15. Dutch Courage

I had my first charter yesterday. I took Chris, a German guy who lives here, for a sail in Sonic Boom. We sailed all the way around St Martin in about 7 hours. A great day’s sailing, nice wind, fairly calm sea, and I got 150 dollars. He’s thinking of buying a boat, but had only sailed Lasers, so wanted to get a feel for a boat my size. He’s thinking of another trip to St. Bart’s, which would be good. I suggested Martinique and take 5 days, stopping at Statia, Nevis and Guadalupe.

Simpson Bay Lagoon looking toward Cupecoy

We motored into and out of the lagoon and my engine was fine, having pumped out the oil with a hand pump, filled up with new oil, and changed the oil filter, for the second time. I noticed though we were going slower than we should have been. Today I checked my propeller and it was covered in barnacles so I dove down and cleaned it. After I stopped Dane’s on my way to have a hot shower, and cleaned his too. He offered me money but I will ask him to put it towards the cushion covers he’s making me.

On the way back I noticed a shroud had come free from the spreader, so we sailed the last part jib only, and came back into the lagoon through Dutch bridge and then through the causeway bridge. The other day Amanda went up the mast in the boson’s chair, to free a tangled line. I’m thinking maybe that dislodged or loosened a shroud fastening. It should be an easy fix.

I put my fridge up for sail on the cruisers’ net, run by Shrimpy’s every morning on the radio. I got one call, but sold it today to Jock for 100 dollars. I’m glad to be rid of it. It was way too big for this boat. I’ll get something smaller, that my wind generator can power. I’ll use the money to fix my wind generator, which was making so much noise, something was definitely wrong with it.

I think St Martin could be a good place to buy a cheap boat and do it up. If you’re careful and know about boats, there are some really nice little sailboats for sale; classics, that the owners just can’t look after any more. There’s one in Bobby’s Marina at the moment. It had been left in the lagoon, was covered in dirt and looked horrible. Someone bought it for next to nothing and hauled it out. It sat in the boatyard for a while, until the new owner Matt bought it for 3000 dollars, painted the bottom, and the hull a nice pale teal, redid the inside completely, really cool, and now it looks amazing.