bow and tying the stern to the dock. The deck hands gave us some assistance with tying the lines. One told me it was one of the best approaches he had seen and was surprised to learn it was my first attempt on this boat and the second ever into this configuration. However, he could have just been angling for a tip.

The marina office had the capability of handling immigration and customs so checking in was about as simple as it could be. After arriving Helen went off for a wonder while I sorted a few things out on the boat. Later we took a taxi to Island Water World to check on our dinghy and select an outboard motor. They weren’t quite ready so we agree to pick it up in the morning. We found Electec nearby and learned our watermaker was also ready to pickup. We agreed to pick it up the following day in our dinghy. We also took a look at Budget Marine which was also just around the corner.

We decided to walk back to Marigot and take a look at a supermarket Helen had spotted on the way. By now the heat and fatigue were really getting to me and I just had to get to the boat to sleep. We parted ways just before the marina. On getting to the boat I felt we needed to connect up to electricity so I sorted that out first before collapsing on the bow net and dozing off.

Later that evening we were greeted by Eddie, a local boat mechanic, who we’d been put in touch with by the charter broker I’ve mentioned before. He was great. We talked about the projects we need help with and he in turn gave us some local information which was very helpful.

It was early to bed that night. We went to bed with the overhead hatch open for a breeze. To date this has not mattered as light sprinklings of rain come in and wake you up enough to shut it. When it gets to warm you wake up enough to open it. That night I was woken as if I was in a shower. The water was pouring in. I shut it quickly enough. The commotion woke Helen who obtained a towel to dry me and the bed off.

That gets us to yesterday. Eddie popped around again in the morning to say hello as he was off to a nearby boat. With his advice we took the local ‘bus’ service to Philipsburg. These cost only $2 to cross the island. They are privately operated and are a mix of vehicles. The typical is a minibus. It was nice to start getting local.

When we got to Philipsburg we walked about 20 mins to the cargo port to inquire on our shipment of which we had no information as yet. We were relieved to learn it had arrived but we couldn’t do anything without our bill of lading.

We then took the bus back to where we could walk to Island Water World. It took about an hour or so to finally sort out the dinghy and outboard. (NOTE: More manuals to read through). We then motored round to the Electec dinghy dock to collect the watermaker. When I saw it I was dismayed as it was much bigger than I had understood it to be. I wondered if it would ever fit anywhere in the boat. Anyway, plunging on we motored back to the boat and offloaded all the watermaker components onto Dignity. To settle my nerves I had to quickly check to see if there was room for the largest component and fortunately there are a few options for placement. We need to discuss fitting with Eddie. Electec knew of him and pointed out he had installed many. Given the number of components we feel we should have him do most of the work on this.

I then went back to the Marina office to check out of the dock so we could go and anchor for free in the bay. While in the office found they had a computer for client use. I checked my email to find, to our delight, that the bill of lading had been sent to us. Not only that, I was able to print it off there and then. Eddie has a place we can have our stuff delivered to where we can load it all aboard Dignity. We’ll need to sort this out, timing wise, when we next see him. We still think it’s going to be tough finding space for everything but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I remind myself that Octopus, another Lagoon 420, managed to put 4 tons of gear aboard their boat and we only have a fraction of that.

As an aside I also learned some terrible news. A couple who we knew were in the papers because the husband had confessed to murdering his wife. We knew them from our Hunter Mountain condo days. She was the chair of the condo association and was simply the best. According to the news they were near the end of a yearlong divorce. She had first been reported as missing but I think he let slip something that let the police onto him that eventually led to a confession. This leaves 12 and 14 year old children in the worst of circumstances.

Motoring out to the bay was straightforward. The same deckhand as before commented on how quiet the boat was under electric propulsion. It is a delight for sure. The heavens decided to open on us for this short trip. Helen, who had to go forward to lower the anchor, got the worst of it. We’ve got a good spot fairly close to shore with a strongish subscription internet signal. We’ll probably connect up later today and pay for a couple of weeks as we’re likely to be based here for that time.

Last night we realized we hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we went ashore in our new dinghy to eat there. The beachfront restaurants were all touristy and priced accordingly. We didn’t need to eat beachfront as we now live there. We decided to walk the back streets to a big supermarket and see what we could find on the way. We found a little cluster of roadside mobile eateries where we could get chicken, chips and salad for $6 and ribs and chips (fries for those in the US) for $7. Much better than in town. We decided to go to the supermarket and pick up food on the return which we did. We took the food and ate it on the wall near the dinghy dock. It was very filling and made me feel very full. We also picked up a couple of Johnny Cakes, a local thing, which were fried dough without any sweetening. They were nice too.

Back on the boat we had a bottle of beer each before crashing for another well needed sleep.

Waking up this morning we learn that Obama is now president-elect of the USA. I think this was a foregone conclusion but now it’s definite. We heard fragments of their speeches on the radio. All done well. Barrack now has a lot to do – I wish him well. Tough times.

Today we need to tidy the boat up a bit. Eddie will probably show up so we can then plan where/when to ship our gear and plan fitting of the watermaker. I am keen to have the solar panels and watermaker working first so we gain additional independence from shore and diesel. We’ll probably go back to Philipsburg today with our bill of lading and set up the local delivery. We may spend a little more time there today to look around. We’ve been there before and know it’s a bit of a cruiseship town. I’d like to start reading some of the enormous pile of manuals we now have. I want to make sure we’re on top of some of the key preventative maintenance checks and activities and know some basics of possible problems and their resolution. In time I’ll get to the electronics/navigation instrument manuals and learn more about them but that is not the priority.

That’s about it for now. Congrats if you’ve read this far. I sincerely hope our pace slows down soon so I have less to write. Who knows?

Later in the day…. Still no internet connection. Eddie popped round again to examine options for installing the watermaker. He knew we had it as he overtook us yesterday when we were on our way to the boat and noticed we’d loaded up. Like magic, the watermaker parts fit into the spaces in ways I didn’t realize and won’t require much building up of surfaces to attach them. A large amount of gear is going to disappear into small spaces like people going into Dr Who’s Tardis. We were not only amazed but exceptionally pleased. This is going to make life aboard very pleasant. Nice tasting water and plenty of it. An end to “boat showers” where water use is kept to the thimbleful.

It was pouring with rain all morning so Eddie stayed aboard and chatted about stuff. We also now have the address to deliver our gear to so another trip to Philipsburg is in order after lunch. We’ll then be told when the shipping company will deliver. We’ll then plan our rendezvous and loading of Dignity. I’m beginning to hope against hope that all our gear will disappear in the same manner as the watermaker.

Much later in the day…. We never sorted out the internet connection today. Things take longer than normal in da ilonds. We did go all the way back to Philipsburg on the local busses to hand in our copy of our bill of lading. The lady responsible, who agreed to take a printed copy yesterday, was not in today. They guy who was there felt he could not break protocol and required an original to proceed. We did agreed to have him take a copy of our copy and allow us to give him the delivery address so when the lady who is in charge comes in tomorrow (probably today if you’re reading this) she can process the bill of lading and have it shipped to nearby. We must get our internet sorted out so we can call her and make sure we know delivery time. Hopefully we won’t have to traipse our way over there again. We don’t mind the bus ride over. It’s the 20 minute walk to the cargo area that’s a drag as it’s full of puddles and muddy paths.

Tonight we ate brie and pate on bread with a cheap bottle of red plonk. Within our budget this was quite a treat. To get this we walked through parts of Marigot hitherto unexplored by us. We made it to the supermarket. Helen had been told by Eddie how to get there by dinghy so I went back to the dinghy dock in town to collect Helen with what we thought may be lots of food. I don’t think the dinghy dock I found was the right one as it involved making our way through a garage full of mechanics drinking beer and past a locked gate for which I was given the code by one of the aforementioned mechanics. The brie and wine was on offer and a crate of Caribe beers was the cheapest we’d seen – less than 70c a bottle. A crate came with us to be stuck in one of the newly found underfloor spaces entirely apt for hiding away cheap St Martin beer and wine.

This evening we finally started to watch the Bejing Olympics opening ceremony. Hey – we’re a bit behind on the TV I know. We only watched about 40 mins before Helen felt too sleepy to watch. More to follow. Quite impressive though. Right now it is again pouring outside. This time I have the hatch well and truly latched down.

This reminds me. During our rummaging around for what to do with installations we discovered a bit of a leak in the starboard aft cabin which makes it way into under the floor and looks like it’s reaching some of the woodwork. Another puzzle will be to find the source of the leak.

Footnote. We found the sunscreen that was lost. It was where I left it in one of the line bins at the helm. We have since lost it again. This is only going to get worse once we have everything aboard !!!!