Times out........

Well the first part of the year can be put down to Chikungunya. Chikungunya head and shoulders knees and  hands! Knees and hands! In fact any part of the body that has previously been injured and any movable joint......they all hurt. Needless to say progress on any jobs has been slow.

Tristan did manage to climb the mast after a hefty dose of paracetamol, to refit the replacement staysail stay and the rebuilt furler. We did accept help. Thank you Astrid and Bjorn. 

I've been varnishing, just for a change, and decided to sand off the transom. It's taking a long time and a lot of frustration to rebuild the layers of varnish especially in humid conditions, before we apply the new name stencil.

Once you have stopped for a while, it's hard to leave and to get going again. Compound that with Chikungunya and you begin to feel like you'll never be able to function normally again. 

We were invited to go sailing last weekend on Rosie by  Paula and Keith. After a moment of guilt for not keeping up with jobs, we jumped at the chance. It was the best weekend we have had for a long time.


  Perfect weather, excellent company, beautiful anchorage, a roaring sail and turtles!

We  passed through the bridge by TOBY at 0900 and headed out into Marigot Bay. There was no wind and flat seas, so we had a gentle relaxing motor around the south west of St Martin, past Simpson Bay and Phillipsburg in the south and out towards Ile Fouche which is part of St Barts. 

The horse shoe bay wasn't too crowded and as soon as we arrived  we all  went for a swim. It had been such a long time...I miss snorkelling. The coral reef near the shoe was good.....gorgonian corals, huge parrot fish and turtles. Perfect.

Tristan also got to sleep with a leggy blonde!

The next morning we left in gusty winds and headed towards Tintamare under sail. With the help of George, the autopilot....well until Rosie decided to turn off the 12V supply and we did a 180. That's the trouble with blondes!  

As we approached Tintamare  a dolphin crossed the bow.....never to be seen again!  Keith gave us a guided tour of Tintamare. The old airstrip used  as a refuelling station during the Second World War, reclaimed by nature. The remnents  of planes, boilers  and dwellings. Once a hectic community, now overgrown. 

After a relaxing lunch, kindly cooked by Paula we motored back  around St Martin. We had circumnavigated St Martin in 24 hours and got our sea legs back. Both of us are ready to go sailing.

We needed  a big kick up the backside to get going, but we are in no rush to get anywhere. It's another day in paradise and we need to enjoy it.  That's what we are doing.