Sunday 7 September 2014

Time Out


After three difficult months, my Mum died but I was pleased to be able to spend time with her. It was also good to be able to spend quality time with all of my girls. I have missed them all. 

Our travels were on put hold, but that was fine as Tristan had plenty of jobs to do on Meriva. 

I flew back to St. Martin towards the end of August......as soon as it turned cooler and the summer was over in the UK.....pure coincidence! 

Walking out of the aeroplane at Barbados for my connecting plane to St Martin was like stepping into a sauna. I love that feeling but not the sweltering wait for a delayed Liat connection. Tristan met me at the deserted airport in St Martin, with a car and we checked into a hotel for two nights. We had been apart for three and a half months and both been leading polar opposite lives.

It was fantastic to be back together and we spent two days being tourists.  Being able to walk I to the warm tropical sea is my idea of heaven. Some of the beaches were very busy but if you  go to the gated communities you are allowed pass through to gain access to the beaches, so we went to Anse Marcel and Baie aux Prunes where we had the beach virtually to ourselves. You kind of have to visit a bay named after prunes....you expect to see crinkled sunburnt people who have overdone the sun worshipping. 

En route we looked at two beaches which from a distance the sea was brown. As we looked closer....they were covered by Sargassum which had obviously drifted  with ocean currents and been deposited on the beaches, which is unusual in the Caribbean. The seaweed floats around as huge rafts and provides a refuge for marine species including a nursery habitat for turtles,sharks, rays, eels and fish. These rafts of seaweed are typically in the Sargasso Sea off Bermuda. I'm looking forward to seeing them next year but to go through the centre of the ocean gyre is under discussion!

I was apprehensive about going back to the boat yard and the change to living in a small space with no loo, but it didn't last for long. As soon as I stepped onto Meriva, I was home.  


Tristan berated me for cleaning after he had spent serveral days cleaning, but it was making my mark and I had to return things to their proper place!  Everyone was really friendly in the boatyard, it reminds me of the AWF in Tenerife, and I am enjoying returning to my life as a sea gypsy. 



Tristan had been busy with  constructing frames for the boat......but still found time to make two beautiful tables. One to extend the work space in the galley, and one for the cockpit. They are beautiful works of art!




It's easy living here. St Martin has everything you need for the boat, tax free and the supermarkets are typically French so it's brilliant, but the work must go on, it's not a holiday!

Tristan is busy designing the mast step and was leaping around the boat when he cracked the problem.... Tomorrow  he starts the manual work!


I am slowly getting back into revarnishing the whole boat which has suffered from the UV.  It looked horrendous when I first saw the cracking and peeling but I think the mistake was made when I had to use International Varnish in the Canaries. I was unable to get Epiphanes until I got to the Caribbean and that seems to fair better in the high UV. 
It's an experience spending the summer in the Caribbean. Very very hot and humid and I certainly appreciate the electric fans which are on all day and night. They also help, along with mosquito coils to keep the biting things at bay. 
Everyone keeps an eye out for the tropical storm development over the Cape Verdes and for the location of Saharan dust, which is something I'd not followed before. We are well tied down and 
' hurricane prepared'  so fingers crossed.