Last year we got to spend Christmas with our daughter and her family in Hong Kong. Even though we were in a foreign country, Christa had gone all out to decorate the house and make it a special Christmas for her family. We had a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoyed the time with our grandchildren, Quinn and Conner.
This year Christmas was on the French island of Martinique. It just isn’t the same waking up Christmas morning without kids’ wide eyes in anticipation of all the presents under the tree. Also, the sunshine and 82-degree weather made it a little different.
None-the-less, Meryl fixed a wonderful Christmas breakfast that we ate out in the cockpit while watching the 100s of boats at anchor around us. Our friends, Marce and Jack, had invited us over for Christmas dinner on their boat, Escape Velocity (EV). After negotiating some tricky reefs in the dingy, we saw Escape Velocity floating at anchor and were greeted with big “hello waves” from Marce and Jack. After some of Jack’s killer Dark and Stormy’s, we feasted on Marce’s traditional Philadelphia Sticky Rolls, vegetable curry, samosas, and chocolate cheesecake, followed by wonderful conversation with great friends. As this was one of our first Christmas' without family we appreciated EV's company all the more. Overall, it was a quiet and reflective Christmas. EV was going to sail straight to Puerto Rico and then on to the Panama Canal, so it was most likely the last time we’d see them for a very long time. Saying goodbye to cruising friends is one of the most difficult things about this lifestyle. We only hope we’ll cross paths once again somewhere.
The next few days on Flying Cloud were spent working on boat projects. We finally got an electrician (actually two by the time we were done) to come out and test the batteries. The prognosis was that our very expensive Lifeline AGM batteries were dead. We tried to get some warranty replacement batteries from the local Lifeline distributor, but ours are a weird tall and thin design and it would take them 6 to 8 weeks to ship them in. We finally made arrangements with Lifeline in California to ship new batteries to St. Martin for when we returned from our trip to Hong Kong in February.
Another project was chasing down an insidious leak that had been on the boat since the day we bought it. I had noticed salt deposits (not good) on the headliner above the port side master berth window. We should have tackled that when we were commissioning the boat in Florida, but it just got lost in the plethora of more immediate projects.
This time we noticed water on the the teak under the window, and worse, water in the compartment directly underneath. With no choice, we started the arduous task of taking down the headliner and backer board, which was discolored, and then trying to disassemble the port light, which proved too difficult to tackle at the time. The more I looked at the location of the discoloration on the headliner I realized the leak was probably not coming from the port light but from the thru bolts securing the aft port stanchion. As I started to undo the bolts a couple disintegrated in my hand, a sure sign of salt water intrusion. A horizontal piece of board that attached the headliner to the deck was also rotted out so that would have to be replaced.
The fix for the leak was simple: clean out the holes and reseal. I have lots of sealants on the boat, but every time I go to use one it seems to have dried up. As usual, this was a simple project becoming more complicated. I hopped in the dingy and went ashore walking from chandlery to chandlery to find a small tube of sealant. Apparently they don’t exist in Le Marin, so I bought the big tube and the handle apparatus to push it out the tube (for a small fortune). Had more luck with the board when I found a carpentry shop in the ship yard that had the right size marine plywood for the backing piece, and actually cut and shaped it in about 20 minutes. All this with me not speaking a word of French and them not speaking more than three words of English.
Went back to the boat about $100 poorer, but with everything I needed to finish the project. Everything went well with the caulking and the leak was sealed. Now the hard part, to reattach the extremely fragile headliner to the veneer board. I found a left over can of spray adhesive and sprayed the back of the headliner and the veneer. Then Meryl and I very carefully applied the old headliner to the veneer board. Next I grabbed my staple gun to staple the edges only to find I had exactly 10 staples left in the right size. Naturally there were no staples in Le Marin in 3/16” size, so we very carefully spaced the staples around the edges and hoped it would hold. Reassembling took a couple of hours but we were back in business. I should have fixed it years ago in Florida when it would have been a easy job.
Another long overdue project was also tackled, the water catcher. We had seen a really well-designed water catcher on a boat called Spirit of Argo. It held up in 30+ knot winds and did a great job of catching the near horizontal rain in the squalls. We went over an talked with April and Cain on Spirit of Argo. They were from Brighton, England, and ironically knew our good friends Steve and Carol on Inamorata. Carol had worked for April when she had a marine canvas shop in Brighton. We found the fabric April recommended (Odyssey) in the canvas store at Le Phare Blue in Grenada, and got the additional fittings we needed at various chandleries around Le Marin. It took Meryl about a week to finish the rain catcher, but we still don’t know how well it works since it hasn’t rained since we finished the project.
After all the projects were completed we decided to take Monday the 30th off and just wander the back streets of Le Marin. It’s mainly a large charter boat center with two huge marinas filled with charters. But once you get away from the waterfront road, it’s a very interesting town with a definite French influence.
We were especially impressed with the artistic graffiti on the walls that resembled Picasso more than typical graffiti. We discovered a church graveyard overlooking the harbor that was terraced down to the waterfront road. Most of the graves were in crypts above the ground and it was interesting to see photos of the departed on top of the graves; it made you wonder what their lives were like and the experiences they had on the island.
We enjoyed our stay in Le Marin, but now that Escape Velocity was gone and our projects completed we had little reason to hang around so we decided to motor out of the inner bay and over to the picturesque village of Sainte-Anne, about five miles away.
This year Christmas was on the French island of Martinique. It just isn’t the same waking up Christmas morning without kids’ wide eyes in anticipation of all the presents under the tree. Also, the sunshine and 82-degree weather made it a little different.
None-the-less, Meryl fixed a wonderful Christmas breakfast that we ate out in the cockpit while watching the 100s of boats at anchor around us. Our friends, Marce and Jack, had invited us over for Christmas dinner on their boat, Escape Velocity (EV). After negotiating some tricky reefs in the dingy, we saw Escape Velocity floating at anchor and were greeted with big “hello waves” from Marce and Jack. After some of Jack’s killer Dark and Stormy’s, we feasted on Marce’s traditional Philadelphia Sticky Rolls, vegetable curry, samosas, and chocolate cheesecake, followed by wonderful conversation with great friends. As this was one of our first Christmas' without family we appreciated EV's company all the more. Overall, it was a quiet and reflective Christmas. EV was going to sail straight to Puerto Rico and then on to the Panama Canal, so it was most likely the last time we’d see them for a very long time. Saying goodbye to cruising friends is one of the most difficult things about this lifestyle. We only hope we’ll cross paths once again somewhere.
 |
| These local racing boats, which weave in and out of the anchorage at high speeds, are sailed expertly by the locals. |
The next few days on Flying Cloud were spent working on boat projects. We finally got an electrician (actually two by the time we were done) to come out and test the batteries. The prognosis was that our very expensive Lifeline AGM batteries were dead. We tried to get some warranty replacement batteries from the local Lifeline distributor, but ours are a weird tall and thin design and it would take them 6 to 8 weeks to ship them in. We finally made arrangements with Lifeline in California to ship new batteries to St. Martin for when we returned from our trip to Hong Kong in February.
Another project was chasing down an insidious leak that had been on the boat since the day we bought it. I had noticed salt deposits (not good) on the headliner above the port side master berth window. We should have tackled that when we were commissioning the boat in Florida, but it just got lost in the plethora of more immediate projects.
 |
| The stainless backing plate on the left of the photo was the one leaking. You can also see the new board for attaching the headliner to the deck. |
This time we noticed water on the the teak under the window, and worse, water in the compartment directly underneath. With no choice, we started the arduous task of taking down the headliner and backer board, which was discolored, and then trying to disassemble the port light, which proved too difficult to tackle at the time. The more I looked at the location of the discoloration on the headliner I realized the leak was probably not coming from the port light but from the thru bolts securing the aft port stanchion. As I started to undo the bolts a couple disintegrated in my hand, a sure sign of salt water intrusion. A horizontal piece of board that attached the headliner to the deck was also rotted out so that would have to be replaced.
The fix for the leak was simple: clean out the holes and reseal. I have lots of sealants on the boat, but every time I go to use one it seems to have dried up. As usual, this was a simple project becoming more complicated. I hopped in the dingy and went ashore walking from chandlery to chandlery to find a small tube of sealant. Apparently they don’t exist in Le Marin, so I bought the big tube and the handle apparatus to push it out the tube (for a small fortune). Had more luck with the board when I found a carpentry shop in the ship yard that had the right size marine plywood for the backing piece, and actually cut and shaped it in about 20 minutes. All this with me not speaking a word of French and them not speaking more than three words of English.
Went back to the boat about $100 poorer, but with everything I needed to finish the project. Everything went well with the caulking and the leak was sealed. Now the hard part, to reattach the extremely fragile headliner to the veneer board. I found a left over can of spray adhesive and sprayed the back of the headliner and the veneer. Then Meryl and I very carefully applied the old headliner to the veneer board. Next I grabbed my staple gun to staple the edges only to find I had exactly 10 staples left in the right size. Naturally there were no staples in Le Marin in 3/16” size, so we very carefully spaced the staples around the edges and hoped it would hold. Reassembling took a couple of hours but we were back in business. I should have fixed it years ago in Florida when it would have been a easy job.
 |
| Our rain catcher looks a little weird but I can guarantee it will supply us with lots of clean rainwater. |
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| Caraibe Marine on the left is one of the better chanderlies in the West Indies. |
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| Some people say this is graffiti, I say it's art. |
We were especially impressed with the artistic graffiti on the walls that resembled Picasso more than typical graffiti. We discovered a church graveyard overlooking the harbor that was terraced down to the waterfront road. Most of the graves were in crypts above the ground and it was interesting to see photos of the departed on top of the graves; it made you wonder what their lives were like and the experiences they had on the island.
We enjoyed our stay in Le Marin, but now that Escape Velocity was gone and our projects completed we had little reason to hang around so we decided to motor out of the inner bay and over to the picturesque village of Sainte-Anne, about five miles away.
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