1 cent slots

Aaah yachties, we will do pretty much anything for a free drink or meal. Although in a previous post I mentioned for the previous 2 weeks we have done 'more work, less play' – we of course did go out to play a few times if only to keep our sanity. One of these times took us to a wine tasting event set up by our friends on La Luna. Accompanied by home made appetisers a group of yachties met up at a wine warehouse. For $10 that bought us a glass and as much wine as we could take steered by the owner who was educating us on what we were drinking. Obviously the intention was for us to buy a crate at the end but Dylan and I just went along for the cheap wine. Around 10 of us sat on a wooden bench, outside a warehouse in the middle of a car park whilst we sipped away at his bordeauxs, merlots, cabernet sauvignons and chardonnays– a rather surreal experience. A rather civilised affair to start with listening intently to his explanations, we soon got stuck in to finding our favourites and devouring the appetisers during happy hour 4 – 7pm.

At 7pm, not wanting to go back to the boat just yet, word went round that there was free food and drinks going at a nearby casino. Not ones to turn down this type of opportunity we all got in our dinghies and formed a line speeding over to the Princess casino, headlamps on and navigating the numerous buoys littered around the lagoon, in the dark.

Upon arrival we were ushered into this plush room crammed with machines, roulette tables and bars. Luckily we had got out of our rust stained clothes we usually wear so didn't feel too out of place and it was here I had my first gambling experience (unless horse racing counts). Dylan entrusted me with $1 and some experienced ladies took me over to the 1 cent slot machines. I was then taught how to use the machine and make the dollar last for as long as possible until the food arrived. So there we were, a line of ladies betting 1c at a time, being provided with numerous potent g&ts from our very own waitress. The guys went off to observe the big boys at the roulette tables. At 9:30 the food arrives and we toddle off to find tonight is 'Italian night'. We piled our plates high with food and went back to a machine putting a further $1 in and being supplied with more drinks. As long as we were playing, we weren't paying!

After din dins, a singer came on accompanied by a grand piano. Whilst I was at the bar ordering some soft drinks and singing away with him, the singer comes up behind me and dares me to join him. Well I'm not one to back down on a dare so I take the mic and continue singing 'Everything I Do', my voice blaring out to the whole casino. I turn to find Dylan and see him and the rest of the party looking back at me open mouthed not believing I had the courage to do that.

Excitement over at around 11pm having spent $6 between us (big spenders!) we called it a night and we all swayed out of the casino and back to our dinghies where we had a 2 mile ride ahead of us. Great night made even better by the lack of money leaving our wallets.

St. Martin

St Martin and Sint Maartan is one island split into 2 countries: the French side and the Dutch side. Why 2 countries on one island? Well legend has it, they both wanted to rule St Martin but rather than fight over it, they made a Frenchman armed with a bottle of wine walk in one direction and a Dutchman armed with a bottle of gin take the other. Where the two gentlemen met, they made that the boundary and the French ended up with more as the gin was stronger than the wine!

Although it matters what side you clear in to (French is way cheaper), you are free to cross the 'border' as often as you like. Well there is no border or demarcation, the only way of knowing you are on the other side is the currency in use. For the French side they accept euros and dollars and the Dutch side accept dollars and florins. Confusing?! Sure is, we walked around with 2 wallets with a currency in each, constantly converting the prices back to pounds. Even more confusing is the use of the word 'dollars' as coming from south of the Caribbean chain, we are still programmed to think that dollars = Eastern Caribbean dollars but no, now we need to reprogramme to dollars = US dollars. Currency aside, the prices here are cheap cheap cheap. Story goes, back in the day the sugar market collapsed and in 1939 an attempt was made to boost the economy by making the island completely duty-free. We took full advantage.

Customs here was a pleasure, 5 mins plugging in our details to a PC and we were done. Note to other cruisers coming to St Martin – tell them you are anchored in Grand Case else they will charge you per day for being in Marigot. We wanted to anchor out of the lagoon as we prefer to stay way clear of floating shite from people's heads...but not pay $100+ for the pleasure.

The aim of the game in St Martin was to work through our to do list of work needed to do on the boat as well as boost our spares, tools and other important parts onboard. More work, less play on this island. After 2 weeks of hard work, 3 visits to ACE hardware, 4 visits to Island Waterworld, 5 visits to Budget and 1 to Home n Tools we succeeded. And those visits were just the time I was in attendance, it doesn't count the times I refused to step foot in the place and opted instead to sun myself at the dinghy dock! Dylan is like a kid at a candy store, walking up and down each aisle just touching the various items on sale. This is not my style, sure I love to spend money but I can't get excited about another wrench set! Dylan can fill you in on all the work we did in a subsequent blog post. It is quite impressive what Dylan has achieved on our boat considering he hasn't owned a boat himself before! Although I did chores of my own, I definitely took the role as project manager with my lists, spreadsheets and budget planner.

So we were anchored in Marigot Bay, a huge area with plenty of space to anchor and very little swell. Although not as scenic as the other islands, St Martin still has the clear water, coral sandy bottom and luscious green hills in the distance. On the shore there is a daily market with local ladies pedalling their wares of bright kaftans and vibrant pashminas and scarves.

Set back from the coastline is a lovely little town reminiscent of a mini Paris. The streets are lined with cafes bustling with tourists in the mornings eager to demolish a proper French breakfast. The smells of pastries and coffee only hit us when we dock the dinghy, a god send really else I would end up the size of a house constantly craving pain au raisins! Amongst the eateries are posh shops, Cartier on one corner, Zaviar Diamond on the other. Clearly out of our league but nonetheless there is no harm in window shopping on the way to catch the bus.

Buses are somewhat different from that in Grenada. No blaring music, no specific dude to hand the money to. These buses are big, more like coaches and air conditioned. One bus even had a tv and dvd player set into the dashboard and front of the bus for the customers to watch! The locals are from various other countries and no more is that exemplified than on the bus. Haitians speaking Spanish, locals speaking French, Creole, English. Dylan made the mistake of starting a conversation with a local preacher on the bus once and he got lectured for the remainder of the journey on the bible, in particular the Sabbath. I pretended not to know him and stare out the window, giving him the odd prod if he encouraged the conversation further. These bus drivers are very protective of their buses, giving customers a ticking off if they dare open a packet of crisps or spill a drink.

Our food was devoured mostly on the boat trying to keep the spending down in places we can control but we did treat ourselves to a few $5 lunches when out on a long errand. Yes totally OTT I know! There is this one guy who sells lunch out the back of his van opposite Island Waterworld, for $5 you can get a big styrofoam box full of rice /salad /fish. Lovely homely food that left us full for the rest of the day and I highly recommend it.

Having travelled from the UK to Canada then on to Caribbean, my summer wardrobe is somewhat lacking and with the harsh sun and salt water, my cheap primark /zara /h&m clothing isn't holding up very well. Most have holes in them, rust stains and massively misshapen. We had heard that the capital Philipsburg was a great place for cheap clothes so enticing Dylan with an outstanding electronics list we set off on a bus. Now for those of you that don't know Dylan...this was a monumental achievement. He hates clothes shopping and is totally clueless about fashion, opting for hand me downs from his friends (thanks Paulie) and Dad (!) rather than enter a shop himself. Philipsburg didn't disappoint. On Back Street there are cheap clothes stores, one after another all with decent prices. The trick was to find a shop that didn't sell lycra diamonte clothing as that really isn't my style. I came away very pleased with a dress, couple of tops and some hippy hareems, all cotton or linen and not a single sparkly thing in sight. It was here I came across a snow cone. Does what it says on the tin really, street vendors hand you a cup of ice and then you choose a flavoured syrup to put over it. A simple idea but exactly what you need in the midday heat.

With the weather now turning to the rainy season, each day is very hot and humid. A daily swim is a must and I can almost hear the fizz of water as we jump in and cool off. Dylan being the scavenger that he is has found many an item to add to our tool collection on the seabed close to our anchor chain including a $71 shackle (Dylan's addition – he spent over an hour diving with a pair of pliers trying to chip off all the rust from the chain that had seized the stainless shackle in place. He was very chuffed when A) he finally worked it loose and B) when he priced it up at $71 in Budget Marine!). One day he decided to do something with the old chain (approx 300 ft that was joined by the shackle) and swirled it up into 2 balls creating an artificial reef complete with sea anemones and shells. The fish love it and makes for a good snorkelling spot. Only yesterday we saw a huge puffa fish swimming by, checking out the new place to be. (Dylan's addition – this was another few hours of work hauling rusty 12mm chain around the sea floor – all good training for when I start spear fishing!)

A blog post on St Martin wouldn't be complete without mentioning Shrimpy's. An internet cafe /bar /laundrette located near the entrance to the French side of the lagoon, it is run by a South African couple – Mike and Sally. These guys know everything that is worth knowing about the island including the best places to get boat work done, places to eat etc. A welcoming place, we have spent hours in there on the internet, slowly getting eaten alive by mozzies.

After 2 weeks of boat work we are keen to move on to pastures new and look forward to what Anguilla and subsequently the BVIs have to offer. 

Our First Night Passage

Until Barbuda we were yet to do a night passage on Orion. The whole point of us coming to the Caribbean and buying a boat was so I could be introduced to cruising gently, no rough weather and no long passages thank you very much! The rough weather was encountered on our second ever journey and I had put off the night passage until we had no other choice. So we were in Barbuda and wanting to get to St Martin as soon as possible to start ticking off some of our task list that had been building since leaving Grenada in January. With hurricane season in the back of my mind and no real desire to go hang out with the 'it' crowd in St Barts (that would be a long day sail), I gave in and started championing the idea of our first night passage together. I stress the word 'together' as this was a brand new experience for me but Dylan had done them tons of times before.

Sure on my day skipper course last summer myself and 3 others had done a night entry into a port but that wasn't the same as sailing between islands, taking a watch by myself and taking control of the boat whilst Dylan slept below. The more we spoke about it, the more I was looking forward to another new experience where I would be totally out of my comfort zone.

Working on a 5 knot average and a 90 mile journey we figured we didn't need to leave Barbuda until 5pm. By the time we reached our first land mass (St Barts) the sun would be rising and we would be able to see for the rest of the journey.

That morning, Dylan jumped out of bed early, very excitable and got to work on putting the jack lines in. For those of you who don't know (and I certainly didn't until a few weeks ago) these are long seatbelt material straps that run from the bow to the stern. They are used particularly on night passages to clip your safety line on to when having to go on deck so if you did stumble and go to fall overboard, you couldn't as the jack line would keep you on the right side of the guardrail. The safety line is also a seatbelt material strap that is hooked to your lifejacket. And yes parents, of course we wear these at all times!

I took a more leisurely morning reading then set about planning our passage on the charts. Figuring this was a good a time as ever to learn how to use the GPS properly, I read the manual and set about programming in various waypoints so we could follow a route considering there were no islands to navigate by. I usually manually plug in waypoints on a paper chart but with navigating in the dark, a lit up display would be much more effective. Sourcing the torches and head light I found a red bulb to use so it wouldn't detract ruin our night vision. We also have this option in the head (toilet) when getting up in the middle of the night.

As I like having 'clutter' around the boat (Ok so Dylan calls it clutter but I call it homely possessions) it is always my job to stow it away when preparing for a sail. The baskets, shells, beads, wooden carvings and cushions all go away in lockers so when we are rocking at sea, there shouldn't be any damage or anything flying about. I say shouldn't as inevitably every time we have been sailing so far there is always something that manages to find its way onto the floor.

Wanting to ensure we had food already prepared if we got the munchies I boiled 4 eggs, made tuna mayo sandwiches and put aside some Munch bars (peanut brittle) just in case. As it turned out I didn't touch them but Dylan made a substantial dent in the provisions, the cold (now cooked) eggs going down a treat.

At 5pm on the dot we upped anchor and using the setting sun in front of us, navigated our way out of the reefs and into the open ocean. Setting Orion up on a port tack and a bearing of 300 degrees I hoped that we wouldn't need to change anything once the sun set. With little light left, Dylan started his lesson on how to take a watch. It seemed quite simple, just meercat every 5 mins at what was going on around you. Look for any lights in the distance, any change in direction, any change in wind speed and any change in wind direction and then he was off down below for a 45 min snooze, leaving me fully in charge...eeeeek! So I got a big cushion out to make myself comfy and sat in the dark listening to the waves slapping the sides and straining my eyes for any lights on the horizon.

After 10 minutes I was bored. I had noone to talk to, I couldn't read, I was getting tired, it had started to drizzle and I had another 10 hours ahead of me before the sun came up. Confirming pretty quickly that I couldn't continue like that, I wacked out the iPod and started singing away to my disney soundtracks, stopping after every song to check the GPS, compass and horizon. I must have entertained the fishies that night with my rendition of 'Just around the river bend' and 'A Whole New World'. 45 mins later much to my annoyance (I was just getting into my singing session), Dylan appeared claiming he couldn't sleep and he wanted to relieve me of my watch already so I could go and get some sleep. Now I must confirm at this stage that it had nothing to do with my singing abilities...its just our boat is very musical. She bangs, clangs, jiggles, shakes, groans, creeks, putters and clinks all the time. However normally in the v berth this is just a minor background noise but sleeping in the sea berth (on the seats in our saloon) you are right in the middle of the Orion symphony.

Note from Dylan – he reckons not all the animal kingdom were entirely satisfied with my vocal abilities as one little flying fish decided to commit suicide on our boat!

Never having a problem falling asleep wherever I am, I went below to have a 3 hour nap. Arranging myself on the narrow settee I threw a sheet over me and closed my eyes trying to block out the loud noises coming from the mast and companionway. No luck, even I couldn't sleep so instead I dozed on and off until 11pm when Dylan woke me up and we swapped places.

With running down wind Orion was rocking from side to side and after a couple of hours I threw up over the side. Having had callaloo soup (spinach) the night before, it was disgusting. Luckily though it only interrupted 20 seconds or so of 'Bare Necessities' and I thought nothing of it. Until I threw up again half an hour later, this time the contents of my stomach didn't agree with my throat and it burned my voicebox rendering my voice to a whisper, feeling like a thousand needles were poking me. I remained with that pain for 3 days after, feeling like I had just got my tonsils removed, barely able to swallow a glass of milk never mind a sandwich! Unlike some seasickness mine seems to disappear as soon as I am sick so it doesn't limit my ability to take a watch, just takes my eye off the ball for the seconds I need to feed the fish.

Anyway enough about my vomit and more about our watch system. We had talked about how many hours we would do per watch beforehand and settled on 3. We started at 8pm so Dylan did 8pm – 11, 2am – 5 and I would do 11pm – 2 and then 5am – 8. Although I never really took the 5am – 8 as a watch as we were at our destination by 6am! A combination of strong and consistent winds (gusting 25 kts) meant we averaged 6.5 knots cutting our passage time down.

By 8am we were at anchor and back in our bed for a well deserved rest before we went to check in and stuff ourselves with french food. Not only have we now completed our first night passage (ok and it was no big deal I admit it and a word to sum it up - uneventful) we have also topped our 500 mile mark – total professionals now!!