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We have had a great week here in St. Barts…a very nice place. Gustavia is kind of like a Camden in the Caribbean. The island is very beautifuil and well manicured, with lots of remote beaches. We have enjoyed both the beaches and town. We spent two days at Ile Forchue, two days at Anse Colombier and two days at Gustavia.

We’ll be sailing the 40+ miles to Nevis in the morning. We are considering heading out on Sunday for 70+ mile overnight passage to Guadeloupe from Nevis.

On the boat front, we had a bit of scare with an engine oil leak…turns out it was a lose fitting to the prop shaft brake. A few turns of the wrench and all is well.

We are heading to St. Barts tomorrow in the morning. We had a tearful goodbye to Starbound and Bonzai 1 on Wednesday. We’ll really miss their company and the good times we had together. I really hope we catch up with them later in the season (PS…Bonzai 1 cruised with Starbound last year in the Bahamas and saw their boat in Marigot after our overnight from the BVI’s).

We spent the last couple of days cruising the more remote anchorages of St. Martin and have experienced some great beaches. Tonight we are in Captain Olivers Marina and we’ll head to St. Barts in the AM. From there we’ll head to Guadaloupe via Nevis.

As Lorri mentions, the life here in St. Martin is very nice. We took a bus to the beach up the coast on Friday and yesterday we took the dingy’s to a beach on the other side of Marigot bay. In between our adventures, we shop, repair the boat, paddleboard, and home school. We haven’t had any real desire to change anchorages as we are really enjoying the French side. Another plus is our friends from Starbound and Bonzai 1 are nearby.

We have been getting good use of the paddle surf board. We tow it behind the dingy and the kids can stand up and surf. I tried to convince Georgia to surf them, but she kept dropping the line (per her blog). I also tried surfing the waves but wiped out.

The Christmas winds have been making themselves a nuisance lately, so we have not only been in St. Martin longer than John would like, but we’ve been unable to really dinghy anywhere for a good explore.  So a couple of days ago, we took the “bus” (sort of a van) over to another bay reputed to have a good beach.  Crew from Starbound joined us and we spent a couple of pleasant hours watching the kids play and eating snacks. 

John made a point of taking Jasper for a walk down the beach.  The attraction?  Topless ladies in all their glory.  The fact that my son claims he is bored here, is a telling indicator of his maturity level, indeed.

We were not in any particular rush to hoof it back to the bus, when we were startled by a woman tossing a bag of garbage out of her upper floor window onto the beach, not twenty feet from us.   It looked, mostly, like her used toilet tissue.  John’s memorable summation of our mutual reaction – “When people start to throw garbage at you, you know it’s time to leave the beach!”   Welcome to the third world.

A few days ago my dad took me paddle boarding on a reef with waves that broke so I was on the paddle board holding on to a rope while he was up in the dingy driving toward the waves trying to get me to surf but if he got too near the it I let go.

Nothing much is new here. It’s 80 degres and papa is itching to get going. Our freinds on Starbound just had a birthday celebration for their 2 now 3 year old daughter. I’m sitting around rereading books. So, as the title says, I’m bored to death. EXCEPT I saw an albino pigeon yesterday. So other then that nothing is new.

We are in Saint Marten a French speaking island. Oh yeah I forgot a partially French speaking island. The other side speaks Dutch. Why some one would divide an island I have no idea. You can’t actually divide it, it’s an island. Seriously people you cant spray paint a line down the middle, you’d run out of the same color paint! Anyway, there is internet halelulia! so I can update my apps. I have 16 updates breaking my record of 11. Unfortunetly when you leave the area you’re un-updated apps are stuck wating! So for the past 2 days I have been stuck in the marina office updating. Breaking news! Bloons tower defence four is in the app store! #22 top out off 25 top apps.

  We’re in St. Martin and we’re going to the Dutch side in  a few days but right now we’re on the French side speaking ”French”and on the Dutch side speaking English. Hopefully.  We met some folks on a sail boat so we’re are hanging out with them and we’ve had some bread and croissants.

After an uneventful 18 hour passage from the BVI’s, we are safely ensconced in Marigot, St. Martin.  This side of the island is French and I am loving it.  We’re talking boulangerie fresh bread, croissants, amazing cheese, wine, etc.  Even better is that we have friends here – Starbound, Aurora and new friends from Bonzai I- that are making our stay here terrific fun.  Today, I spent the morning having cappuccino aboard Starbound, and then headed with friend Heather to the organic farm run by Rasta Farians (known as the Rasta Farm), just a couple of miles from here.  A beautiful young lady in a rasta headress headed into the gardens to cut fresh greens for us, carrying a woven basket, while another gentleman explained the medicinal properties of native plants to us.  Picked up some fresh arugula, papaya, turnips, parsley, bok choy and tomatoes.   John went to the local grocery to buy “good cheese” and wine.  The eating will be good tonight.  I’m thinking roasted vegetable and goat cheese pizza. 

We plan to be in St. Martin for another week or so.  The next weather window for moving islands will not be until the 22nd according to our weather source, Chris Parker.  That’s fine with me – staying here for months would probably be pleasant.  Although, more A-sitting than John could probably handle.

The only drawback to the island is spotty internet coverage.  The cruisers have scoped it out, and the best place we’ve found so far is the little bar/cafe that I am currently inhabiting, a Caribe beer on the table.  We’ve been warned that the internet coverage down-island will only get worse and  that it’s terrible in the Bahamas.   So family and friends will have to be patient when they are waiting for those return e-mails for the next few months!

The autopilot work has been completed successfully…I am very pleased with the work and the autopilot selection. It turns out that we’ll get our chance to the try out the autopilot tomorrow night.

I am planning to leave at mid-night from Caneel Bay (Friday) for St. Martin. We have a favorable weather window for the 90 mile crossing…though I’m still not sure if we check into the french or dutch side.

We have enjoyed our time here and feel that this is a new chapter for us moving on…It has been very comfortable knowing that Nanny Cay and good help is close by…now we are leaving that safety umbrella.

The boat is ready to go…all tanks are filled, we have fresh provisions, and the crew is well rested. We are hoping to re-connect with Asteroid and Starbound before leaving at Caneel Bay.