Not an accident, carelessness!

Tuesday at noon
Just as I was thinking, that I didn't have any material for the blog (after all, the most exciting creatures on the boat yard are chickens and dogs), I heard a scream: "Nada, Nada!" I ran up onto the deck, and on the stern, where the scream was coming from. Polde was sitting there with his head leaning forward, blood running down his face, his clothing  and then collecting in a paddle around him. There were two large slashes on the top of his head. I grabbed the boat's first aid, squeezed an antibiotic cream on the wound, piled a gauze on the top and a tight bandage over to stop the bleeding.
The boat yard worker Kelly drove us to the nearest medical center only a few blocks away from the boat yard.
We made a mistake coming in through the main instead the emergency entrance. We told the receptionist, what had happened and she calmed us down, saying: "It will be just a little while, the doctor is with the patient."
As we all know, a little while can be five minutes or a whole life. Don't we always say, that life is short? There was nobody in the waiting room, when we came in and we didn't know, that patients were waiting outside, preferring the shade of the tree over an air conditioned waiting room.
A little lady, neatly dressed in a baby blue dress came in and seeing my tears of fright, said to me: "Pray, God will help". But the line for the "God" was long and we didn't get our turn until four o'clock.
As modest and unimpressive the waiting room was, the emergency room shined with cleanliness, everybody, except Polde and me, dressed in light blue doctors' suits and caps. Young doctor stitched Polde's slashes, changing surgical gloves every time, he had to move away from the operating table. Two students observed his work.
The drama was over.

When we had our little ones on board, the only strickt rule was: no climbing on the dinghy davits, that also serve as a support for the solar panels and two airfoil blades for the wind generator.
Polde ignored the rule, stepped on davits for a small repair on them, when the gust turned the blades into the weapon. Fortunately the blades didn't damage his pritty face.

I am including the medical bill: The doctor's fee $18.50, x-ray $44.50, antibiotic and painkiller $5.40



 Now, who is going to do the blue jobs?

St. Lucia, late October 2011

St. Lucia greeted us nicely, as always. We have been coming here for some years now. At the airport the same people are holding on to their jobs, customs waving us through, even though we are loaded with the sailing equipment. Sailors are important part of St. Lucian's tourism, officials are making it as easy as possible for us.
One of the taxi drivers calling out to us: "Welcome back!" It wasn't his turn to drive, so he helped loading our bags into another cab. It feels good to be back, good to be welcomed.

No hurricanes travelled over St. Lucia the passed summer. The boat was as we left it in spring. There was not enough rain to wash off the yellow dust, that accumulated into a thick layer.

First morning shower cools off the air. The boat yard rooster screeches out a song of relief, but the rain drops covered the dust only to rise again as a steam.

                               There is a lot of work to be done!

Mayra and Marcel

'NADA' was lifted out of the water once more and put on the stands. She served us well this sailing season through some calm seas and some storms and high seas. Now she will rest a few month.

We walked the boat yard to see what was old and what was new. Some boats were still being worked on, the owners hoping to launch them next season. 'MARC LE NOVICE', the most polished sailboat on the boatyard and the only one with the grass growing underneath, had a staircase built to the deck. In the shade of his boat, Marcel enjoyed the midday rest. He is 92 years old and his wife Mayra is 89. He is French and she is British. Their sailboat hasn't been in the water a few years. Their home is in France, where they raised their seven children, one of them, Marc, a fisherman, was lost at sea in a storm. Their second home is Rodney Bay's boat yard. Here they work on their sailboat, paint her over and over, polish her, love her.

Sailing back to the the home port

We are on Montserrat in a Little Bay, the only anchorage on the island, that has been greatly effected by volcanic eruption. Since then life had moved to the north part of the island, where the smell of sulfur and volcanic ashes can not reach. Every time we stop here or sail by, we see new buildings high up in the hills, the sign of people's determination.

For us this is a resting place between Nevis and Guadeloupe, stretch too long to make it in a day and this time too windy and wavy to sail during the night. Except for the fishing boats rolling on the north swell, the bay looks deserted, quiet with only a few buildings overlooking the bay from the shore. From one of them, we are getting a strong Internet signal. Time to blog?

It is not easy looking back to all the bays we stopped, remembering them all. They all have their own characteristics, that in a month or two fade into the word Caribbean: turquoise water, blooming plants, sunsets and bright stars.



Approaching Deshaies, Guadeloupe before the storm




Close to home port



Fishing

I caught enough fish this sailing season to have a fish meal every day. Twice I persuaded Polde to eat a snapper. That was a 100% improvement from last year and he was proud of it.

Here are some fish I caught, ate or return to their world.



Mahogany snappers




Trunk fish





Barracuda




Trunk fish

 


Sting ray, 8 lb

Dolphin fish (mahi mahi)

Horse eyed jack



A week with Eva, Chris, Nina and Maya

Valentin left on the 17th of February and two days later Eva arrived with her family. What a joy it was seeing our little girls again!
They love the beach, so we stayed in Grand Case. During the day they swam off the boat all the way to the white sandy beach and played there.
Every Tuesday evening the vendors from different St.Martin towns come to Grand Case, so our young family had a night out, shopping and treating themselves to local foods.
It was all too short, after a week we sailed to Baie Friar and spent a few hours snorkeling there, and then on to Baie de Marigot. They flew home on the 26th.

Eva, Maya, Nina and Chris

Grand Case, St. Martin

We spent more time in Grand Case then anywhere else. The bay is beautiful with white sandy beach. The town is inland within walking distance from the beach, that is lined with many restaurants, most of them serving French cuisine.
Valentin treated us to a perfect meal in one of them, L'Escapade. Grand Case is a culinary center of St. Martin and comes to life after dark, people are driving from everywhere to have a meal here, and leaving convinced, that it was worth it.

To be close to the Internet on a shore we anchored in a very shallow, we had barely enough water left under our keel. But it is all sand there and touching the bottom would not have been a problem.

I thought it was rather unusual to catch large snappers in a nine feet of water. And yet I caught five of them the first night and more through the week we stayed there, all mahogany and one yellowtail.

As on most islands (but not all) public transportation is fast and inexpensive. It is a good way to see the island and meet people.
Walking is another way, and one day we stretched our legs by walking over the hill to Baie Marcel to check out the marina there and to see, weather we could sail into this rather small bay.

The scenery there is beautiful, but the beach was a bit crowded because of the hotels around it. Music was sounding from different beach bars, it was before noon and they were busy already. If you like action, that is the place to go.

Grand Case shopping mall

Nature playing tricks on us?