Well, it is almost two weeks since my last tale. We are still well and warm and enjoying life. We are still in the Lagoon at St Maarten (on the dutch side, hence the spelling). The island is split into two, not literally, one half being French territory and the other belonging to the Netherlands. We were in St Maarten 10 years ago, and it is impossible to explain the change in a location. I think I preferred it as it was.
The lagoon is surrounded by marinas owned mainly by IGY an American concern. These are to cater for the big superyachts . Now I know I showed you some pictures of the big yachts in Antigua, but this is something else. I took a picture of Princess Mariana negotiating the lift bridge with what seemed inches to spare on either side. Of course the helicopter on the stern of the boat did make it look impressive. Mr Abramavich’s (Chelsea FC owner) motor yacht Polaris is too big to come into the lagoon and so he has to be content, or his crew do, in sitting outside in Simpson Bay. Couldn’t you just cry for him.
tight fit! and note the helicopter on the stern
Following the last update, we were contacted by Gary Brown, from the radio station, Island 92. Gary has a one hour radio slot broadcasting live on Sunday morning and the cleaned up version is repeated on Monday evening and also broadcast in Bonaire, the sister radio station. His is a programme aimed at the marine listeners. Well Gary was attracted to the blog and to the comments on our experiences of cruising between 1997 to 2001 compared to those since our arrival back in the Caribbean in November 2007. We were invited to be his guests in the studio. We were more than happy to oblige and on Sunday morning we enjoyed the experience of live radio and as always happens with us, the gremlins that got into the system to make life just that little bit interesting. Firstly one of his CD decks did not work and then the two microphones that we were using failed. We therefore had to huddle around Gary’s mike to answer his questions. At least that way he could transmit and I think it worked OK.
If you are interested you can download the podcast at www.island92.com or from Itunes I understand. We have not yet heard the broadcast and so we are trying to download that. You must admit that we are leading an exciting life.
Our plan was to stay in St Maartan for a week and then move onto the BVI. Last week a weather system came through with winds in the anchorage of up to 32 knots. That’s quite windy and if you don’t have to go out in that type of weather it is best not to. Having been at anchor for a week we were running low on water. It is not possible to use the watermaker in the lagoon. I think the water is so toxic that there are mutant fish swimming under the boats, but you can’t seem them. The plan was to up anchor and go into one of the fuel docks in the lagoon. Now we have to have at least two and a half metres of water beneath us to float. There are dredged channels to allow the superyachts to get to and from their berths but we believe that when dredging the channels they put the silt in big piles making mud banks for the unwary. We ran aground abut 8 times on our short trip. We had to change plans for which fuel dock to use because the channel markers were so in the wrong places that we gave up on our preferred choice. Anyway we got back to the anchorage and decided that as several of our size boats had departed we would change the vista. We happened to anchor next to a classic boat called Lone Fox. Paul got chatting to the owner Ira from the US of A and he was having all sorts of problems with his boat. A new generator installed for him 6 months ago was filling with sea water, which meant that all he could do was to go back to the people who installed it, as there was no way that he could claim any warranty. What the installers had not done was to change the fault in the system that caused his 8 year old generator to fail, a part which would have cost US$12. They had agreed that they would stand the cost of any parts that were necessary but Ira would have to pay their labour. What a cheek.
Well as you can imagine Paul offered to help and he spent 3 days on the boat, going through the problems that needed fixing; the generator, the main engine and the charging systems. The result is a very happy and healthy boat, a much happier Ira an extremely satisfied Paul and we have a ride out on his boat for the classic regatta which starts in St Maartan on Friday.
I will of course report the outcome of the regatta in my next update. So please keep watching.
Bye for now and be safe.
Helen and Paul
