It’s early morning and the sun has not yet peaked above the mountains of St Martin.  When we got here after that rough crossing from the BVI, Pandora was covered with a thick film of salt.  Now, with the brief rain showers several times each day, she’s all cleaned off.  As we are in the lee of the island, the prevailing winds blow over the mountains and cascade down into the harbor, bringing winds that in a few moments gust to what feels like gale force only to disappear after a few minutes to a light breeze.

A pretty amazing view off of our bow. The sound of the strong wind in the rigging wakes us up but that’s good as we know to get up and close the hatches against the accompaning showers.  The wind and brief rains also bring welcomed cooler temperatures so we go back to sleep.

Yesterday morning we met our friends from Kaloonamoo for breakfast at a lovely French bakery downtown in Marigot, the capital of the French side of St Martin.  Oddly, the island is roughly cut in two with one half owned by France and the other by the Dutch.  There’s a story behind this suggesting that years ago a Frenchman and a Dutch fellow, drinking from a bottle of French wine and Dutch gin respectively, begain walking from each side of the island and where they met the border between the countries was struck.  It seems that the Dutchman, drinking stronger spirits, didn’t make it as far and thus the Dutch side is smaller.   The story probably isn’t true but I like it and it’s nice to know that a war wasn’t fought over at least one border between two countries.

So, we met up with our friends Marueen and Bill at the bistro Serafina for breakfast.  It was a lovely spot and we had really amazing croissants and capuccino.  Imagine, croissants, and good ones at that, so far from France?  The choice of pastries, French bread and the like was astounding. Yum!  The selection is endless and after the scant selection of good food in the Bahamas, we don’t know where to start.   Perhaps we will just work our way down the display case.  Love this place.

Another cruiser we spent time with described Margiot as “French shabby chic” which seems apt as the buildings are colorful and lovely but with more than a bit of chipped paint.  There is an old fort overlooking the town, complete with French flag flying.   Seeing that flag made me think of the Monty Python movies with French soldiers spraying spit and insults from the ramparts.  We didn’t get close enough to see if that was happening there.

There is a very fancy marina catering to superyachts just outside of the lagoon.  I spied the yacht Bystander, owned by Elizabeth Meyer, owner of the J boat Endeavor, one of the big yachts that sailed in the America’s Cup back in the 1930s.   She was the first to restore one of those huge racing machines.  Today there are actaully more sailing than back in the 30s.  Bystander is a “tender” to her J and is designed to look like a yacht from the period.  It’s the big dark one.   Brenda and I also saw Bystander in Camden Maine a number of years ago.

The view down one of the the main street is very quaint and yes, I’ll say it, chic in a shabby sort of way.  Very charming.  And, beautiful flowers everywhere you look. Oh yes, and in orange too, if that’s your preference.  Behind a gallery we visited, this lovely courtyard with flowers everywhere. How often do you see someone walking a horse down the sidewalk, without a lead?  We did while enjoying an afternoon “baguette break”.  Did I mention the great French bread?  Pretty chic, if you ask me. Part of the charm of the town is that while it’s very European looking with lovely shops and galleries, it’s tropical and in the bright sun and wind, also looks a bit down on it’s heels.

Yes, this town, shabby chic or not is lovely to behold.  However, the food is, as my father used to say, “not too shabby”.  Yes, we are loving the French food but I supposed that’s to be expected as it is a French island, well at least half of it is.

More to come on that  and the Dutch side as we are renting a car for two days with some friends to tour the island.

More to come, shabby and chic from St Martin so stay tuned.

It’s 6:30 on Sunday morning and we are anchored off of the capital of French St Martin, Grande Case.   The couple we buddy-boated with for the crossing yesterday, Free Rein suggested that we stop here as it was less congested than the harbor off of Simpson Bay Lagoon, Marigot, on the French side of the island.   We were both concerned about approaching the anchorage in the dark and trying to find a spot to anchor among all the boats.

It was a very long day yesterday motoring into the wind for the ENTIRE day and then some.   We left North Sound Virgin Gorda at 05:30 and didn’t drop the hook here until 19:30, a very long day indeed.  Actually, we motored 14 hours, not to put too fine a point on it.  I guess that was to be expected as we covered over 90 miles.  Did I mention that we had to motor into the wind and waves the whole way?  Into the easterly trades?  Into the waves?  Brenda loved it.   Yahoo, bring it on!  NOT!!!  “Sounds a lot like a CLM, career limiting move, to us Bob.)

Actually, a few times the “bring it on” had to do with my fetching a bucket for her.  Happily, if that’s the right word to describe her not actually puking, she never actually used the bucket.  I felt sorry for her.   If you have ever been seasick, you know the feeling.  At first you think you are going to die and later you are afraid you won’t.  Not the best way to get the most of a day out on the water.

All I can say is that St Martin had better be good, really good, for my sake.  Can you say want to eat some French cheeses, wines and baguettes?  Yum.

We had to motor into the wind and waves the entire way because the wind nearly always blows from the east and that’s where you have to go to make your way from the BVI to St Martin.  After that, the island chain curves to the south so you can generally sail both ways after St Martin.  Not so from the BVI.  Well, at least the worst is over for us.   And, the remaining islands between here in Grenada are much closer, usually only about 20 to 40 miles apart.

Well, we made it, we’re here and it’s beautiful.  Here’s the view that greeted me as I peeked topside first thing today.We arrived last Monday in the BVI and have been pretty busy getting settled and meeting fellow cruisers through the Salty Dawg Sailing Association.  They had a party at Foxy’s, the famous watering hole on Jose Van Dyke, BVI.  About 50 of us enjoyed an evening together there on Thursday night.  As part of the festivities, a bottle or rum, actually shots of that rum, were auctioned off to benefit the local school on the island.  This is the famous Foxy himself telling a story about the charity.  He’s quite a character mon.After our visit with some fellow Dawgs, we took Pandora up to North Sound, the most eastern point of the BVI to position ourselves for the run to St Martin.  We stopped ashore for a drink at the Bitter End Yacht Club.  As we were making our way toward North Sound we were passed by Necker Bell, the 100’ catamaran owned by Richard Branson.  You know, the “Virgin” guy.  He owns Necker Island.Well, bright and early on Saturday we headed east.  Really bumpy.  It’s that whold into the wind thing. Before I break, remember the 31 years ago we were last here in Tortola? Actually, I wrote that we were here 32 years ago.  Well, as usual, Brenda’s math skills are better than mine as it was 31 years ago.

When we last visited Tortola we stayed at the Sugar Mill Hotel for a week so on this visit we just HAD to have dinner there again.  It was terrific and is as expensive now as we remembered it being 31 years ago.When we were there in the “olden days” this pool wasn’t and the rooms weren’t air conditioned.  Now it is and they are.  We heard the surf in the distance each night.  It was beautiful.We arrived early and enjoyed a drink on one of the lovely covered decks overlooking the ocean. Lovely dining room in the ruins of a sugar mill.  Brenda’s at the far back right table.So, we are here in St Martin and it’s time to make some new memories.  Yes, let’s make some quickly so yesterday’s rough crossing fades from Brenda’s memories.  It was a calm crossing…It was a calm crossing…

Ok, it was actually a real slog getting here and I am afraid that it’s going to take a lot of new and really excellent memories…

Perhaps if I bring on the baguettes, French wines, cheeses, pastries….  Yes, that will be a step in the right direction.

Well, we made it, we’re aboard Pandora in Tortola and all is well.  The sun is just about to peak over the eastern end of the harbor here in West End and it’s going to be a beautiful day.I have to say that I am pretty pooped as yesterday was a very LONG day.  On Sunday we winterized the house and, of course, set more mouse traps.  In fact, I have set so many traps set that we now have a “mouse dedicated” jar of peanut butter.  Brenda saw me “double dip” the knife into that jar at least once and… Well, let’s just say that I won’t be using THAT JAR to make sandwiches any time soon as it’s now indelibly marked “mouse contaminated material. NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION”.  Ok Brenda, I’ll go along with that.

After the final bit of water was blown out of the domestic water pipes and the thermostat turned down, our next door neighbor Janet drove us to the airport. We had decided to stay at a hotel on Sunday because there was just no way that we’d be able to get the house ready and make it to the airport in time for an “O dark 30” flight yesterday.  Conveniently, Janet has parents up near the airport and offered to drive us to our hotel.  Thanks Janet for being a good neighbor.

Our final act before leaving for Tortola was to meet our friends LeaAnn and Garrett, who came to our hotel room to join us for a light supper of cheese, crackers, soup and, of course, wine.   You know, all the basic food groups.  LeaAnn is Brenda’s oldest and best friend.  Well, to be clear, she’s not Brenda’s “oldest” friend but she has known her the longest, since she was 8 years old.  That’s a VERY OLD friend and it seems is getting older by the day, but we won’t think about that right now, will we?

Anyway, we had a great time and it was a nice way to toast us on our way for the rest of the winter.

Airport hotel or not, we still had to get up at an obscene hour to catch our 05:50 flight.  But we made it and now we are here and “here” is just beautiful

A lovely view greeted me today as I had my first sip of coffee.  And a pelican stopped by to say hello.I am dragging a bit today so I decided to make 50/50 coffee.  “Watch out Brenda.  Bob’s had caffeine!”   Hopefully, it won’t be too bad.  The problem is that when I drink “real” coffee the feeling that I get isn’t particularly good, unlike our son Christoper who says that “coffee makes him normal”.    For me, I get the same sort of feeling that I had the first time I tried to work up the guts to call Brenda the first time to ask her for a date when we were Juniors in High school.   I was really excited but felt a little queasy.

And speaking of Brenda, which I do from time to time, and the title of this post, the whole “32 years and we’re back” thing, it was about this time all those years ago that Brenda and I were last in Tortola together.

I have to say that it really hit me as we landed at Tortola’s Beef Island yesterday and all those memories came flooding back.   Brenda was pregnant with our son Christopher, the “normal with caffeine Christopher”, our second.  She was pretty far along and we decided to head away for a week because we were pretty convinced that once we had two children WE WOULD NEVER GET ANOTHER VACATION ALONE AGAIN.  Happily, that turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration and I can’t believe that we are finally back here again after all those years.

Lucky us.  Lucky me!

Well, I’d better sign off for now as the caffeine is kicking in and I am having trouble typing.   I’m pretty excited too but my stomach isn’t quite as queasy yet as the first time I summoned up the nerve to call Brenda.

If I have a second cup.  I might have to join these two fisherman working the shallows with a throw net.  Yes, a bit random perhaps but I have to use up all that energy.  Yes, pretty excited.  It’s good to be back in Tortola together again after all those years.

What a spot.

It’s Sunday morning and later today Brenda and I will “check out” of our home and check into an airport hotel for the night before we catch our flight on Monday to Tortola.  And that flight leaves at “0 dark 30”, the tender hour of 05:50. Early, early.

When I returned home about a week ago from deliverying Pandora to Tortola I began setting traps around the house with the hope of catching any mice that might be planning to take over once we winterize the house and leave.

I have to tell you that I have been astounded with the number of mice that I have caught compliments of Victor. You know, the Victor mouse traps? Those little wooden traps?  Yes, the ones that are so impossibly hard to set without “catching” your finger.  Yes, those traps.

Anyway, at first I set about 4.  One each in the kitchen, Brenda’s studio downstairs, in the basement and up in the attic above the garage. Well, let me tell you, it turns out that there was a “regiment” of mice waiting to invade once we left.  I have caught mice nearly every day since returning home, sometimes’s more than one.

I caught them in the laundry, downstairs bath and even in the kitchen behind the toaster oven (Brenda just loved that. How about a nice piece of toast Brenda?). However, the largest number, upwards of 8 or so, were caught way up high on a shelf in the garage where I store towels to dry the car.

Yes, I dry the cars EVERY time I return home if it’s been raining. And yes, I know that’s pretty anal. However, I’m proud of anal as it works for me.  So, way up on the shelf I have been catching mice every single day and that’s a lot of mice.

When we first left the house five years ago, we discovered, to Brenda’s abject horror, that mice had eaten into everything edible in the pantry while we were away. So, every year since then we have set traps and move all the staples to the refrigerator.

So now you know, if you leave your home for months at a time, THE MICE WILL COME!  Or, to put it another way and to torture a phrase “set a better mousetrap and mice will beat a pathway to your door”.  And they do…

Perhaps more than knowing that we share our home with myriad mice is knowing that the largest concentration of these furry pests is on a shelf that’s 6’off of the ground in the garage. For some reason, this makes me think of zip lining but I’ll get back to that in a moment.

I can just imagine us blowing out all the pipes, putting antifreeze in the toilets, sink traps, washing machine and dishwasher, turning down the heat and shutting the front door…

And THEN, once the front door clicks shut…The mice come streaming in with high pitched little cries of joy. Can’t you just imagine them climbing all over the furniture and swinging from the chandeliers?  I guess that’s why all of this makes me think of zip lining.

“So, where, where, where are you going with this Bob?”    Well, I’m thinking Antiqua of course and zip-lining through the rain forest canopy.   Yes, that’s what I want to do. Why should it just be those little mousies in CT that are having all of the fun?

We hope that our travels this winter will take us to Antigua, 160 miles south and east from the BVI.  And there I want to try my hand at zip-lining through the rain forest canopy. vYes, that’s what I’ll do while thinking about all the fun that the mice will be having in our home while we are away.

Check out this short video.  Looks like fun Brenda? Right?But first those little mousies are going to have to get past the nearly 20 baited traps. Here mousie, mousie.  How about some nice peanut butter.

I wonder if mice have peanut allergies?  Hmmm…

Time to put out more traps and get ready to go.

Here mousie, mousie…  Party time…

(editor:)  No mice were harmed in the making of this blog post.   Well, not the post itself…  And if they did, they deserved it.

It’s only three days until we winterize our home here in CT and head to Tortola to join Pandora for a few months of sailing in the Caribbean.

Our plan is to stay in the BVI only long enough to become acclimated again to life aboard and then, with the first weather window, make our way to St Martin where we will join up with our friends Maureen and Bill aboard Kaloonamo (I’ll never figure out how to spell that name).  We have “buddyboated” with them for weeks/months at a time over the years and are looking forward to spending time with them again.

They have spent the last few years sailing in the Caribbean and usually summer in Trinidad.   They are great fun and know their way around the islands which will make it easy for us to just tag along and enjoy the ride.   Can you say “tour director” Maureen?

When I arrived in the BVI after my trip down from Beaufort, I spent some time cruising the area with my crew.  The deal was that if they did the run with me, I’d spend time with them cruising once we arrived.

It was a fun time and a few of my recent posts are about the places we visited together during that week, prior to heading our separate ways.

The BVI is a wonderful area to cruise but I have always thought of it as the “charter mecca” that it is.  In fact, I have been told that something like 90% of all boat charters are out of that area and just about every boat you see is a charter boat.

With that comes a very different sort of “cruiser”.  Unlike the folks that we have hung out with over the years, those who visit the BVI for a holiday seem to us to be very focused on “living large” while they are there.

I wrote about our recent visit to Norman Island which is perhaps an apt example of the sort of place that the BVI seems to be for many folks on holiday, a sort of “aquatic pub crawl”.   I do expect that my description will elicit some strong words from those that don’t agree.  What can I say?  It’s just a first impression.

Over the years Brenda and I have certainly participated in many “sundowner” cocktail events ourselves but in the BVI this activity has it’s own “twist” as witnessed by this photo of a young couple sleeping it off after a few too many at Willy T’s.  This is the sort of “sundowner” that Brenda and I prefer.   This photo was taken at a recent Salty Dawg Sailing Association event.   BTW, if you enjoy cruising, you owe it to yourself to consider joining this group.  Yes, plenty of wine flowing but somehow it’s just different and more our speed.  Perhaps it’s our “semi advanced age”.

In any event, the BVI is great fun but there aren’t quite as many cruising types there as we expect to see as we head south to those islands less frequented by the charter set.

However, our plan of heading south means that we will first have to make the nearly 100 mile run from the eastern end of the BVI to St Martin and the run takes us directly into the prevailing easterly trade winds.   We will work with the weather router Chris Parker with the hope that we will be able to find a decent window to make the overnight crossing.  Unfortunately, it’s likely to be “uphill” all the way as the trades blow from the east nearly all of the time.  I am hopeful that Brenda will have had an opportunity to become acclimated to life aboard again and you know how much she loves overnight passages.

I expect that it’s going to be somewhat uncomfortable for her but I am pretty confident that it won’t be nearly as nsaty as the conditions that the crew of the Dagmar Aaen encountered in the Southern Ocean.   Remember the video that I posted from the gale we encountered in our run to the BVI?  Well, that was a mere zephyr compared to this.  As you watch this sort piece, notice how one of the crew’s life vest is inflated after a particularly large wave washes over the ship. Boy oh boy, if we have anything even a little bit like those conditions as we make our run to St Martin, it will be the LAST time Brenda steps aboard Pandora.  Yes, that would be what my son Rob might refer to as a “terminal CLM” (Career Limiting Move).

Anyway, I won’t think about that right now and will try to be optimistic that we will not encounter any conditions like that.  Besides, we have Chris Parker to guide us.

It’s up to you Chris….

So, time is short for us to get everything ready to “fly the coop”, “audios amigos”, “get out of Dodge” and head down to the BVI.  Lots on the to-do list including winterizing the water system so we won’t have any worries about freezing pipes and I’ll also be setting a mess of mousetraps.    We have found in the past that when we move out they move in.   And don’t forget about preparing tax forms to send off to our accountant as we won’t be back till after tax day.   There’s no end to the details.    Ugh…

Anyway, I’m getting anxious just thinking about everything that needs to happen.

The clock’s ticking….

Pandora, we’ll be there soon.  Stand by to accept boarders.