January 2009

January 18
In French, cruising translates as « plaisance » (a pleasant activity ). When I decided that I wanted to spend a year in the boat, I was thinking in terms of « plaisance » (gentle breezes, just strong enough to get you from point a to point b, sunshine, warm sandy beaches and turquoise water). What we had experienced until now had not been in that category. The rough weather and tight deadlines made our trip from France to Madeira feel like a job more than an enjoyable adventure. I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy it, because I did enjoy, at least, parts of it. It was highly cultural and the people we met were interesting. However, the actual sailing part left a lot to be desired. Having been in the Caribbean now for almost three weeks, I’m beginning to rediscover the « pleasant » part of sailing. The girls and I arrived on the 31st of December in St Martin. The boat had suffered a bit during the Atlantic Crossing (Both autopilots needed to be repaired , as did one of the sails and a number of smaller things). Sébastien also returned to France for personal reasons. We therefore finally « set sail » once again on the 12th of January (although we had moved a little around the Island of St Martin before that time). We decided to head for Angulla, because it is nearby. We now have one autopilot, which doesn’t work very well, but its better than nothing. The other one is still being repaired, and although we had a repair guy sighting on Monday, I‘m not going to hold my breath. Anguilla is about 2 ½ hours away from St Martin. There is only one harbor where you are allowed to dock. When you arrive, it doesn’t seem very welcoming. However, appearances can be deceiving. I think that Anguilla is one of the Caribbean’s beast kept secrets. It really depends what you are looking for. If you want long white sandy beaches, turquoise water, few tourists, good food and friendly people, Anguilla is the place for you. I only found two places on the entire island to buy postcards. Only a half a dozen shops even sell t-shirts, etc. for tourists. The first day, we took the tender to the beach, so the girls could run around. When we arrived, a very nice person helped us to dock and offered us a hand out of our boat. He gave us a quick rundown of the good places for food and music. Ok, it was a way to greet the tourists, but it wasn’t pushy, just nice. At first we were suspicious, because people aren’t usually nice, unless they want something. Well, in Anguilla, they are. The customs officials also served as tourist information board. The beach was gorgeous and over the next few days we met a number of Americans, including a couple who has been coming there for the last 17 years, for winter, and a woman from DC who is married to an Anguillan. She said that her mom didn’t like to visit because there wasn’t enough shopping. As I said, this is not a island to « do « , it is a island just to « be » and relax and enjoy. The evening before we left, we had what I could consider the best ribs in the world (voted best ribs in the Caribbean )….but I will say that they are probably equal to Cincinnati Ribs King ribs, just to make sure that my family is still on speaking terms with me…. Anyway, we had these ribs from Sammy’s in Sandy Ground sitting in the cockpit of the boat while watching the sunset….as I said, I am now finding the « pleasant » part of sailing again. The next day, we rented a car and went on a tour of the island. One day is enough, as there just isn’t that much to see. We went to a gorgeous beach, Shoal bay ,to go swimming and snorkeling. I bought a post card, and it looks exactly as it does in real life. This is one of those beaches dreams are made of. We then visited the capital, The Valley. As the island only has 12,500 inhabitants, the Valley is very small. Probably about the same size as downtown Rockton, my hometown. We went to a market and bought a papaya, a mango and two avocados…Yum! I made a fresh fruit salad with the papaya and mango and guacamole with the avocados…who says you can’t eat well on a sailboat?? We then went to a restaurant, called Tasty’s. Once again, the description was low key (it had been recommended by the American woman whose husband was from Anugilla). It seemed like a nice place, but we didn’t expect anything fancy. We were amazed. The food was fabulous. I had coconut crusted whitefish, with a spicy mango, coconut sauce and excellent accompaniments, and tequila key lime pie for dessert. We have vowed to take Sébastien’s parents there when they come back at the end of the month.

Now we are back in St Martin, in Grande Case, docked a little way from one of my favorite places, the Calmos café, where you can sip your cocktail on the beach while watching the sun set. Tonight they have a band which was playing soft jazz and there is a nice breeze in the air.

January 22
We spent a few days in Marigot (the French capital of St Martin), because we needed to replace the batteries in the boat and stock up on food. Its funny, as we are not working this year, we figured that we would have a lot more time to do interesting and intellectual things. Well, its not working out that way. First of all, a boat is like a house. There are always things to fix. I call it our « big hole in the water into which you pour money » (thanks, Dad, for the expression)…secondly, when you don’t have a car, things just take a lot longer. It took us over two hours to go get the batteries (about a 15 minute car ride), because our dingy is just a step above an old riding lawnmower in terms of speed. Also, when we go on foot, we have the girls with us and therefore, we have to stop and check out everything in our path way (branches, rocks, sand, etc.) and the trip inevitably takes about three times as long. In addition, we have school for the girls, laundry in public laundry mats, etc. So basically, our days disappear before our very eyes, and indeed, even though we aren’t working, we still can’t seem to figure out where our time goes. However, I would have to say, that life is a lot less stressful (unless I’m spending time trying to figure out the CNED, the national French education system….). Sometimes we have to wonder if we are getting as much as possible out of this year. The answer is yes and no. A year is short, and we still need to deal with things from our regular lives (taxes, car insurance, etc), so this, when abroad, can sometimes be stressful and frustrating, and sometimes we let our regular life impinge on our happiness of this year because that is how we are used to living. Tonight, I realized, however, that we are getting some amazing time with the girls. We actually see them 24/7. This can be a lot, but they teach us many things too. They make us take the time to appreciate the things around us and ask questions that we wouldn’t even think to ask, and thus expand our horizons. One of their favorite things at night is to go up on the deck with Sébastien to look at the stars. Tonight Marie saw a falling star….she was so excited. Her awe is a gift for us this year. We also get to see them learning new things with school (although school is frequently the bane of my existence, it is worth it to see that the effort is paying off and I’m actually able to teach something to my children). They are also speaking fluent English (even amongst themselves when they play). Tonight, after the prayer, they decided to « call Jesus« , and I heard Marie say to Constance… »I have Jesus on the phone…he can talk to you now…. ». The conversation tickled me, even more so because it was in English.

January 22
Today, after three weeks, we found out that the auto pilot actually died during the trip across thee Atlantic and we didn’t know it. All attempts at trying to revive it have been futile, and so therefore, as of tomorrow, we will be able to give it a proper burial at sea once we are the owners of a new autopilot. The good news is that this one should last us the rest of the trip. The bad news is that we have yet another expense. As I said, boats are expensive, even when you have your own handyman on board. Tonight we are in Grande Case, and we went to one of my favorite places on the earth, called the Calmos Café 5 I just realized this is the second time I‘ve talked about them!). You get to sit in lounger lawn chairs, with your feet in the sand and a cool drink in hand, while your children play in the sand and the waves crash nearby and you get to watch the sunset….pretty amazing! And today, we had no rainstorms, which was nothing short of a miracle, but highly appreciated. Yesterday, it rained about 15 times. It never lasts long, but when you are sleeping with your window overhead, and rain starts falling on your face, its never pleasant. Or when you have just set the table outside for breakfast, lunch and / or dinner and it starts to downpour, its frustrating…. I know that I shouldn’t complain, as at least the rain here is warm…..

Once the autopilot is installed, we are going to head to St Barth’s. Its about 3 hours from here and the wind should be right tomorrow. We wanted to go to St Kitts and Nevis, but without an autopilot it would have been a long trip, and now we really don’t have the time if we actually want to see something when we are there. St Barth’s is supposed to have superb sites to anchor and snorkel, so it should be enjoyable.

January 29th
We returned from St Barth’s yesterday. We got the autopilot today. It hadn’t arrived when it was supposed to and we were tired of waiting so we decided to head to St Barth’s instead. I even got to « barre » (steer the boat?) for an hour, and I did a pretty good job. I had a little help from the motor but the waves were high and the winds were relatively strong, so I‘m proud of myself. Anyway, the trip to St Barths wasn’t too bad. We enjoyed being there. The local people were very friendly (and very chatty). The mega yachts were, well, huge. For the first time in my life I saw someone washing a garden hose (no not using it to wash something, but actually washing the outside of the hose with special cleaner….I personally can’t imagine ever being bored enough to wash my garden hose…or rich enough to pay someone to do it….). We spent the first few days discovering the capital , Gustavia, and the surrounding areas. Our boat was to the West of Gustavia, out in the harbor (far away by tender…especially when the motor stopped working). The area was called Corossol, and it had the International Ocean Museum, which happened to be the biggest museum on the island, and turned out to be someone’s personal collection of seashells. It was charming, with beautiful shells from all over the world. What was even better is that the man who started it gave us a personal tour. In addition to telling us all about his seashells, he also told us about life growing up in St Barth’s. He was 87 years old and had been the son of a fisherman, in a family of 8 children. He said that everyone fished when he was growing up and the quality of life was terrible, because there were too many fishermen and not enough people to eat the fish. The country was highly underdeveloped before France came in to help (relatively recently, from what I’ve understood). He started his seashell collection when he would go fishing with his father and his brothers, and has now made it his lifetime passion. It was fascinating and it was wonderful to learn more about the island and its people.
The day before we left, we rented a car. Many of the places we wanted to see, as in Anguilla, were part of a Natural Marine Reserve and therefore it was difficult to get near them by boat. Renting a car allowed us to truly discover the island at our own pace. We had done a quick « drive by » in an hour, when we had visited a few years ago, but it was nice to revisit and to be able to spend time in the places that interested us. We hit all of the major beaches, except one, because we simply couldn’t figure out how to get there (short of parking at the end of the airstrip of the airport….). We did see it from afar, however, and it looked beautiful, but crowded , which isn’t that surprising given the number of hotels which hid it from the public eye. We did find a number of gorgeous beaches which were exactly what we were looking for with few or no people on them (definitely my kind of beach). We ate lunch in a little restaurant, very off the beaten path (but apparently known to tourists), called the Santa Fe. The food was excellent and the view was magnificent. The torrential downpour which fell just before the coffee was served was the only downside.
We left yesterday, with high winds and slightly high seas, but no forecasted rain. It only took three hours to get back, and although the captain was tired, it went well. This morning we got the autopilot and took care of customs clearance, and then we headed to another quieter spot. The first place we went to was called Friar’s bay. The beach was lovely, as was the free internet. The rain was frustrating, but it came while we were swimming, so we figured wet for wet….not a huge deal! We then moved on to Grande Case (yes we are back) and watched a gorgeous sunset, and had tomato soup and homemade bread (I made it, even though it was from a packet…it was very good). Since we arrived, we have had another two rainstorms…just one of those days, I guess. It’s a good thing that we put two anchors down.