BACK 'HOME' IN ST MARTIN

 

 

After a beautiful time in the BVI's things took a turn for the worse! The day before we were about to leave, we had a problem with our one motor. We had to make the decision to either turn back to Sea Cow Bay where our friends could help us, or carry on as planned with one motor.

 

Andre Hough and Esther were arriving to stay with us in St Martin the next day, so we decided to rather get there to sort it out. The weather conditions seemed favorable for the 12 hour passage so we left at 3.30am, in the pitch dark and the minute we left the island we knew it wasn't going to be an easy sail. Windguru couldn't have got it more wrong, the sea was huge and the wind was on our nose. We went crashing into enormous waves, poor Katz was creaking and moaning and we felt as if we were being thrown around in a washing machine. Adding to the agony was the fact that we only had one motor and it was just the 3 of us on board, so needless to say it was a very stressful.....19 HOURS!!! We arrived in St Martin at 10 in the evening, having to negotiate the Anguilla Passage, with lots of boat traffic and fishing buoys, in the dark, when we were absolutely exhausted. It was horrible and at one stage I stood at the helm nearly in tears and told Stephen that was was just so scared!! I have new respect for the conditions this boat can handle also that Stephen held it together so well at the helm for the entire passage.

Finally bringing the sails down after the passage from hell

 

Now, we still had the problem of the motor to sort out, with guests from South Africa coming to stay. We were hoping it was a small problem but got various opinions and were told that the cylinder head gasket had blown. We were devastated, not only was it a huge job but also an expensive one and we're living on a pretty tight budget.

Andre just loved the aeroplanes

Spectacular Air France landing

Waiting for the jet blast

 

It was such a stressful time because we really wanted Andre and Esther to have a good time with us and we spent most of the time fixing and running around getting parts for the motor. We still feel so bad because they spent the majority of their time with us stuck in the Simpson Bay lagoon. We so enjoyed having them with us, we had lots of laughs and they were very understanding and helpful. We did eventually get the motor fixed and we were only able to spend one night out of the lagoon in Grand Cass before they left.

Our doctor taking care of us

Jazzy and Andre

A little too much Caribbean sun!

 

Ribs and beers along the sidewalk

Andre chuffed with his Baracuda

Airport shuttle

We were so happy to have Michaela arrive in St Martin a week later and then we were straight into preparations for the Heinken Regatta. We were the start boat for the B race and what fun we had!! We had 14 great people on board for 3 days and what an amazing experience it was. We were really spoilt and given great goodie bags and T-shirts, had breakfast at the yacht club each morning, had lunch delivered and had unlimited beers, wine and cooldrinks on board. At then end of each day, we swam and had a good time and on the last race day we anchored at the finish line to see the winners coming in. There were parties every night and a really festive atmosphere and a crazy amount of yachts around for the whole week. It was wonderful to be part of one of greatest regatta's in the world!

The Heineken boats queuing to get through the bridge

A few things from our goodie bags for the Heineken Regatta

Katz all dressed up and ready to go

The Canadian spirit!

The finish line

Elvis up the mast

These guys had beers attached to their backs

The yachts coming through the bridge were judged by the amount of spirit they had

 

One of the highlights of our stay in St Martin was that Sean and Jazzy were there on Mary A. When we first saw each other on the dock, so far from home, we were all tearful. They often came over to our boat and they had us over to braai on the dock with their crew and we loved seeing them around their boat during the day. Having them there just gave us a 'warm fuzzy feeling' and it felt like having our own family with us. We left St Martin on the same day as them and were so excited to see them in Gustavia in St Barth and then again in the same bay as us in Anse Colombier.

 

Happy times on Katz with Jazzy and Sean

Mary A leaving St Martin with us

All good things come to an end and our visa's were expiring so we had to move on. We made friends with a great German guy, Arnd, who was on our yacht for the Heineken and we have decided to do the next leg of our journey together. We are happy to have Zanshin as our new buddy boat and look forward to exploring the West Indies with him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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