This past month was spent in St. Maarten. We visited our friends Sally and Michael from Shrimpy’s Laundry and Yacht Services and their dogs Shrimpy and Floppy (AKA Dumb as a Box of Rocks). I must say that this time we really enjoyed being here….not like the last time. We anchored in Marigot Bay which is on the French side of St. Maarten. The water is clean, unlike the lagoon which is brown and not safe. The only drawback to being out in the Bay is that the ferry boats that run between St. Maarten and Anguilla go right through the anchorage causing a lot of rolling. We finally got a new wind generator which Michael has already installed and is working beautifully. There were a number of other boat projects and general maintenance jobs that were also done. We had our last farewells with two of the boats that we had been travelling with over the past year. Cheetah ll is now anchored back in Honeymoon Harbor, USVI. It was a pleasure to travel with them as they have so much knowledge of all of the islands down here. The other boat that left was Dream Walker. Stan and Elizabeth are on their way home. Michael is really missing his beer drinking buddy (Elizabeth). We actually arrived back in Antigua yesterday and still had 4 cases of beer. Now you guys just need to hurry up and get home so that we can visit you in the summer.
We finally met Kokopli - Myrl and Gary. They were at one of the local marinas fixing chain plates on their boat. It was like friends at first site. Daily conversations on the VHF radio and on Denis’s SSB cruisers net in the morning. Diners at Lagoonies, bus rides to Grand Case and Philipsburg. They too have gone home for the summer and we can only hope that they do not sell their boat and will be back again in the fall.
My older sister and her husband arrived on a cruise ship in Philipsburg while we were here. We spent the day together and had a wonderful visit and look forward to seeing them again when we are back home.
Another couple that we met last year in Georgetown arrived in St. Maarten the same day we did so we have also been spending some time with them. We had planned on sailing back to Antigua with them and actually left together. We got up at the crack of dawn and were going head around the top of St. Maarten in order to get a better wind angle. Well the weather gods started out by giving us a squall which lasted about 10 minutes….just long enough to get soaked. From there the winds which had been forecasted to come from the ENE decided they were now coming from the SE….wrong direction to sail to Antigua. Hali turned around and went back to Marigot Bay and we trudged on. At this rate it was going to take 24 hours to get there. In the end we made a stop at St. Barts which turned out to be a very pleasant place although very expensive. We waited a few days for the wind to come around to the ENE again and made a mad dash for Antigua. It was a tuff sail all the way with of course higher wind speed and waves then forecasted. We now sail with a double reefed main and start out with a semi furled jib where ever we go. So, now here we are in Jolly Harbor and next week will head over to Falmouth Harbor to watch the sailboat races (Antigua Race Week). After that we will start preparing for haulout on May 30th. That’s all for now….got to go. It’s two for one pizza night.
Just one more thing for those of you who may be wandering about the picture of Michael with the dog on Facebook….No we did not get one.