11. French kissing

I’m anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon on the French side, very near Marina Port le Royale, which is a great marina. It took me longer than expected to get here, but it’s exactly where I’d planned to be. There are lots of cool restaurants and bars around the marina, which is right in the middle of Marigot, the capital of the French side. I’ve been going ashore to a nice beach on Marigot Bay, and abusing a nice hotel’s sun loungers and showers.

The day I came through the (very narrow) bridge into the lagoon, I anchored alongside a lovely English couple in a beautiful Gulf star 54. Dane (who is from Barnsley!) is a canvas expert and is fixing my dodger - the canvas cover, a bit like a convertible car roof. What a great guy! Amanda his wife is lovely, they’re giving me some good advice, and pointing out some of the insider information: the cruisers’ net on VHF channel 10 at 7.30am; the flea market at TOBY’s every month; how to not get my dingy stolen. Although even Dane questioned whether anyone would, reasoning that when you steal a dingy you need to make a quick get away, which really wouldn’t be possible with mine. I could probably swim after anyone who tried.

I shop at the cheap supermarkets, and very rarely eat out. Supermarkets and bakeries here have lots of good French food and wine; much cheaper than the BVI. Lots of good French and Dutch food; bread, cheese and stroopwaffels. Pain au chocolat for breakfast with a coffee, orange juice and a banana. Lots of baguette sandwiches. I read a girl called Jack’s blog for tips.

http://agirlcalledjack.com/category/recipes-food-etc/

the lagoon bridge on the Dutch side

I’ve been working on Sonic Boom. I had my engine serviced, new oil and all new filters. It seems to be running fine again. When the mechanics came aboard it ran good as well, so I’m worried whatever the problem was, still hasn’t been fixed. I insulated my fridge with Styrofoam and turned it down, so it’s now using less power. I’m trying to get the fridge running on power just from my wind generator so I don’t have to run the engine. Really I need a solar panel as well. The fridge is my main power consumer. Without it the wind generator would make enough for everything – lights, GPS and depth gauge, fans and pumps.

I’m looking for work. Hard. I got a phone and signed up with a few crew placement agencies on the Dutch side around Simpson Bay Marina, and Isle del Sol. It’s a short bus ride to the Dutch side, where there are casinos and cheap department stores. I’m looking on the French side for day work too, and I’m also looking for English language teaching. I contacted a school yesterday and sent them a CV. I figure the more things I try the more chance I have to get something. I feel like buying the boat, then sailing out of the BVI, were the first two difficult steps, but this might be the hardest part. To stay afloat.

Philipsburg

10. Lost Days in the Virgins

My last few days in the Virgin Islands were fun. Although I was planning on leaving on Tuesday, the weather forced me to wait again. But that meant I got to spend Christmas Day with my friends Mark and Lisa from Tara, who arrived at Leverick Bay on Christmas Eve. We had fun on the beach and then an amazing dinner at the restaurant.

Leverick Bay, you can see Sonic Boom anchored

One day dingying back to my boat, I looked down and instead of dingy floor, I could see fish. It was a bad sign, and in fact that dingy is no more; it’s in a skip. Luckily I managed to find a new one, with the help of Cyril the taxi driver, for $150. Not really new, it was deflated on a beach and covered in crap. I spent a day cleaning it up, and patching the leaks, and now it’s much better than my old one. 

The day of dingy repair, I had needed to borrow a foot pump, so I asked around but couldn’t find anything. The only boat around with people aboard that I hadn’t asked was Necker Belle, Richard Branson’s huge catamaran that was taking on fuel and water at the dock. So I went over and asked them, so I managed to borrow Richard Branson’s foot pump to blow up my dingy. I’d seen him a couple of days before; he walked right by me when I was at the bar. I heard he’s developing Mosquito Island into a resort.

In Leverick Bay I realized I had seen Steve Jobs’ new motor yacht. I saw a magazine, which had a picture of a huge motor yacht I had seen off Norman Island a couple of weeks ago. At the time I thought it was ugly, it looked like Tupperware. Then I noticed it was a Feadship, and thought it must have a famous owner. It turned out to be Venus, the boat Steve Jobs commissioned, and the designer Philip Stark tried to impound for unpaid fees.

Another day I had been sitting in my boat, when I heard someone shout ‘Strolla! That’s my old boat!’ The old owner, previous to the one I bought it off, was sailing into Leverick Bay marina on a catamaran. So I met him at the bar and chatted about the boat. He’d lived on it for a while, and spent lots of money fixing it up.

9. Saint Martin

Crossing the Anegada passage overnight, my biggest fear was being hit by a cruise ship. I had lots of other medium and small fears. I set off Thursday morning, and it was painfully slow all day. The wind was fairly light, but the waves and current against me were strong, so even though my sails seemed quite full, and the boat was smashing up and down, when I looked at the water I was moving forwards only very slowly. 3 maybe 4 knots at most. A dolphin came along side and cheered me up, but I think it got board with how slow I was going.

I sailed through the first night without sleep, and then all through the next day. I was tacking southeast and northeast, trying to get east – but I just wasn’t going make it. I arrived off the coast of St. Martin in pitch darkness, so I decided to heave-to overnight, try and get a couple of hours sleep and try again tomorrow. So I just bobbed around until dawn, with my lights on, anxious of cruise ships, tankers and other boats.

The next day it was another hard slog, so I aimed for Long Beach, which looked easiest to get to. I tried motoring, but my engine packed in, so I would have to moor and anchor without it. Eventually I anchored and managed to get ashore for a pizza and a beer.  After 2 days and nights of sailing, I had kind of made it – at least I was on St. Martin. I would get a good sleep and then set off for Marigot Bay – just a few miles along the coast. But it was incredibly hard. It felt like St. Martin was blowing me away from every angle. The strong current and waves through the Anguilla passage meant it took me another 5 hours. I need bigger winches I think! And self-tailing ones. I would later meet a couple that took 5 days, and then eventually they asked a fishing boat for a tow.

Philipsburg

After a couple of nights in Marigot Bay I finally motored through the bridge into Simpson Lagoon. To keep costs down, I used Sandy Ground Bridge which opens twice a day and is free, unlike the other bridge on the Dutch side. Mooring on the French side of Simpson’s Lagoon is also free. 

St. Martin is one island split in two: half Dutch, half French. When I first went there I stayed on the Dutch side, thinking that would be most fun. But actually the French side is much nicer. The Dutch side is more Caribbean, but full of casinos and cruise ships. The French side is very French, cheap breakfasts of croissants, coffee and orange juice, and cheap cheese baguettes for lunch. Marina Port Le Royale is a beautiful place to moor your dinghy and go shopping for provisions.

At first I anchored near Marina Port Le Royale, and on the very first day someone dingied up and asked me ‘is this an Elizabethan 31?’ So I met another really nice guy, ex merchant navy, who’d wanted to buy one in the 1970s but hadn’t been able to afford. On New Year’s Eve I had a great view of all the fireworks, and imagined they were for me celebrating my arrival.