Today is the day. The last one. Dan and I are heading back home later this afternoon. Our friend, Mike, arrived yesterday and we spent the day yesterday showing him the in-and-outs of Estival; his wife Stella arrives today and they will be spending a lovely week on the boat relaxing and enjoying each other’s company.

I must say I loathe to go back. Holidays and vacation breaks make you realize the over-scheduled “regular” life you do have. I have in the past returned home with the best of intentions: more physical activity, eating better, more reading and the like. But they haven’t usually panned out, probably because what we left behind has just waited for our return. I am looking forward to seeing my dogs as I have really missed them. I had to call the vet at home and arrange an appointment for Belle: she is so neurotic and when we are away too long, she develops these UTI’s and makes herself a slight nuisance by urinating randomly. She can’t help herself, it is just how she is. So Ian took her yesterday and I’m sure she’s fine today; those antibiotics kick in quickly.

So it’s a bittersweet day on Estival this morning. Thank you, all, for the kind comments and reading my posts. See you when we get home.

So, we’re on the downward slide now. We’re back on the mooring in Simpson Bay and have spent the last few days seeing the kids off back to Canada, and generally vegetating. And enjoying the peace and quiet. It hasn’t all been slothfulness: we’ve scrubbed the side decks, wiped down the cabin, gathered LOTS of dirty laundry (for drop-off, of course) and various interpretations of cleaning. Between wrestling down a few last-minute tax issues with the cadre of accountants all by email and getting minor repairs and improvement made (dinghy engine reliability, one of the hinges on the aft cabin head), we’ve enjoyed a lot of lounging, cold drinks and sunbathing. Thursday and Friday were holidays here in SXM: Thursday was Carnaval Day on the Dutch side, and Friday was Workers’ Day on both Dutch and French sides. Strangely enough, it was a crap shoot to guess what was open or closed. Dan has also been strangely obsessing about perfecting the harnesses for the flags: the SXM registry flag off the davits and the courtesy flags halyards off the mast. And he’s been a bit of a fusspot on how flags are being flown on other boats and being downright puritanical about it. I’m finding it quite humorous. The other day, he spent almost an hour fretting that our NL and Canada flags flying on the port side of the boat are bigger than the French “tricolore” courtesy flag flying off the starboard side. Like, really.

Regardless, there’s some merit in acknowledging that the only stress these days is really deciding what to pick from the restaurant menus and whether it’s too late in the evening to “strike our colours”. I think that’s the sign of a good vacay.

Our friend, Mike Maguire, arrives in SXM tomorrow, and he and his wife Stella will be staying on Estival for a bit over a week after we leave on Tuesday. We’re meeting him on Monday morning and doing a bit of sailing around Marigot to show him how the boat operates. We might take him to Lagoonies on Monday night, but it dawned on me this morning that Monday night is “Open Mike Night” there. IT might appeal to his musical side, and I’ll be sure to take pictures if he ends up making his way to the stage to play with the local musicians.

We’re renting a car tonight and going off to have a lovely night in Grand Case. And maybe a day of hanging out on the beach on Sunday. Oh, the strain and grind is getting to me. I need another nap.

We hauled anchor from Orient Bay this (mid) morning, and have sailed back to Marigot for a night. We’re back to the mooring in Simpson Bay tomorrow night, in time for Brazil Night at Lagoonie’s. The kids leave on Thursday, back to their own reality: Jane gets ready for her summer job in Fogo, NL, and Ian starts his summer job as well. We have another week here, and just before leaving, we’ll greet Stella and Mike Maguire as they start to enjoy a week on Estival. Estival has been well-lived this season, and we are pleased for that.

The sail was rather uneventful. It still amazes me that Dan and I can spend copious amounts of time just looking out at the water, the shoreline, and just watch the world go by. Dinghies zing by with an assortment of people and sometimes they wave as us people-watchers sitting in cockpits; sometimes, I’ll be thrilled at seeing sweet endearing dogs, both large and small, sitting up on the bow of the small boats just enjoying the sun and wind rushing by their ears and masses of fur. At Orient Bay, my heart melted when I saw a big Newfoundland dog sitting in the heat, but he took things in hand as he swam faithfully behind his owner and even knew how to ramble up the swimming platform. They sat and sunbathed, soaking wet. Happy moments for both.

Ian and Jane just left on an errand: ice, beer, chips and anchovies. Yep, quite the list. Tonight or tomorrow, I’ll make salade niçoise. We’ve enjoyed some good food here, both in the restaurants and in what we cobble together from the limited provisions we had. A few days ago, we enjoyed a late lazy lunch on the beach with cold gazpacho soup topped with local crab and a generous creole platter of cod accras, salt fish with creole sauce, conch stew, boudin (local sausage), plantain and crab dauphinoise. Ian tucked into an outstanding magret canard with mango sauce and whipped potatoes while Jane had a crazy beggie salad replete with cold steamed asparagus. Last night, I pulled together a delicious salad meal of mesculin and frisé with poached calamari in a spicy tomato, pepper, onion and olive sauce. All washed down with cold rosé sitting under stars and candlelight with no breeze on sight.

Before dinner, we took the liberty of popping in on a neighbouring boat with a bottle of wine. They were fellow Canadians, and they had lent a hand earlier in the day to Dan during the dinghy motor conk-out episode. They spend the winters in the Caribbean and they summer in the Med in their 38-foot Catamaran. Absolutely lovely people. When I found out they were from Québec City (and Anglophone which means it’s a small community!), it took only a few questions and we discovered that a former employer of mine was a close childhood friend of theirs. Such a small world. It led to a lovely visit over a few glasses of wine and lots of chat. We enjoyed our evening, and wish Dave and Deb on Alexina more wonderful adventures and a safe crossing in the weeks to come!

It’s been a few days since the last posting, and we’ve received texts that there is some sense of discontent about the silence. So allow me to catch up. And please grant me some indulgence if a few things seem muddied and misplaced. At this point, every day seems to meld into another.

We left Marigot on Saturday morning. We would have left on Friday, but Dan encountered the dinghy engine conking out on him mid-lagoon on Friday morning as he went out to a) get water, b) get ice, and c) get a part in order to do a fuel filter change on the engine. Clearly, it was a bit too late. He got towed into a local pub, Lagoonie’s, at which point he managed to call me (he left his phone behind) and managed to negotiate with a few familiar-looking people some assistance in helping him figure out the problem. Four hours later after leaving Ian, Jane and I on Estival, he shows up. Sans ice. But with water, so it was okay. Did I mention we had ran out of water just before he left? Hmm. We delayed our departure to Orient Bay until the next morning.

We left for Orient Bay on Saturday morning, and are now finishing our third day here. We had an uneventful sail/motor as a function of virtually nonexistent wind. We anchored in the East End of the bay, and resulted in a somewhat tumultuous night of swells that fell beam on and made it rolly. I spent most of the night sleeplessly tormented by loud slaps of water, continual squeaks of ropes and incessant movement, and could not even begin to fathom how that could be remotely comforting or could not wake the living dead. Dan snored soundly, until I roused him out of sleep and dictated the rule that if I was awake, so would he. So he shared in my white night.

Things calmed down the next day: from the perspective of wind (less than 10 knots) while the temperature peaked between 26 and 33C. Dan and Jane snorkelled off the boat and found sea turtles and sea rays and colourful fish. They also saw a small shark which peaked their interest; their interest overwhelmed them when they quickly noticed the smaller shark pursued by another 6-foot shark. Jane has not dipped her feet in the water for more than a minute at a time since then. Dan, however, is driven by a silly need to go back. We have been successful in discouraging his adventurousness.

I spent the day on the beach today, part of it alone, the rest of it enjoyed with Ian. Dan and Jane enjoyed some slothfulness on the boat, but only to a limited degree – when Dan dropped off Ian to join me, he dropped him off at the West End of the beach amidst small rolling breakers. Upon departure back for Estival, Dan took on some water in the dinghy and the engine conked out AGAIN within 150 feet of getting back to the sailboat. He got towed in by a thoughtful sailing neighbour, and although the engine continues to slightly sputter after some work on it, it seems to have gotten back on track. Fussy.

We’re all on Estival at the moment of writing this. The sun is setting, the beach is almost empty, we’re listening to a commercial-free radio station broadcasting from St. Barth’s, and everyone is in their own little corner either writing, reading or napping. What do I take from the last few days? Not sure, exactly, but I think I can start to accept – two weeks into our break – that relaxing can be hard to do. It’s hard to disconnect from everything and everyone. But I’m going to try harder, I promise.

Even in lovely locations, the world catches up to you. Woke up this morning, and I am felled by a head cold. I'll be in touch again once I feel better.

Today is our wedding anniversary. We were married here in SXM in 2009, and it is always nice to be here in SXM at the same time as the anniversary itself. The kids arrived yesterday and took them less time than expected to get into the slothful groove. We’re all just doing our own thing this morning: Dan’s checking on some emails, I’m reading and writing, Ian is absorbed in his book with his legs hanging over the edge and Jane is recovering from a long swim in the cockpit.

I’ve been quiet for the last few days, and I’ve been more tired than usual. I was, actually, discouraged by a particularly good blog post I had written a few days ago that got zapped up into the ether just as I was about to press the “post it” button. I was in a restaurant and using their wireless and it was unreliable. It disconnected me and the 90 minutes of writing disappeared along with the text. I wasn’t the only one frustrated that day. Dan designed, got the parts and installed a dual fuel cleaning system. He says it’s a work of art; I see it as stinking hoses going into cylindrical things in the midst of other stinky engine things. But, what was supposed to be one to two hours of work turned into five-and-a-half hours that took him right into sunset. Yes, the standard occasional yelling and cursing occurred – that can’t really be helped and it’s inherent to the process of doing something mechanically (or so I’m told and have frequently observed. But it’s done and Dan took a proud photo just like a newborn’s father would. He also spent some time calculating to whom he could email or text the picture and who would appreciate his “work of art”. I just kept drinking my orange juice through all that.

We’re in Marigot Bay now. Yes, we finally left the mooring. The water is so blue, I can’t really describe it. But it’s wonderful to swim in. To float in. And to simply look out and see if any of the shades of blue actually replicate themselves. Shortly, we’ll head into town to do a little sightseeing and pick up a few things. Simple day. Which is fine by me.