It’s mid February and we have now been aboard for about two weeks, the amount of time it generally takes for me and Brenda to settle in once we”ve moved aboard.    It’s also about how long it takes to decompress from the pressures of the holidays and “land”.    Since our really annoying passage from the BVI to St Martin we have enjoyed both the Dutch and French side as well as a short side trip for a few days in Grand Case.  I talked about that spot in my last post but it was just so lovely that I have to share a few more images of our visit to that lovely town, home to the largest concentration of French restaurants on the island.

But, before I get into it, this is the view that greeted me this morning as I put the coffee on.  What a beautiful way to begin the day.   Actually, that was yesterday’s sunrise, but I wanted to use it so let’s just make believe it was today.  Not to put too fine a point on it but it was dark when I got up today but a view, very similar to this, and you’ll just have to believe me on this, was to be had shortly there after.   “Bob, Bob, don’t be so pedantic, it’s exhausting,  MOVE ON ALREADY.”  Ok, but just about every day’s sunrise is beautiful.  SO THERE!When we were in Grand Case, Bill and I went for a walk on the beach.  I loved this view of umbrellas, more like a flock of butterflies.  Do butterflies “flock”? At the end of the beach there was a wrecked sailboat.  This is Bill taking in the scene. The beach went on for perhaps a mile with a dramatic “cliffy” end.  White clouds are endlessly fascinating to me.  “Yes, that and sunsets Bob.”

We went out for Valentine’s dinner with our cruising buddies from Kalunamoo, Maureen and Bill, to a very nice French restaurant.  Good choice because French is about the only choice in Grand Case.  The weather was very cooperative as it seems that the stronger winds that plagued our trip here have abated for the moment.  The view from Pandora on the calm waters was pretty amazing.  Yes, I know, it’s that whole puffy cloud thing again. Our table at dinner was overlooking the water.  What a sunset.  You can see the showers in the distance, it’s the dark band coming down from the cloud. Brenda and I did some shopping earlier in the day and enjoyed the sights.  I was surprised to see an old Morgan in parts.  I wonder what the story behind this car is?  Morgans are still made in England and are eagerly sought after by collectors.   This one would take some doing to get back on the road.  However, it would be a fun story to tell.  “Oh yeah, I found this car in St Martin behind a lovely French restaurant.   Had it shipped back to the States….”I loved the ferns growing up on this doorstep.Yesterday morning we headed back to Simpson Bay and made the 09:00 bridge.  As we were waiting to enter the bay a large spotted eagle ray swam by Pandora.  She/he was about 4’ from wingtip to wingtip.  A majestic sight.This training ship has been in port here for a few weeks.  It’s a bit odd with it’s green sails.   She’s a big girl though so I guess she can dress any way she wishes.The entrance into the lagoon is impossibly narrow with a rocky shoal protruding into the channel on port side. Since moving back here I have been consumed with “whack-a-mole”, yes, boat repairs.  When we tried to pull up our anchor in Grand Case the windless failed.  No warning or grinding sound, just no “weighing” except by brute muscle.  It was an exhausting job.  After hours of “analysis” I decided to scrap it and get a new one.  It looked nasty.    Looking at this photo now I realize that I could have saved myself a lot of time if I had just realized that it was hopeless from the get go.  However, sometimes “ugly is only skin deep” but not with windlesses, it woudl seem. Fortunately St Martin, both the Dutch and French sides are “duty free” so prices are competitive with the U.S. and in some cases, less.  There are two large chandleries on the Dutch side, Island Water World and Budget Marine.  However, Island Water World has a much larger selection and as luck would have it, windlasses were on sale.  They even had a 24V unit in stock.  How lucky was that?  I can not tell a lie but I’d have paid most anything.  The store manager helped me set things up by taking parts from several units and putting them together so I’d have enough power to pull up the anchor in a package that would integrate with the electrical components already installed on Pandora from the failed unit. It took some time to get everything settled but I was very pleased to have been able to find that they had everything in stock.   Thank goodness that the unit failed here instead of somewhere more remote.  Lucky me.  Yes, very, very lucky.

It took hours to remove and diagnose the old unit but once out about a half day of work got the new one in place and cleaned up.  And, as a special bonus, the anchor locker is now all tidy and clean.  Doesn’t it look like a “million bucks”?  Actually, it was less than two “boat bucks” not counting the multiple hammers I wore out “whacking” down the moles.   However, whatever the price, my aching back says “priceless”.  I also was able to pick up my repaired mainsail and will install it today.  Hopefully, it won’t be too windy as getting such a big sail up can be challenging.   Fingers crossed that it goes smoothly.  My friend Bill has said he’d help.

So, with the mainsail repaired and the newly failed windless back in business I have “whacked” most of the moles back into their holes for the moment.  Of course, that doesn’t mean that the SSB is back in service yet but hopefully, I will be able to run some new power cables to get that in shape today. Well, I’ll at least have the materials on board.

So, our plan is to take advantage of light winds in the next few days to make our way to St Barths where we will stay for a day or so before heading further south to perhaps Nevis or St Kitts.  After that, who knows.   Brenda and I would like to visit some of the islands, like Guadeloupe, a group sometimes called “the islands that brush the clouds” that have rainforests before she heads home from Antigua in mid April.

Perhaps I’ll close with a shot of last evening’s sunset.  It was beautiful and enhanced by a wonderful Mexican chili dish by Brenda.  To call it chili doesn’t do it justice. Yum.Oh yeah, one more thing.  Meet Louis, Pandora’s new mascot.  Brenda “adopted” him in Grand Case a few days ago.   Louis comes in his own “match box” bed, complete with a pillow, blanket and mattress.  Of course, the sailors suit is, as Brenda would say in a high pitch “mousy” voice, “just soooo cute”.  Louis will be traveling with us for the next few years until our Granddaughter Tori is old enough for Louis to live with her and tell her all about all the wonderful places he traveled with her Ya Ya and grandpa.

Just like me and Brenda, Louis seems to be settling in nicely to the Caribbean cruising life and enjoyed sharing stories with us during our candlelight supper last night.

I guess that’s about it for now.   Yes, a few more “moles” whack at and then on to other adventures.

Louis tells me that he’s about ready too.

 

It’s Tuesday morning and we are anchored off of Grand Case, a charming little French seaside town on St Martin.  This spot is known for the many French restaurants and shops that line the waterfront, the largest concentration on the island, I’m told.  It looks, well, very French.   Not surprisingly, they even have a little bakery in town.  Can I have another baguette please?  Actually, yesterday I bought two…

The anchorage is a bit rolly but picturesque.  There is a pretty impressive concrete pier to tie the dink up to complete with some pretty good sized waves breaking on the nearby beach. Getting off and on the dink can be a bit challenging with the surge and there is no way that many would brave the surf to land a dink on the beach.   That’s Pandora off in the distance, center. There is also a small airport in town and every so often a plane comes in from over the water appearing to barely clear the main street and boats in the harbor.   This one came in just a few moments ago.  It sure looked like it was awfully close to clipping the buildings on shore.  “Yes, please, I’ll have some landing gear with my foie gras.”Yesterday Brenda and I walked downtown to look in the shops.  It’s a pretty town.  Very quaint.   And yes, it looks very French.  Funny thing. A little Catholic church right in town.   Oddly, I hear that they do the entire service in French.  Why is that, I wonder?  It’s pretty amazing, even the little kids have learned to speak French here.  I never learned.  Too hard. This is where we are having dinner tonight with friends.  Even this place is French.  Go figure. Most of the restaurants have large tanks of lobster on display.   These are bigger than they look.After our walk, more of a short stroll actually, we stopped for a drink at a bar near the town dock.  The bar had set up a number of “samples” on the railing running down to the dock.  It was a very inviting and creative way to show their wares, I thought.   Just try that on a “public” pier in the US.  “You can’t do that. Get those drinks off of private property.  It violates the separation of government and private enterprise”.  No wait, perhaps with Trump that will no longer be a problem for us.    Something to look forward to. The view of the harbor as the sun went down was really nice and put even more “happy” in our “happy hour”. As the sun set behind the hills it was really beautiful off to the east.Pandora looked her best in the evening light.As we sat in the bar a few planes landed at the airport.  It looked like we could nearly touch them as they passed overhead.  “De plane, De plane!” If you get that joke, “you are really old now”. A beautiful view of town from aboard Pandora once the sun went down. Oh yeah, remember “whack-a-mole”?  Well, he’s back at it again as my SSB and AIS both failed yesterday.  Yacht repair in exotic places once again.  I think I have tracked it down to a failed DC/DC converter.  More to come on that.  Besides, we will be back in Simpson Bay to pick up my mainsail as the new part for the batten will arrive tomorrow.   I’ll have to try and get all of this fixed so we can make a run to St Barths over the weekend.

“Fixing the boat again Bob?”  Yes, I’m afraid that’s true.  It’s always something.  Isn’t it just grand?

It’s Sunday morning early, the nearly full moon has not yet set and I am struck by how bright it is shining down on the water here in St Martin.  We have been here for less than a week but I am getting itchy to move on to another island.  It’s hard for me to stay in one place for very long, not because I am bored by this beautiful place (did I say I love baguettes?) but because there is just so much more I want to do and our time aboard is short.

This year, for a variety of reasons, Brenda can’t stay aboard for all that long, only about 2 ½ months and then she will head home.  We got off to a late start this year, not getting aboard until the end of January and Brenda has a weaving conference in mid-April in TN that she’d like to attend.   I’d prefer for her to stick around longer but can’t fault her for wanting to kick her “land season” off with a special weaving event.

Yes, I am ready to head to St Barts but we can’t go quite yet as my sail, the one with the snowbound part on order, won’t be ready until mid-week.  After that, further south, weather permitting.

Yesterday, Saturday, was Market Day in Margiot, on the French side, and Brenda and I enjoyed browsing the stalls in the town square.  It was a riot of color set against the backdrop of the old fort overlooking the harbor.The stalls were set up so close to each other that making your way through the market was like winding through a sort of technicolor maze with brightly colored sheets billowing in the trades.The sights and smells were intoxicating with a some vendors selling a dizzying array of Caribbean spices.  We wanted to buy one of each and would have had we not been short of cash. We had lunch at a lovely little bistro overlooking the park and took advantage of the WiFi to call our boys Rob and Chris. It was really nice to catch up with them.

The other evening we went over to the Dutch side to have ice cream at we were told was “the place” for such things.  It was a round building with a carousel out back, overlooking the harbor.  Inside the main building was decorated with a series of large mosaic murals set in the wall.  Each was based on an old photo celebrating ice cream.  Celebrate away.  I agree, Ice cream is good.

As I studied each image I was struck by the level of detail that went into their design.  These images, when viewed casually, from afar, looked so simple.   A little girl eating an icecream cone.  A boy getting an ice cream cone from a cart.  Simple? Yes?And yet, when explored closely, there’s more than meets the eye as it’s actually made up of countless tiny pieces that contribute to the whole.  Perhaps it’s like life.  Thousands, or millions of little decisions or pieces that bring each of us to where we are today.  Many little pieces of tile.   Up close, hard to say what it is.   Stand back and it becomes clear…good or bad.

I bring this up because here we are, Brenda and me, now into our fifth winter cruising together, months away from our 40^th wedding anniversary, and a life together that has turned out in ways that I could never have dreamed of back in High School when we were first dating.   It’s been over 45 years that we’ve been hanging out together and I frankly find it amazing that we have found ourselves together in this place after all these years.   A thousand little pieces of tile…

Think about what life was like when you were 16 or 17.   If you were like me, well it wasn’t a particularly flattering picture.  One particular image that stands out to me is what I wore to our first prom.  Me, resplendent with shoulder length straight blond hair, powder blue tux with dark blue piping and a ruffled shirt with a clip-on (of course) bow tie.

Sounds hideous and it was but we chose that particular “outfit” and color because the color matched  Brenda’s slinky little blue dress.   Her dress stood the test of time.  My tux, not so much?  However, we did have to match, right?

I worked for much of my career for someone who once said to me “it’s all about what you decide to spend your time on that matters”, and as I sit here under the light of a full moon in St Martin I can’t help but feel that I have been very lucky and have chosen well.  Yes, I am perhaps luckier than anyone deserves to be as I have stumbled through a life with Brenda that has turned out so well.

Go ahead and call me out on such a sappy post but I do feel particularly blessed to be where I am today, both figuratively and literally.   If someone had said to me way back when I stood on the front porch of Brenda’s parent’s home in Weston CT, where Brenda’s father Jack had left me after he answered the door and  closing it again with me still on the porch, as he said “Brenda will be right out”, this isn’t the picture I would have had in my mind.  Perhaps it was the shoulder length hair and un-tucked shirt.  But here we are, me retired early and cruising the Caribbean with Brenda.   I expect that I would have said something like “yeah right, first I have to get through algebra”.   Yes, and Brenda saved me there too.

But, against all odds, here I am in St Martin aboard Pandora with Brenda after all those years.  And, as luck would have it, we are visiting a French island and it’s nearly  Valentine’s Day.  Is that perfect or what?

“So, Bob, what’s the plan for Valentine’s day?”  Well, since you’ve asked, Brenda and I will be celebrating with our good cruising friends Bill and Maureen at a lovely little French restaurant in Grand Case.

However, just to be sure that the evening isn’t completely perfect, we will anchor out and scramble our way up the beach (I sure hope that there’s a dock) to make our way to dinner and back to Pandora again.  I sure hope that there isn’t a north swell running.  Brenda wouldn’t like that.

Seriously though, I can’t believe how much has happened over the nearly half century that Brenda and I have been hanging out together.   And, to torture the image just a bit more, all the pieces of our picture, the tiny pieces of glass that have gone into our mosaic have made for a pretty nice picture from my viewpoint.

Who would have guessed, on this day so long ago that we’d be here today. So many little decisions that we make every day, usually not even giving most of them any real thought.   All those tiny pieces put in place that bring us to where we are.

I particularly wonder about what decisions might bring someone to own a yacht like this.   Is he happy? This owner must be pleased with himself to name his boat Rapture, I would think.Or what about this guy looking toward the future…I guess I’ll never know how it’s going to turn out but for sure, I am pretty happy at how things have gone so far.  I sure hope my luck holds out a while longer.

Had anyone told me, back in high school algebra class (she sat two rows ahead and to the left of me) and thinking about asking Brenda “out”, that I’d be sitting in St Martin, with Brenda, aboard Pandora, I would have laughed.   Don’t forget, I was the guy with that powder blue tux.

I wonder what the future holds and sure hope that my luck continues to hold out. I guess it’s mine to mess up.  It is, after all, all about choices.  Those tiny pieces  we all put in place…

“OMG Bob, stop it already!  I think I am going to puke.  You are such a sap…”

I know, I know, but that’s my story and I am sticking to it.   Fingers crossed that I don’t mess up too much.   So far, so good.

Lucky me, indeed.

It is often said that cruising is nothing more than boat repair in exotic places and sometimes it feels just like that.  However, I heard a fellow cruiser last night desribe it even better. She called it “whack-a-mole”.   You know, the game where a “mole” pops up through a hole in a board and you “whack” it with a hammer?   The goal of the game is to hit the mole before he drops back into his hole and when the the next one pops up, well, you wack that one too.  And, to make the game even more diabolical, the faster  you “whack” the faster the Mr. Mole does his thing.

Well, that almost perfectly describes boat repair.  No matter how fast you “whack away”, more moles pop up.

Let me give an example.   As I began to better understand Pandora, I realized that all was not right with the first batten on the mainsail which always seemed to look, well, not quite right with wrinkles appearing in odd places.  After my first “sporty” offshore run, the receptacle that held the luff end of the batten (Pandora has full battens) broke out.  I ultimately replaced the entire receptacle only to have it break yet again on the run down to the BVI.  However, I didn’t know that it had broken until I removed the sail to repair a stressed (read: almost torn out) sail track lead and a fist sized hole in the main from one of the spreader tips.    The “whack-a-mole”  pops up yet again.

So, although my plan was to pull the sail only to have some sewing done, it turns out that I needed a new batten piece flown in from Newport RI.   However, as the piece in question had broken twice already, the loft suggested that I upgrade to a more “heavy duty” version, which I am.   And, to make things even more fun, the airports in the NE are closed due to a blizzard.   Another “whack a mole”.

No problem, the piece will be here in a few days.  However, the weather window to head to St Barts looks like it’s going to open up in a few days and now I may miss it do to, you guessed it, “whack a mole” and shipping issues.

Anyway, it always seems that things are more complex than expected so perhaps it’s “whack a mole” behind that too.  And to think that I thought it was Murphy of “Murphy’s law” at work.  You know, the “it can always get worse”, and it does Murphy’s law?

So, yesterday morning was taken up getting the main off of Pandora and out for repair.   It took three of us, me and two other cruiser friends, to get the sail down, battens out and sail into the dink so I could deliver it to the loft.   Now, I know that we will be delaying our departure for St Barts because of snow in New England and not getting the new part until sometime in the middle of next week.

And, speaking of the “whack a mole” I have also been having trouble with my SSB not having good reception for the last year and a half, since I first installed the unit.   I can hear pretty well but my transmissions don’t carry very long distances.   “whack a mole!”   So, I hired Dave another cruiser who is supposed to be pretty good with electronics to have a look.     After about an hour of troubleshooting we discovered that one of my wire crimp connections was loose and we believe that is a big part of the problem, meaning that when I transmit the radio isn’t getting enough power due to the loose wire not conducting well.   Happily, after fixing that and a few other “tweaks” to the system, we measured much greater transmission power with Dave’s “transmission power measuring thingy”.

I am hopeful that his “fixes” will indeed solve the problem and I’ll be able to be heard better.  I’ll know later this morning when I try to contact Chris Parker in FL.  Fingers crossed… No more radio “whack a moles”.

But wait, there’s more.  I wrote a post a while back that talked about the havoc that RO water caused on some metals and that I planned to install a “re-mineralizer” on the watermaker system to make the product water less acidic and taste better too, as a bonus..    I ordered the parts, well most of them anyway, before I left Beaufort NC to head to the BVI.   However, I have been so busy “whacking” moles, that I have not had time to install the new unit.  Yesterday, with most “moles” whacked back into their holes for the moment, I decided to install it.  It was actually pretty simple and only involved one additional trip to the “RO water parts store” on the Dutch side for some additional hose.  Amazingly, those sorts of stores are very well stocked here in St Martin so I was able to get the parts I needed very easily.  Voila… re-mineralizing unit installed.  “Down you pesky mole, down boy, back in your mole hole now”.   Hopefully, when I start up the watermaker today it won’t leak.  However, you know those moles…

Oh yeah, another mole that I punched down recently.  Remember the broken pin on the autopilot?   The one I replaced in 20′ seas?  Yea, that one.   Well, here’s a photo of the failed “pin”., the one on the right.  The one on the left, the “new” one complete with a set of washers designed to spread the shear load and keep the pin from breaking.  That’s the way it has been set up till now. However, Pandora’s previous owner told me that this pin had broken about once a year.  Not a great design if it’s breaking that often.  My solution to the problem was to put on larger washers to fill the gap between the quadrant attachment point and the autopilot attachment point.   By putting on larger washers I hope to spread the load more evenly and thus reduce the sheer force on the pin.  Time will tell if that works.   Here’s what the new install looks like.  Fingers crossed.   If it doesn’t work….Well, I have three spares on hand.

As I have mentioned, we are anchored in Simpson Bay, between the Dutch and French sides of the island.  We opted to enter on the French side as it’s more open and it costs much less to clear in here than on the Dutch side.   Besides,  we have a hankering for French food.   My friend Roger says, as do others, “shop on the Dutch side and eat with the French”.  Indeed.

When we entered the lagoon, we went through this impossibly narrow draw bridge.  I felt like we just squeezed through. A popular sport here is to have a drink at the St Martin Yacht Club near the Dutch bridge and watch the mega-yachts come and go through the bridge.  We watched Jade make her way toward the bridge.She looked enormous as she approached. A VERY tight fit.  I heard that sometimes they don’t make it without a scratch.  Get out the lube captain, she’s a VERY tight fit.   Can you imagine how fast the “whack a mole” game is played on a boat like Jade?  No wonder these boats have such large crews.  It takes a lot of them “whacking away” to keep up with everything that breaks on these “big girls”.   Mega yachts have mega moles, I’d expect. I can’t imagine how this tri-hulled yacht fit through. She’s a looker though.  I’ll bet she goes pretty fast through the waves. And speaking of eating, which I alluded to a few paragraphs ago.  How about this shot of Brenda’s lunch at a beach side restaurant the other day?  Not likely you will see food like this on most small beaches unless they are French.    The cup on the right has bean sprouts, caviar and crab meat.  Under that guacamole.   Yum…I won’t lie.  Brenda didn’t eat the snails. I happily obliged.  This was the view from our table.  We took our time and somehow stretched lunch out to about three hours.  What’s the rush?  “Can I get some more bread with my glass of wine please?”  “Of course, sir. Right away, sir.”   I forgot to mention, those French…Well, topless applies on this beach too.
So, I can not tell a lie,  it’s not all “whack a mole” aboard Pandora.  We still are somehow finding a way to enjoy ourselves.  I hear it’s snowing at home, like 15″ snowing.   I’ll have another glass of chard please, and a baguette.

It’s another beautiful day here in St Martin.  And, there’s plenty of wind, that’s for sure.  Our plan is to head to St Barths next week when the wind is expected to be lighter but for now, it’s quite windy so for the next few days we will just have to hang out and enjoy the scenery.

Yesterday and today we rented a car with some friends to tour the island.  Our trek took us to a number of the most popular beaches and a stop at the highest point on the island.  The traffic is remarkably heavy in town and to go just a few miles can take an hour.  Go figure.  It seems that everbody with a car is on the road all day every day moing around VERY SLOWLY.

On the way home tonight we stopped for groceries at a fabulous grocery.  The selection was amazing and the prices weren’t that different than in the US.  However, the French wines?  A lot less expensive.  How about $6 or so for a nice chardonnay?  Cheeses are good to.  That’s important as we DO need something to go with the terrific baguettes.  Did I mention that I love French bread?  It’s pretty good here.  No, make that AMAZINGLY good.

Near one of the beaches, we spied this “herd” of cows.  They look like they would be more at home in India.  They didn’t seem to be particularly concerned about being run over as the ambled across the road in front of our car. When we headed to the top of the highest mountain on the island yesterday, we were happy to learn that there was a road that went nearly to the top so we didn’t have to hike the entire way up.   However, it became very rugged for the last few miles so hoof it we did.  No, this photo wasn’t off the rugged part.  You will just have to trust me on that.  Acutally, it was a lovely walk.  It was a LONG way up.   However, once there, the view was spectacular.   And, speaking of wind, the wind, already blowing in the high 20s, really accelerated as it hit the mountain and whipped up the side.  To stand near the edge was a bit unnerving as it blasted at  me in the gusts.On our way down the mountain we stopped at a wonderful private “park”, Loterie Farm.   It’s a large beautifully laid out property featuring several places to eat as well as rooms for rent, hiking and an impressive zip line course, your choice of exciting and “estreeme”.  For lunch we ate in the “Tree Lounge” a sort of deck/treehouse.It was a very nice spot to enjoy a plate or two of tapas dishes.  And yes, I had a drink that might have come with a little umbrella.  It was pink and I can’t say that I totally recommend it.   It was colorful though.  Very colorful.   However, the environment made it taste pretty good in spite of it looking sort of like a rasberry slurply from 7/11 but with cream. The view from the tapas lounge was lovely.If you wish, you can rent a treetop cabana near the pool. Pretty chic. Nearby we saw a troop of monkeys.Some large iguanas too.  I got pretty close to this guy.  Beautifully patterned skin, scales, whatever.There was also a lovely spring fed pool complete, or not completely complete, as it were, as it was “topless “ optional for the ladies.   Welcome to France.  “Here, give that cute baby a cigarette so she will grow up to be thin like me”.

Editor:  sorry, no pictures.

While we were eating we watched the zip liners fly by.And speaking of exciting, no visit to St Martin is complete without a stop at the end of the airport runway to watch the planes take off and land.  There is a fence and beach at the very end, and I mean close to the end of the runway where folks stand with the hope, I think,  of being blown off of their feet by the jetwash of a jumbo jet’s engines at full takeoff power.

This is just how close the big jets are as their engines spool up for take off.   Note:  Objects in this photo are closer than they appear. Look at the sand blowing, along with the spectators.  “Mommy, MOMMY, I have sand in my eye!”If you think that this would be even more fun after a few drinks…  Well, you are in luck as there are bars on either side of the beach and at the very end of the runway.  There’s even a TV with the takeoff times for each flight over the bar so you can go out to the fence and grab on at just the right time.  No reason to be away from your beer for more than a few moments. Imagine something like that at Kennedy Airport in NY.  Not likely.  So much for airport security.   President Donald might have something to say about that.  You think?

Anyway, it was a long but fun day of dining in the trees and watching tourists be blown off of the beach.

Tomorrow?  It’s the old “cruising, boat repair in exotic places”.  Problems with the SSB radio and a rip in my mainsail.   Electrnics guy coming early and then off comes the main to send it out for repair.

Oh yeah, one more thing.   Remember the extension for the cockpit table?  Well, it turned out well. Here’s a shot of it in the “cocktail” position, folded up. And in time for dinner, folded out and ready for action. It’s even big enough to fit a baguette, cheese and a glass of French wine.   No, make that two glasses.  Good thing as there’s plenty finding it’s way aboard Pandora here in St Martin.

Yes, I think I’ll have another baguette.   Brenda!  How about a glass of wine to go with that?   Yes, I think there’s room on the table for that too.