Story Telling

So for today's blog I'm going to tell a story about three kids that have some experience with boating.

Once upon a time there were three kids.Their names were Stella Cleo Jade. They loved boats  so they desided to go on a little boat trip in fact it was there first boat trip on a catamaran  they were going with there parents. Right now there geting reaty for the trip. The next morning they set out for oister pond
there destination. It was very wavy so they were going up down up down. The middle one was not that fortunate because she kept throwing up over the side but the youngest named jade was just asleep and when they got to oister pond she woke up how lucky is she that she skipped the terrible trip and got to wake up at the exiting part.

                          the end


So is that a good story well i think it is a good story.  We had something happen to us to  sense i am the middle one that through up a lot i wasn't that fortunate   but know i'm better.

Tropical Birthday

Stella turned eleven Saturday. That and the fact that it was the weekend, we decided to take a break from boat chores and staying up on work. She decided we should all go visit the Coralita littoral preserve, part of the St. Martin Nature Reserve, just a mile up the coast from Oyster Pond.

Coralita is a shallow shelf wedged between two rocks where the Atlantic surf spreads out in long, flat waves across a bed of sea urchins. Calvin, the self-proclaimed "Sea Urchin Man," presides over the beach, where he's gathered a small collection of live animals (conchs, sea urchins, sea stars) and set up a series of cairn-like mounds of shells and coral. Presumably this is art.

We waded out to Seashell Island, which is a hunk of raised reef a stone's throw from the beach.

Jade, a bit tentative at first, gathered dozens of shells. I'm not sure where we'll store these on Dafne and won't be surprised if I find them in my closet, or worse.

The shallows in this bay are a favorite of kite surfers. They love to jump the spit of sand where we tried to snorkel. 

Stella was in heaven. She loves stuff like this: exploring new places, challenging herself. She ran ahead and tried wading out to a further rock, but retreated when a small shark crossed her path. 

Lunch happened at a roadside BBQ joint serving "rice and peas" and various grilled meats. The girls had never had "rice and peas" before, and were, of course, amusingly surprised when rice and beans arrive. The ribs were great (no surprise), but Jade's chicken ruled (surprise). Afterwards they let Stella take a turn in the "kitchen."

After a quick stop at Le Grand Marche in Philipsburg—ok, not quick; nothing ever is on Sint Maarten—we arrived at Buccaneer Beach, a thin strip of clean sand wrapping Simpson Bay, so called by the beach bar that serves $2 beers to all the cruisers and hosts movie night on the beach on Fridays. This was Stella's choice; and our first cruising friends, Jane and Erwin and their daughters Sofia and Isabelle, joined us. After a few hours of snorkeling, epic turns of Marco Polo, and jumping off the pier—most of which I napped through (life is tough)—we retreated to burgers and salads at the Buccaneer Bar.

And, of course, our double chocolate cake from Le Grand Marche. A perfect end to a perfect day in the islands. Happy birthday Stella.

Guest Blog: Lani's first post

Simpson Bay, St. Martin

The first stop and beginning of our life aboard is Saint Martin, a mid-sized island at the top of the leeward island chain which is half Dutch and half French. The Dutch half to the south is a bustling area containing the airport, the major ports, and most of the marine businesses, as well as the under-belly (as my brother calls it). This is where Paul landed with his father, my brother, and our friend Chris after crossing from Tortola. I arrived the following day with the kids and we commenced a flurry of spending, installing, and provisioning to get this ex-charter boat prepared to house and propel us for the next year or more. 

It was on this dock that we met out first cruising friends. The first friends you meet while cruising become outsized in your memory and imprint on the rest of your journey. I see it as a stroke of immense good luck that we stumbled onto a great family to hold this title on this trip. Just two boats farther along the dock is a monohull called Samantha that houses a British woman, a Dutch man and their two daughters 11 and 9 years old. They had been living and raising their children in Portugal when they decided to get a boat and try cruising. They spent three years traveling and living aboard and after an Atlantic crossing, landed in St. Martin. Their business in Portugal ran into trouble and they were forced to stop cruising and set up in St. Martin. Being Dutch, the father had a visa and no trouble finding work in the marine industry. They've been here for a year and are moving onto land to prepare for the girls starting school in September after three years of home schooling. Along with lining up in age with my girls, this family was inspiring and informative. Jane showed me were to find all the things I would need to set up and stock up a boat, offered great advice on homeschooling, and took us to a couple of great local beaches for cooling off after a day of boat work. 

The dock we were on was loaded with people outfitting boats with the idea of getting far away and fast. This time of the year most people have left or are leaving Saint Martin. The hurricane season is a threat and the daily rains make it generally uncomfortable even without a hurricane. At the end of the dock was a 30ish man from New Zealand who had bought a boat online, flown in to take ownership, and was preparing to sale it back to New Zealand to sell it for a profit. He was single-handing this brand-new, used boat across the Caribbean and then across the pacific and planning to make it back by November to get out of the way of their hurricane season. He was far more adventurous that I am and I suppose that's proven by his career as a sky diving instructor. Unfortunately, he suffered a sky diving accident 18 months ago and is now permanently in a wheelchair. As he said every time I skeptically questioned his plans, "What could possibly go wrong?" What indeed. Be safe, John.

Along with making some new friends we accomplished a few other things in our time here. 

1. I learned how to make fried plantains: a HUGE success! I'd seen them sold on the roadside for a week before I got up the nerve to buy them. Turns out it's the easiest thing in the world, and the kids ate a pile of them.

2. We had our lifeboat re-packed and got to see it opened up for, hopefully, the only time in our lives. The kids were most interested in the provisions included in the kite, which consists mainly of margarine and soy protein. Yes, they brought it home and tasted it. No, I declined.

3. We peeled off the old name (Powder Days) and applied our own name to this boat. We are long-time resisters of the pun name and thought that seas puns had been our least favorite. We were wrong.











4. I found the first item for my "Gross things in the Caribbean collection." Aside from the canned cheese, the food here has been surprisingly diverse. I've found great markets (thanks to Jane) and am fully stocked with mango pickle, French cheeses, and a full pantry of baking supplies. 

5. Jade found the thing she likes best. Snorkeling. The moment we pulled on her new mask and snorkel she laid down in the surf, put her face in the water, and spent the next 30 minutes studying the sand and the shells. It only got better from there.

Sailing

Finally we got away from Simpson bay!  Two days ago  I woke up and heard my dad calling every body up and awake.  I jumped out of bed and ran up onto the deck to see what was going on.  My dad was saying, "All hands on deck! We're leaving!" that announcement was greeted with much enthusiasm and jumping around by my sisters although I was too tired to do much of that.

A few minutes later the engines were on, lifejackets were on and the boat was moving!  I stood by the starboard side and used one of the starboard fenders to fend us off of the pilings.  Next my job was to stand on the trampoline and untie the bow lines, coiling them up as I went.

The sea was rough. I watched a wave come up over our bow. I was already drenched from head to tow from a big wave that had loomed over my mom and I before coming down with a gigantic splash!  My harness and tether strain as I walked to the other side of the cockpit.  I heard a big crash from inside the salon!  I winced as another plate flew across the room and smashed on the floor under the table.  Uh-Oh! That wasn't a plate that had broken, that was the antique shell the scientist the next boat over had given us!

Ugh! Our boat was a mess! Well at least we got here I told myself, and here wasn't very impressive, although I guess just seeing solid land before me was a relief after endless sea and waves for 5 hours.  That night we went out to dinner and all of us still felt the boat rocking underneath us although the dock was perfectly stable.  After that sooo fun experience we ended up in Oyster Pond st. Martin, just another harbor for me to see.

Oyster Pond

Uh-Oh!

We've been in st. Martin for over a week and I'm kind of tired of it. We were supposed to leave for Ille Forshue yestarday but we had an unfortunate problem with the engines so we are waiting for an engine part to come, so we probably won't be leaving for a couple more days.

The inside of an engine is probably not what you might be expecting. It is a series of metal pipes and tubes sticking out of a rectangular plat wih pipe sized circular holes in it. At the top of these pipes small fires are ignited making the tubes an pipes go up and down. The pipes and tubes produce so much energy while doing this it can propel the propeller which pushes the boat. Our problem is that the rectangular plate I which the pipes go up and down in, is cracked! Since this plate is vital to making the engine function we need to wait here for a new head or plate as I've been calling it, to arrive.                               
      

Jade's Cabin

Here's three things in Jade's cabin.

Fathers Day

Its fathers day and were baking cup cakes.My dad is taking a break from all the projects right now. He is sitting and eating breakfast that my uncle made for him my uncle would never make breakfast  for anyone but it was fathers day so he made breakfast    for my dad. Today my dad wanted to investigate the engins on our boat i didn't really want to do that but it was fathers day. I'm going to give my dad a kite for fathers day right now its in my room. My uncle is face timing my grandma. Were going to go to the beach in the after noon i'm still thinking about the engin thing i wish i could think of a way to get out of it well i'll have to think harder. well i thought a little more and i came up with something,i can say that i'm hungry and my dad will probably let me go.