November 14 – December 04, 2023; 11733 nm and 1719 days after departure from La Rochelle

Oui très bien! Yep, you guessed right! We made it to a French island. We were back in Saint Martin. The paradise for cruisers who have been away from European groceries for a loooong time. There the (food addicted, like us😋) cruiser could satisfy all his desires. St. Martin was food heaven for gourmets and boat heaven for parts. What a perfect symbiosis😇. We were very excited when we arrived. Baguette, saucisson sec, paté, croissant almande, du vin… all that immediately popped up in our head letting our mouths salivate.
However, the trip to St. Martin was double edged. Though we were super fast (less than 4 days, we thought we would need almost 6) it was a tough and bumpy ride! For the first time since we lived on the boat I was really badly sea sick. That included feeding the fishies and feeling like shit²😩. Even always sea sick resistant El Capitano was not feeling too good. It started just after we reached the north tip of Aruba. The waves were kind of crazy. It felt they were coming from all directions. I guess that was the reason that our and especially my equilibrium sense went out of control. On top of that came the unpleasant fact that we couldn’t lay down. Normally, if I feel a little sickish my safe place is either being at the helm and look into the distance or I recline. But this time we both could’t sleep as we felt worse in a horizantal position. So the first night we were both sitting outside in the cockpit, trying not to get wet from the splashing waters and hoping to catch some rest. I was just happy that our wind vane was happily doing all the work. Even close haul with 25 knots of wind it steered Altimate easy through the uncomfortable waves. Fortunately El Capitano was feeling much better in the early morning hours. I needed another whole day to feel almost normal again.

Apart from the unpleasant feelings of being sick the trip was, sailing wise, really good. El Capitano, my new weather hero, did a great job of picking the right weather window. I know, it does sound crazy now as I felt so shitty but it was actually a perfect window. A tropical disturbance in the west Caribbean made sure that the wind shifted a bit southerly. El Capitano also considered the current which could be more than 2 knots and beating against wouldn’t have been fun. So our route was kind of an arch, first heading north and then slowly turning east, while the disturbance was drifting north-east, shifting the easterly winds more and more to the south. Catching the current in our favour and still taking advantage of the wind of the disturbance. The forecast said it would blow the first two days and then gradually ease off with the wind turning south. We were expecting to motor the last day or two. We were lucky. The wind kept blowing 20 to 25 knots which was great but as well slowly turned south so we didn’t have to touch our heavy reefed sails at all. We were flying! Ok on the other hand it was a very wet and bumpy ride. Water was coming over all the time and we even got water inside through our dorade ventilator. (They make sure you always have fresh air inside the boat, but they are constructed in a way that no water can run through them-normally.) That never happened before! Also, Altimate was covered in salt. She seemed to enjoy diving into the waves and getting splashed by every other wave. We probably could have collected our own Altimate Caribbean salt from the deck. But before we could spent more thoughts about earning money with our new business idea the weather god spoilt us with a huge squall at the end of our leg. That saved us a lot of work and gave Altimate a clean and fresh arrival look.

Since last year May the anchorage in Marigot bay and the check in procedure has changed a little. Many moorings have been installed and anchoring was pushed out far in the bay. Usually checking in a French island was easy peasy and didn’t cost anything. Now the rumours were that the check in had to be made in Galis bay at the port office and that it would cost a few bucks. On the other hand people said, nothing had changed and one could still check in the old way, at the chandlers using a provided computer. A little confusing but for now we didn’t care. Arriving early in the morning we needed first a long nap, a big breakfast and after some tidying up we were ready to go ashore. Galis bay was a far dinghy ride so we decided to try the old way to check in. And it worked as it used to. We even asked the vendor at the chandler whether we still had to go to the port office. They denied so we happily went back and enjoyed an arrival and sunset beer on Altimate and went to bed early. It was a rolly night far out at the anchorage. We did not like that! Against our usual rather adapted behaviour we thought we could try for once the naughty way. Which meant, like a few French boats did, anchoring in front of the moorings, super close to the dinghy dock and a little in the way of the ferry boats, but in much quiter water. Before we re anchored we also discussed that we would take a mooring if we would be told off. We were not in the mood for more rolling nights and long distance dinghy rides. Long story short, as soon as we anchored close to shore, a boat came by and the guys told us to leave and anchor outside or take a mooring. They all told us that we had to check in and pay for the mooring at Galis port office. We agreed to take a mooring but I told them we couldn’t go so far with our soft bottomed dinghy, it would be dangerous! They believed walking there would be too far. So I asked them if they could take us as that would solve all our problems. Surprisingly they agreed immediately and I got a fast accompanied ride with two young and handsome boys! I couldn’t complain 😁. At the port office everybody was super friendly and helpful. I discussed the confusion of the check in procedure and that it was not really understandable for cruisers. They agreed but pointed out that they would soon have an office close to the dinghy dock and then hopefully all the chandlers would also know that the procedure had changed. However, for me it was a cool and fast motorboat ride. We got officially checked in, without paying, a cheap mooring including a key to a private dinghy dock. All good.

The official stuff was done, now we could indulge our desires. Oh, it was sensational having a proper cappuccino with “Tarte au citron” or “croissants amande”, or, or, or served in a pretty cafe. Baguette, cheese, saucisson etc. were now buyable every day, just a walk to the bakery or butcher away. Lines we needed for Altimate were waiting for us at the many chandlers. How many meters? Which size, colour, material ? Braided or not? You name it, you could get it😁. Awesome! Being in cruisers heaven we happily spent a lot of money. A delicious lunch here and a new faucet for Altimate there. That went on for a few days. Our fridge got packed with goodies, our list for needed parts got smaller and our credit card was glowing again. The biggest and last present for Altimate was a new life raft. The old one was due for maintenance already more than a year ago. And considering that the life raft was probably as old as Altimate made us come to the conclusion to better get a new one. Who would like a life raft which might not do its survival job anymore? Suppose nobody can tell, who had faced that. Our safety is important to us! To exchange the life rafts we needed a transportation as the vendor wouldn’t deliver it. A welcoming reason to get a car. Once the exchange was done we took advantage of the car and explored a little the island. We started with the French side and went later to the Dutch side. It was a pretty ride with green hills and white beaches. There was a big difference between Marigot and the Dutch town Phlipsburg. The latter was much more touristic due to the big cruising ships which regularly enter the island on that side. Therefore a lot of vendors, china shops, bars and restaurants were trying to get the attention of all the cruising guests. Very busy. On the other hand Marigot still seemed to sleep a bit in his after hurricane Irma disaster. Fortunately it did already look much better than at our last visit. More boutiques and restaurants had reopened, but it had still the kind of little wrecked down atmosphere in some areas. Still, we liked it more in Marigot and not only because of the better food! Somehow it felt more original. Local people were living and working there, school kids on their way home – just a normal small town. Of course there were as well tourists (not only us) but it was somehow more balanced – at least in my humble opinion.

We spent almost two weeks in shopping paradise. You just can’t stay longer or you will go bankrupt! I tell you! The bakery, the butcher, vine shop, the cheese shop and not to forget the chandlers, they kept calling us inside with their sweet voices and made us buy more delicious food or marine parts. Yet, on our penultimate day we went to a very good restaurant for lunch. A nice lady in a boutique, I’ve been talking to for a while, recommended that restaurant. It was located only a bit further away from the centre. The owners’ main business was his butcher shop, but he also served lunch for his customers. It was s small, very French, simple and really good restaurant! I had “Magret de canard”, duck breast, what shall I say it was divine. So tender and tasty and yammi!!! Heavenly! Just a pity that we only heard about it so late.
In the evening the illumination of the christmas tree and decoration was supposed to start at “Place du Marché”. That was, hmm… an interesting event. On a stage a Santa clause was singing or rather shouting what was going on. The used bulbs of the x-mas tree could be guessed and bands were introduced. Bands were playing x-mas music like ” Last Christmas” the Caribbean way. That sounds good but somehow it sounded a bit weird for our old ears. Or let’s say it didn’t sound x-mas like at all. Anyhow the kids and their families who were there seemed to like it and we were happy to be part of it for a while. The illumination was actually quite nice. They even had small ground firework surrounding the x-mas tree.