Gonna try in Ernest to share more, no promises.
Sometimes now that we are on the pseudo move the the internet will be less available, so be warned the self induced hiatus was purely voluntary.
We snuck into St Bart’s after clearing out of the Dutch side of St Maarten, and going up,the French side and stopping short of Gustavia, the place to clear in. The western most Bay is a favorite, but lacks the modern conviencies, such as the internet or even a mobile tower, thus perfect for our new endeavor.
Spent the night on the hook in Columbier Bay, when we arrived all the balls were taken, and it was a Sunday crowd. No biggie, our hook works.
Our boat buddies, weird term for friends, arrived later and scored a moooring, sketchy as it was, but was a good time to be an illegal. Most of the Sunday day boats cleared out.
Next day it was time to make the formalities formal and clear into St Bart’s. After finishing the ceiling project we headed to the metropolis of Gustavia and sought out a piece of the waterfront to call home. Oh my! Too many private moorings, and deep water. 4 attempts at dropping the hook with decent scope and were still uncomfortable. We like the 10 to 1 ratio, or at least 7 to 1 for a good nights sleep. The water in St Bart’s is about 10m (30 feet deep) so 10 to one means a football field of chain/distance in the water. Trying that between moorings that go straight down was the reason we gave up and tucked into a tight corner that if the wind blew correct we would be out of the ship channel.
We survived the first night as we were NOT the worst offender in the ship channel. The wind was of no help. A container ship came in to deliver goods to the good people of St Bart’s. Christine asked if they had anything good on board and one crew member pointed at himself. Yes, we were that close in the channel, when a container ship can carry on a conversation over the monster Diesel engines.
We checked in and made dinner in almost the exact spot where the New Years spectacle took place.
Jerk chicken wings for dinner. The Ogre is teaching me / broading my horizons. Pressure cook, then crisp up on the broiler or actual grill. His recipe for ribs turned out awesome, so I branched out and tried wings. Came out good, but would need a bit more time in the broiler, or finish on the grill for the normal crunch of a grilled wing.
Great eve, Christine finally was able to see the green flash. Unimpressed as she was, it was a milestone. She is not color blind after all.
Sleepless night for me, instead played on the internet and dropped some prose for the blog. Finally got some sleep, only to be awakened by the winds that said impending rain is coming. Knowing we were anchored well, and rain storms bring odd wind direction. Where we were, anything but south winds and we’d be fine. I looked out the bedroom window and saw green, all good a north wind.
Still an early rise, so defrosted the fridge. And while it was defrosting, added some extra insulation as there seemed to be a warm air leak near the top center of the freezer door. We have had to defrost twice since December and its only March, last year I think it was once or twice in the 6 months we spent on board. Best part of defrosting? The frosting can be used as ice to cool off a warm beer, and of course I used those warm beers to help start the defrosting process. A Win-Win all the way around.
The other two boats in the channel left leaving us the farthest out so it was a matter of time. While cooking breakfast time came, they almost stopped by when I was defrosting the fridge. But alas we were asked to move. Tried 2 more anchor spots, nothing felt like home so we headed back to the west bay of Columier, no internet :(. Grabbed a mooring and made a pizza for lunch and went for a snorkel to see the fishies. And large titles of course. Found a molted lobster and several cute puffers, box and porcupine, lots of triggers and even a propellor off a DJI drone. Got cold as we were in the water for a while so swam back to the boat to rinse off and used the dinghy to have beverages on the friends boat whom snorkeled with us too.
Interesting enough our neighbors boat say Austin, Texas on its stern too so we stopped over and said “Hi” and said we’d have a beer later. That might mean tomorrow or next week.
Back on board for some brauts and some homemade bread for a light dinner before calling it a night. Just around sailors midnight.
Today? Not sure what today holds maybe a swim, a hike or both.
