A dinghy rod up to our boat while we were at anchor in
Virgin Gorda Sound. It was Mario & Francine from LeeLoo! We had anchored
just a couple of boats in front of them, but hadn’t noticed. We thought they
were well ahead of us.
So, we set off for St. Martin together on the 22nd
of April @ 5pm. We watched the setting sun over the Virgins, and sailed off
into the night.
While Gil was on watch he heard some commotion. We had an
intruder! Under the cover of darkness, this guy came on board…
Later, his buddy joined him
flying fish in our cockpit
approaching St. Martin
(notice our runaway jerry can!)
We arrived safely to St. Martin / St. Maarten the following
morning, where we chose to anchor in Marigot Bay on the French side of the
island.
St. Martin courtesy flag with HYC's (tattered) burgee
it looked like we sailed to China!
LeeLoo had arrived ahead
of us, and were already visiting with another Canadian boat, Myriam. Turns out,
Myriam was from their home sail club in Montreal. What were the chances?
What a pleasure it was to have met the family aboard Myriam,
a 42’ sloop. They have circumnavigated the globe! Their 5yr. adventure began
when their sons were but 3yr. & 8yr.
They are headed back home now, and in anticipation of that, they had
created a 40min. video of the highlights of their trip, to share with their
families. We were lucky enough to preview it. For the curious, their blog can
be found at www.quoideneufsurlemyriam.blogspot.com.
Ghislain, Annie, Guillaume & Olivier were wonderful hosts. They toured us
around and oriented us to where everything important (customs, laundry, groceries,
butcher, bakery, marina supplies, hardware, etc.) was located.
St.Martin's market
cleaning fresh fish across from the market
While Gil and I were enjoying the Saturday morning market,
we bumped into Ralph & Mary from Nightwatch, who were at anchor in Simpsons
Bay on the dutch side. We caught up over breakfast.
mystery fruit
104 yr. old Dutch sailing ship
It seems the further south we go, the bigger the boats get,
and the more flags we see. There are many European boats – Sweden, Norway,
Germany, Netherlands, France, & England have been sighted. There are also
several sailing vessels whose masts are so tall that their masthead lights are
red (for aircraft?) vs. white. Serenada is truly one of the smallest boats
around. We are keeping good company.
Nice quaint looking town. Perhaps you will find some of out relatives on the Dutch side?
ReplyDeleteYour mystery fruit is called bread fruit , it is edible . It needs to be boiled like turnip , mash it up add some spices and then fry it up. Never ate it myself but Pete has says it needs a lot of sugar and cinnamon. It is raining and cold right now it be glad when the sun returns.
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