The Catamaran Adventures of Noel and Ceu

Simpson’s Bay Lagoon in St Martin

Current Location: Simpson's Bay, St. Martin
Current Position: 18 2.38 N 063 5.51 W Click to view map.
Distance sailed since last post: 16 nautical miles. View the map of our voyage track here

We are now back home on Life Part2 in St Martin.

We sure had a very busy month in Kelowna, visiting family and friends. I got to spend lots of time with my daughters and grandson Tiago who is so much fun! I miss him a lot, thanks to Skype for allowing me to talk to him, laugh and be silly with.

And it sure has been busy here too. Noel arrived on Sunday night and I arrived on Monday. Grabbed some lunch on the way from the airport and it was back to work on the boat immediately. Noel got the anchor chain out and was ready for painting again. The one we did last Summer didn’t hold up very well, and is sure easier to do it when the boat is hauled out.

Painting the anchor chain - again!

On Tuesday evening Noels finds out he had to go back to Seattle on a business trip. He had to meet up with some prospective buyers of the business he’s selling.

On Wednesday, we launched our boat into the water at Simpson’s Bay Lagoon from Bobby’s Shipyard.

On Thursday morning Noel left to Seattle and I stayed here to make sure we were still afloat when he got back!!!! In the afternoon I had someone knocking on my door, what a nice surprise! Someone calling my name here? It was Val and daughter Olivia who we met last August along with her husband Ron way back in Grenada, and they recognized our boat. So it was nice to know someone you knew was around. We went out for dinner and drinks and it was a fun night meeting other yachties.
They told me they usually monitor channel 14, in case I needed anything. Left them at the restaurant at about 9:00pm.

Let my own adventure begin!

The evening came and everything around the boat was cool. I left extra light s On, flashlight handy and went to sleep…very late!

I woke up at about 4,15 am with a little thump noise. I got up pretty quick, to find out my dinghy was a very good fender…..we hit a little old boat, no one living aboard. We were dragging anchor. GRReat, never even happened to us when Noel is here why now? Well I quickly started the engines and kept boat away from other boats while planning my strategy. I pulled up the anchored and thought I could just anchor again on my own, till I realized the snuber was jammed and I couldn’t drop the anchor. It needed some work maybe with a crowbar or something. I was busy just keeping the boat away from the others in a 10 knots breeze.

Decided to call Ron.

“Exodo, Exodo, this is LifePart2, LifePart2.”

Lucky ME, they keep their radio ON during the night. Val said he was coming …..There I am, this little person, big boat, dark night with all my lights on, including big flash light so Ron could spot me easily. Surprisingly my neighbours never heard a thing.

Ron arrives and after all my running around between the helm, the tools room and the anchor, we got the snubber out and was able to pull the anchor all the way up.
Ron recommended I anchor closer to him, he says its better holding there as it was very weedy in this area. At this time is still very dark, and difficult to drive between boats and the channel. Ron stayed up at the front with a good flash light and guided me through the channel and we anchored successfully in our new area.

I made a fruit smoothie, and stayed and watched the anchor for a few minutes to make sure we were holding. Lucky with all these adventures we didn’t hit the worlds largest sloop, Mirabella V, moored very near to us.

Mirabella V - world's largest single masted yacht

I thanked Ron so much and sorry about the wake up call. He said, “no problem.”

I made some coffee, sat at the front, watched the anchor and I  actually had my cup of coffee without letting it go cold, like I normally do.

I was happy to be in a different neighbourhood and holding well. I admired the beautifull views around the Lagoon. I took a shower and it wasn’t till then that I realized my little tank top across the front said  ” burnettes rule  ” way too funny!  Yesss, we stayed there till next day.

This time the anchor waited until 8am, better than 4am.

I was up in the galley making some coffee when through the window, I saw that my view was changing, quick. I was just glad it was daylight. My suspicion was right. We were dragging again.

Started engines and kept boat away from neighbors. Two of them came over right way and helped me anchor again. Scott and Bill. Scott tied his dinghy up to our boat, couple of minutes later we watched it drifting away. No Problem, the third neighbor already has it.

The bow line had gotten caught in the propeller and it chewed it right up. No surprise we’ve done that too. They’re suppose to float (but I guess not enough!). Nothing is a surprise around here, we’ve all been there and done that. Ah, now I don’t feel so bad!!!

We kept going to find a good sandy spot that they knew about. Mission accomplished!

After dragging twice in 2 days, I was very suspicious and I decided not to go out and stay close to home. At lunch time we had about 12 knots of wind and I just had a bad feeling. 12 knots may not be much, but when you’re not anchored, it sure is a lot. Put on my snorkels and went to see the anchor. Bad! It was sideways and sitting on lots of weeds.

I also wanted to see if some remainder line was still around the prop. A piece but didn’t look too bad. I jumped on the boat and took snorkels off. Just in time to realize It was dragging again and one of the neighbors was also watching and was already on his way to help again. This time we found a really good patch of sand and it was a success. I also got him to pull the little piece of line from prop. We were holding fine till Noel got back on Tuesday. The next day I baked and gave them each a warm loaf of bread, which they enjoyed.

I must say that sailors are a great bunch of friendly and helpful people around. You leave Canada where  you barely see your neighbors, you get here and everyone is out and about singing, doing boat maintenance, socializing, its great!!!! AHHHH and of course, beer is only a dollar a piece.

I picked up Noel last Tuesday at the airport. We communicated via email during his absence, but I never said anything about my adventures, I thought he was too busy to be worried. On the way from the airport in the short bus ride we could see our home on the water. He said, Ohh you have moved! I said Yes, meet your new Skipper! He was all smiley, so I told him I have been busy from neighborhood to neighborhood meeting different neighbors every day….now he was laughing……I told him the first one was at 4,30 am the first night. He said he was glad it happened. Now he knows I can handle it!!!! LOL

So he tells me his adventures! No wonder he was smiling ( he said he was just so happy to see me). While I’m working so hard, he was staying in a Mansion, being catered to and taking day trips with these prospective business buyers on their 90′ motor Yacht. He never told me that via email. Only that it was very tiring and couldn’t wait to come home.

I don’t want to talk to You anymore!!!!!

But just One Thing!

Well, when the the going gets tough……the tough go shopping!!!

While you were gone I was really good with your money. ( It was sure tiring, running around in this heat to find the best deals).

See makeover…may not be what you’re thinking

The next day, Wednesday we left St Martin to BVI. Noel needs to catch up with some work and we have a great connection out here on the boat. We did a nice full moon overnight crossing of 12 hours and we are now in this beautiful Bay in Spanish Town.

Update:

While writing this we lost connection. I couldn’t publish it. Then we went out and Party. Overnight it got pretty rough, some northerly swells came in, so we moved . We did a great 1 hour crossing, 17 knots of wind to a different bay. We are now at Marina Cay. Much more protected and still have a connection. Very pretty here as well.

Life Part 2 in Marina Cay, BVI

Noel pretending to work on his laptop in the hammock

4 Responses to “Simpson’s Bay Lagoon in St Martin”

  • Wolf:

    Wow Ceu
    I have a good idea what was going on. Very brave. You are a good sailor and a fine writer. Thank you for sharing your adventure with us.
    Wolf

    • Noel:

      Hi Wolf
      Thanks for the comments. It’s great to hear form you guys.
      I thought you would enjoy checking out Mirabella V as well. Good thing I didn’t hit her. She is so Big, and was moored in the middle of the channel, it’s very shallow waters in the Lagoon.
      Ceu

  • heidi:

    Just amazing what you are doing. It was good to talk to you on the phone, but too bad the line was breaking up. We really look forward to seeing you both in a couple of months.

  • Hi Ceu and Noel, I just love reading up on your adventures. I guess you must be on your way to the Turks and Caicos by now. Yes I did enjoy seeing Mirabella, what an incredible ship, at US$50 million I am sure I would be totally awe struck to put it mildly.
    Happy Sailing,
    Julie

Leave a Reply for heidi