Just bobbing around, Squashed fingers and more goodbyes

So its been very  windy with big choppy seas, just a tad uncomfortable on anchor, it’s been a lot cooler but hey it’s certainly not cold, we are still in shorts and T-shirts, we do have to cover up with a sheet at night, sometimes even a doona !!! 

We have been keeping busy with boat maintenance and all the usual daily chores, a boat is just like a house there is always something needs cleaning.

When we had the chance to get out and explore the island of Saint Martin with our fellow Aussies on Millennial Falcon they took us along for a day, driving around to see the sights, the island is really quite small, it’s surprising how quickly you travel in a car compared to a boat and I felt that I had already traveled on a lot of the road by local bus, while going about our everyday business.

We get a mention in their latest video, blink and you miss it but check it out, you’ll get a visual idea of where we are, plus they are fun to watch 😊 

The best thing about being here for a while is that we have opened an account with a company called West Tech, this company gives us an address in Florida we can get things sent to - then they forward the goods to Saint Martin, at a cost of $5 a pound plus $1 insurance.  So much easier than the dramas we went through in Grenada with import duty’s and taxes. Plus a lot of companies like Amazon do not recognise or ship to Saint Martin. 

It worked for the wind generator part from Portugal, it worked for the propeller seals from Miami but do you think it would work for Amazon. They froze the account I created, probably looked a bit sus, someone from Australia ordering goods to be sent to Miami, the device being used located in the Caribbean, anyway Craig eventually fixed it by opening another account using an old email address yay. 

On their way are 3 new parts for our bbq - the regulator, the radiant plate and the round middle burner bit, they had all completely rusted out. That was only 12 months and they needed to be replaced ah well we do like cooking on the outdoor bbq, we also invested in a hose with attachments that allows us to tap into our house propane. Up until now we have been using single use little canisters that don’t last long especially when you (meaning me) keep leaving the gas on instead of turning it off, it’s a tricky button that feels like it’s fully turned off when it’s actually still on !! 

Hence we have gone through so many of those little bottles. 

Once we were up and running with our amazon account we had a bit of fun ordering in a few things, I ordered a waterproof backpack, something we desperately needed but hadn’t found along the way. Quite often it’s raining or even just the big waves splashing into the dingy can drench everything.

I ordered some new undies, a bit if a confession - being a bit shy of hanging my nickers along the safety lines for the whole world to see I had bought one of those round plastic twirling hanging nanas drying things so that I could hang my smalls inside the cockpit, unfortunately  after hand washing things are still dripping water. 

So I had washed about 8 pairs and hung them up - well along comes a huge gust and whoosh off the contraption goes,  flying into the water twirling like a frisbee, it lands and promptly sinks to the bottom. 

It’s howling windy and super choppy so there’s no going in after it, the water is deep and Craig is rather mad at me so he’s not going in for it. Hence an order of a 10 pack of fruit of the loom cotton undies are on their way. 

Ps the ones I lost were all a bit saggy and out of shape after constant wear and hand washing so I was not too upset, I do feel bad for the plastic in the sea. 

But I’m having a bit of a giggle, I can just picture another boat pulling up their anchor and finding the nanas undies drier and all my saggy daks hanging off it !!! 

Craig ordered the parts for the bbq plus a new led mast light, it will sit on top of the mast replacing our current very dull light. Oh no I’m going to have to lift him up the mast again more trauma. 

My beautiful brother Steven forwarded to us our new credit card we had been unable to have it sent until we had an address and knew we were going to be in the one place long enough to wait for it, it still took about a month, this one we had sent to a friends shipping agent in Miami who then forwarded it  to Saint Martin, that’s before we decided to get our own agent.

Steven included in the box two Aussie flags yay we are going through them, we have already lost two, along with the poles they were attached to - both popped out and sank flag and all.

This happened twice once in Lunenberg, the metal flag holder was securely attached to the boat so that was a bit of a mystery. The second one was a wooden flag pole that was a bit loose, plus the dingy pushed on it when it was up on the davits so no mystery there. 

Our next two flags  just disintegrated in the wind and uv, so we were very happy to receive these unexpected gifts, he also popped in one of those car air fresheners the “sex wax” one, and wow did it remind us of home, it smells like our cars did after carting around the boy’s surfboards for years. 

The boat still has the surf wax aroma a month later. 

We are spending our time between the town of Marigot and Grand Case so far we have traversed between the two about 12 times. Marigot gives us access to the Dutch side, Carrefour supermarket, parcel pick up and the marine stores. But there have been a number of dingy thefts and one purse snatching that we know of so we are not too keen hanging around there.

Grand Case is much prettier, we can swim and walk on the beach, there is a laundry and superU supermarket about a 40 minute walk away, we generally catch the bus back much easier than carting heavy bags all that way. 

Our friends Fenghua and Lance joined us in a sail over to a small island called Isle Tintamarre it was only a short sail but as usual we have to tack back and forward a few time’s so it took us a few hours, Craig does this just to be out there sailing, he is in his element, me I don’t enjoy it so much but it fills in a day. 

We or should I say Fenghua posted lots of photos of the island on social media so I don’t need to go into detail but I will say it was a beautiful sunny weekend, the wind and seas were calm so lots of locals were out and about too. It’s a very popular spot, we had fun just sitting in the cockpit people watching. 

Unfortunately Craig had a bit of an accident on the Sunday, when he was checking the rope holding Adriana on to the mooring ball he noticed the pulled up anchor was chafing the line, it was quite bouncy conditions so lots of movement, we had been given a piece of old fireman’s hose (thanks Scott on Fruit Bat) and he had undone the rope on the bow and fed it through the hose, then he had jumped in the dingy and was in the process of securing it with cable ties so it wouldn’t slip down, he put his hand on the bow sprit, (where the anchor sits) and the movement of the boat pulled the line and jammed his fingers between the rope and the anchor, the three middle ones on his left hand. He actually had to stand there with the full weight of the boat pressing down on his fingers, stand there in pain until the boat swung away from him, he says he felt the bone crunch, today two weeks later the middle finger is still numb, the nail is blue black and he wears a finger splint most of the time, we are so very lucky there was no blood, the metal anchor could have severed the top of the finger right off, luckily too it was his left hand, he’s right handed so we could still motor sail off the mooring ball and back to Marigot. 

He decided not to see a doctor our friend Alison on Turquoise Turtle is a nurse, she had a look and agreed it would/should heal itself but “you must wear a splint” she said. Searching through our first aid bag I was sure I’d seen a splint but I couldn’t find it so Craig used an icy pole stick and a bandage to keep it straight, Alison called us a couple of days later “where are you, I have a finger splint for Craig” how nice was that she picked up one from the chemist, it was a beauty with a doubled over end to guard the painful part of the finger and tiny velcro straps to keep it secure. That is until one day we were letting the dingy down and whoosh off the splint flies it didn’t even float, ah well back to the lollop stick. 

We said goodbye to Paul and Myles with pizza from the local food truck, we were all anchored sheltering in Galliot Bay, that’s around near the power station, because there was a big swell and high winds for the few days, so it was a life threatening transfer from boat to dingy and a Soaking wet ride for the extra 10 minutes to shore. 

The boys are sailing back to the US to sell the catamaran via Puerto Rico then Dominican Republic, they have the B1 & B2 visas that are required to pass through these countries. This was always their plan, Paul will go back to the US to be with Molly, there could be a wedding being planned, I think they will eventually try to settle in Australia so there is a good chance we might see them again.❤️

It’s now early March 2021 

Two years to the week we departed Australia, before we left I had a diary planner and I’m reading all the mad dash things we had to organise before we departed, Craig and I both worked right up to the last minute, our life is certainly going at a much slower pace nowadays. 

We still pinch ourselves not quite believing where we are and what we are doing. 

A hard part of this lifestyle is saying goodbye to the nice folk we meet along the way, Dan and Nawal on Breakaweigh have departed for Cuba we will be following their journey on you tube

Just quietly when Dan says they “had a friend helping them with weather routing”, that was Craig.

We met Dan and Nawal very early on in The Bahamas, had lockdown in Samaná as part of the Quarantine-tilla with them and I have spent lots of time with Nawal walking Zeuss, having girlie chats and generally just hanging out - gonna miss you guys.❤️❤️ 

But we have caught up with Fenghua and Lance and Tom and Carol on Gina Lee. 

We met Tom and Carol in USVI’s and enjoyed many evenings watching the sunsets on Magens Beach.

Fenghua and Lance were with us in Samaná when we celebrated Craig Birthday talking of which it is only a few days away, I wonder how we will celebrate it this year. 

Everyone who was there agrees last year’s impromptu street party was so much fun, we had just landed safely in Samaná after a rough passage, so everyone was ready to cut loose, the music was loud, and the mojitos were sooo cheap and really strong, Dan has a bit of footage in one of his YouTube episodes.

This is how ridiculously cheap alcohol is here or how ridiculously expensive it is in Australia. 

We shopped at a big warehouse called Divicio and a box of 24 Amstel Light (Holland) - light being low carb and slightly lower alcohol3.5% - were on special for €5, being something we hadn’t tried I bought one box, turns out it was really nice beer, kicking myself I didn’t buy more. 

The next time we went Red Stripe (Jamaica) was the special €10 a box (24) and being an unknown beer we decided to buy a six pack. I handed over a €2 coin and a gold 50 c piece for a six pack of perfectly drinkable beer, €2.50 thats just loose change - ridiculous. 

What we drink normally is Presidente which is around €16 a box of 12. I bought a 3kg block of Dutch Gouda cheese, for €4, we halved it with Adam and Khiarra, I split my 1.5kg into 3 and stuck what I wasn’t using in the freezer. It’s perfect cheese for toasted sandwiches and nice enough on its own with crackers. Me who avoids dairy is struggling to say no.... 

A round of Camembert cheese €2 a long baguette is usually €1 or less. Sliced ham is not so cheap neither are things like lettuce and tomatoes, still they are available and cost much less than they did in say Grenada and The Bahamas. 

At the moment the exchange rate is €1 to $1.60 Australian 

We have Island hopped between isles Tintamarre and the mainland a number of times it’s like going on a holiday we swim and walk on the beach every day while we are there. We had a lovely few days there with Tom and Carol, Fenghua and Lance and Adam and Khiarra, it’s nice to have friends around. We are still just bobbing around waiting to see what happens in the world, nothing has changed in these last couple of months, vaccines are rolling out around the world and cases are dropping but it’s still such an unknown with new more aggressive/ contagious variants emerging. 

We will probably be able to be vaccinated here once all the residents have their turn, I’m happy to wait for a while. 

This island still has active cases so we are better staying on the boat, really we only go out to supermarkets and to walk on the beach. 99% of people wear masks and respect social distancing in public places. 

Oops I’m planning a get together for Craig’s birthday and last night I mentioned about his birthday last year and how Fenghua and Lance were there too and Craig says “ don’t mention it’s my birthday to anyone “ Oops too late......