Marigot Bay St Martin (5)

First batch of  ginger beer using Gayle’s recipe

Unsurprisingly, after over-indulging for 2 days, we had a rather slow and lazy day on Thursday 26 December.  The oven needed a good clean and, with the fridge now fairly empty, we started off some of Gayle’s ginger beer.  Disappointingly, we also discovered a crack in the transom of our dinghy, which meant that Friday’s big task was obtaining plywood to fashion a repair.  Happily, I found some on my first try, at the Tool Store on the French side.  Better still, all my Christmasses came at once and I also found a drop-down transformer which would convert 220/240V to 110V and which meant that I could now buy that US voltage drill from Ace Hardware in Sint Maarten!  I put the first patch on the inside of the dinghy transom and then joined Lars in his dinghy for a boys’ trip to the Dutch side.

Nicky, Maria and Johan (Samantha) and Susan

Great friends Susan and Lars (Sea Wind)

We returned [Ed: laden with beer!!] just in time for drinks on board Wahoo with the crews of Sea Wind, Samantha, and Crew Rest (Doug and his temporary crew, David).  It was another fun evening and the last one, we thought, with Lars and Susan, Johan and Maria for quite some time as they were all planning to head off to Culebra the next day and we were planning to sail up to the BVIs.

So, on the morning of Saturday 28 December we said our farewells to all our Swedish friends, cleared out ourselves with customs and immigration [Ed: and easy online process] and went off to do some final food shopping.

Everyone on the move.  Top: Samantha and Wahoo.  Bottom row, left to right:  Wahoo, Samantha, Sea Wind

When we returned Sea Wind and Samantha had gone so we readied BV for sea and prepared for a late afternoon departure.

Sea Wind back at anchor in Marigot but this time on our port side

Keen to keep a Swedish presence in the anchorage!  Left:  Sea Wind the returnee.  Right:  New arrival, Glittra

We were within half an hour of leaving when Sea Wind returned with steering failure and 15mins after that Christina and Jan-Olav Olsson on Glittra arrived in the anchorage.

Dinner aboard Glittra, with a starter of tuna ceviche caught by Lars as they returned to Marigot Bay.  Left to right: Nicky, Jan-Olav and Christina (Glittra), Susan and Lars (Sea Wind)

Under the circumstances, the obvious thing to do was to delay our departure a day, so we did and the 6 of us had lovely pot-luck supper on board Glittra.  We caught up with Christina and Jan-Olav’s season so far and discovered that one of the chain linkages in Sea Wind’s steering system had sheared, hence the wheel steering had failed.  Fortunately the autopilot, which works via a direct linkage to the rudder stock, was still operational and they had used that to steer back to port.  Being the weekend there was little that Lars and Susan could do until Monday 30 December, which meant that they would be celebrating the New Year in St Martin as well as Christmas.  Luck was with them and they subsequently managed to source all the replacement parts they needed almost as soon as the shops reopened on the Monday, which excellent news.

Our final night in Marigot Bay

Having delayed our departure a day, Nicky used the time to visit the laundry again whilst cooked up a passage meal and tackled a few small maintenance tasks.  And then, once again, we prepared BV for sea and, this time raised anchor and headed northwest for Tortola.

Marigot Bay, St Martin