Storm watch 2022 has begun in earnest in the Caribbean. During hurricane season, the weather report we follow (Chris Parker) begins doing “interim” tropical storm updates in addition to the regular weather reports. This year, Chris decided to totally geek out on the reports and he is now including statistics from all the weather stations around the world as well as tracking models. For any of you weather geeks out there, I am sure these additions would be very interesting. For me, it is like trudging through paragraphs of Charlie Brown’s teacher talking…wah, wah, wah. So, I now rely on Bill to trudge through the nightmarish reports and I figure if he cranks the boat one morning, that means the weather report was not positive. Until that time, I’ll just continue to live in ignorant bliss and enjoy the coolness of a cloudy day.
This week, we have been attempting to get more boat projects lined up but we have been at the mercy of the dreaded CMT (Caribbean Maybe Time). Our fabricators who are supposed to be fixing their original outrageous quote have fallen off the Earth so Bill will be tracking them down once again. We have also been trying to figure out which paint to put on the bottom of the boat when we haul out in August. Paint seems like a simple enough concept. For painting my house, I had to decide what color and if I wanted flat, sheen or gloss. Not so with boat paint. First comes the question of “how often do you need to paint the bottom of the boat?” Simple question. Not so simple answer. So far, we have had the following answers: “every year”; “every couple of years”; “once you think you need it”; “depends”; and last but not least, a few empty stares followed by a walk away. So, based on the paint we currently have on the bottom of our boat, we guess that every 3 to 4 years is probably a good guess. Next comes the question of “which type of paint is best?” So far, we have these answers: “ablative paint because it knocks off the barnacles as the boat moves”; “Don’t get ablative paint, you need hard paint”; “depends”; stare and walk away. Once again, we are going with what we already have on the boat which is an ablative paint. We figure if it has worked well so far, we’ll stick with it. Easy enough….until we go to buy the paint. Evidently the paint on our boat which obviously works well is going to cause a global crisis of some sort according to the US government. So, our current paint has been discontinued and we now have a choice of “environmentally friendly” paint which translates to “your boat paint is going to suck”. We voted on “acceptance” and we are moving ahead with the paint purchase. Throughout our sailing time, we have met many boaters from many walks of life. Now that we have been on the boat for almost 3 years, we have somehow become the “experts” on boat life. I never thought we’d be the ones approached with questions about boating but evidently, not dying for three years makes us gurus of the boating world. For this week’s lesson, we have addressed five very important points that we think people considering the boating life need to take into account. Since most boating adventures begin with the male species uttering the words, “I think I want to live on a boat,” the aim of these five points is to make that dream move more smoothly toward reality.
2. Know the laws, regulations and fees involved prior to purchasing the boat Many people go outside the USA to purchase a boat for several reasons. The boats may be less expensive, the boat may be in a region of the world the boater wants to sail or they fall in love with a boat and think “it is the only one I want!” (dangerous thought but we’ll cover that later). Generally, most of the people we know that purchased boats outside of the USA have a few nightmare stories to share. Boat surveys in the islands tend to be less than stellar so the boat purchased ends up needing more repairs than planned. One of the new boaters we just met in St. Maarten found out that the previous owner fled the country back to Canada without paying any of his marina fees or port fees for the past THREE years! Now, the marina is telling the new owner he owes thousands of dollars in fees. The owner stopped by our boat and said, “I just wanted to find out what my rights are in this situation and I figured you might know. I need to know before I go tell them I’m not paying this bill.” He did not like my answer which was, “You have no rights. You’d better be good at begging.” It would never have occurred to me to ask about marina fees and such prior to closing because all those fees are included in a sale in the States. So, be sure you have a reputable boat broker and surveyor no matter where you buy the boat. 3. The living plan Not only do many partners buy the boat without including their significant other in the process, they assume the significant other is on the same page with living on the boat. While the husband is thinking, “Oh, welcome home honey!”, the wife is thinking, “Oh, this will be a nice place to spend a few weeks in the summer”. In only three years, we have watched numerous relationships fall apart because they did not have a simple, up front conversation. Our new buddy’s wife is not onboard with boat life at all so he is sitting in St. Maarten by himself. He said he'll move the boat back to the USA to live and he “won’t be off the boat more than 3 weeks in a row”. I am guessing in his mind he is thinking, “49 weeks a year will work for me” while his wife is thinking, “Yes, three weeks off and one week on sounds good to me”. Bill and I had a talk up front where we laid out our plan and made adjustments for each one’s wants and needs. We live on the boat fulltime but we get an Airbnb for a few days whenever I need to some off boat time. We also go back to the States at least once a year for Thanksgiving with my family. This year, we had to make an adjustment after last hurricane season almost killed us from boredom and we agreed that in the future, we would not spend months sitting in one spot on a small island…..so off we go on our European/Africa adventure! I call that a successful plan! 4. Have a plan on how to move and store the boat prior to buying the boat Prior to buying a boat, I figured it was a lot like a car. Wrong. It is nothing like a car. If you buy a new car and you need to move it a long distance, you hop in the car, drive until you are tired, pull over and get a hotel, buy some gas and continue until you reach your destination. Moving a boat takes major planning. First, there is usually a scarcity of fuel so you have to search for fuel and make sure someone is available that day (or sometimes week) to fuel up the boat. Next, it is rare to able to pull a boat over on the side of the ocean for a night’s sleep. Therefore, you need to calculate the hours you will need for transport and then figure out the number of crew needed to move the boat with you. Then, you must find crew that fits your schedule and budget. Keep in mind you have not even looked at weather or routing yet. Boats also don’t have a garage and boat storage can cost a lot of money depending on where you are located. So once again, do your research! 5. There’s no such thing as a ‘one of a kind’ boat If you get your heart set on a ‘one of a kind’ boat that is fine…as long as you have a large checkbook. The key to buying a boat is having several options and make sure the current boat owners know you are looking at several other viable options. The bidding wars will save you thousands of dollars! If you don’t get your ‘one of a kind’ boat the first time, just remember, boats are like prostitutes….there’s at least one in every port! Here's my funny of the week. Our current boat neighbors are a quiet French couple. The other day, she came and asked me if she could borrow a fork. Thinking I misunderstood, I said, “Did you say a fork?” She responded, “Oui, a fork.” Confused, but wanting to be a good neighbor, I went to fetch a fork. Bill asked, “What are doing?” “I’m getting a fork for the Frenchies.” “A fork?” “Oui, a fork”. I still have no idea why she didn’t have a fork onboard her liveaboard boat but se la vie! PS: my camera lens is broken and I won’t have another one until I get to the States in July so no pictures this week! I know I could use my phone but that would entail remembering to take it with me!
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Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads! May your family let you watch golf in peace. Quiet week in St. Maarten. Our movie event last week went well with the exception of our favorite shawarma place being closed. We think they are closed for the off season here but sadness was felt by all! As for the movie, Jurassic Park number whatever it is…..here’s the plot…..people think they can control nature, dinosaurs eat people. It was entertaining but you can wait for the Netflix release. It does get a little Hollywood preachy at the end which made us laugh. “We must all live together in harmony.” Nope. Big dinosaurs eat little dinosaurs, then big dinosaurs eat people, then big dinosaurs run out of food and die. Sorry to tell Hollywood that even they can’t control nature no matter how much they preach at me….unless it’s with special effects!
Good news for the week is that our dinghy motor has been running all week. Fingers crossed that the last fix was the last fix needed for awhile. We have been running our usual errands and have not needed towing once so that was a great improvement. Our big puzzle of the week has been studying the large fishing charter boat that is berthed next to us. The boat goes out on charter about twice a week. They leave around 8am and return at 5pm. While most fishing boats would leave in the early AM hours, in St. Maarten, boats are basically held hostage by the drawbridges. They only open a few times a day and if you miss that window, you aren’t going anywhere. The Simpson Bay bridge is the most reliable but only has 3 ins and 4 outs daily starting at 8:30am. The Causeway Bridge is usually not working and the repair guy lives in the Netherlands so he has to be flown in for repairs. The French side also has a bridge but like most things and people French, it hardly works. In all the time we have been here, yesterday was the first day we saw the fishing charter actually bring back a fish. One fish. We are hoping ‘catch and release’ is the explanation rather than ‘really bad fishermen’ but I can’t ask them because I have not figured out a polite way to ask if they just really suck at fishing! I’ll keep you posted because at some point, curiosity is going to get the better of me and I’m going to have to ask. We found an apartment for August while Galt is out of the water! I am sure you are saying, “Oh good! One of the realtors finally showed up to do her job.” That answer would be a resounding, “No.” The realtor sent Bill the name and phone number of the guy who owns the apartment. Then, the guy, Damien, had to come pick us up to show us the apartment himself. Now, Damien has to pay the realtor 10% commission even though he did all the work! Our hour long trip to see the apartment quickly turned into a half day event. Damien had several companies including apartment rentals, a construction company and a tour company. He had some errands to run so we were given an unplanned tour that ended with drinks at a bar/restaurant called Sexy Beef. What a great name! We have been busy this week finally buying airline tickets to get to Europe. After a year of planning, it was very exciting to get the reality started! Getting from an island to Europe takes quite a few flights but we did well getting it done in only two flights. St. Maarten to Fort Lauderdale and then direct to Oslo. Oslo? Yes, we added Oslo because there is a new airline, Norse Atlantic, that started flying out of Ft. Lauderdale this week with all flight connections in Oslo. The airline offered grand opening specials that allowed us to get to Oslo for one third the price of a flight into London. So, we figured we may as well see Oslo on the way to England. For the price difference in tickets, we have covered the costs for three days in Oslo, connecting tickets to London and even some of the hotel costs in London! I’ve been staring at London hotels online all week waiting for the prices to magically drop but so far, not so good. Even Airbnb costs are nuts! I’m about ready to call the Queen to find out about getting a room in Buckingham Palace for the London stay. If I’m going to have to spend this much on a room, it better be in a castle! A short blog this week but during hurricane season in the middle of the hurricane belt we will definitely take an uneventful week over the alternative! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the official first day of summer! Over the past week, I have had several inquiries on when we were going to be doing some adventures on St. Maarten. Quite honestly, we are on a budget right now preparing for our boat projects and our super adventurous splurge in Europe so you’ll have to wait another month to get your adventure fix. Our mini adventure this week was Harry Houdinghy living up to his name once again. Early in the week, Bill went back over to Shrimpy’s to pick up the repaired engine. True to Shrimpy’s word, we were zipping right along at top speed! All was well! Until it wasn’t. We went out to dinner with a new neighbor and when we got back to the boat, Harry was gone! The rope we had used had a clasp on it and the rope plus clasp were both still attached to the dock but Harry was nowhere to be seen. We always do our best to not jump to “the dinghy has been stolen” because many locals get a very bad wrap due to boaters not securing their dinghy well. We began walking the docks in the dark trying to see if Harry had floated away. No luck. We were hesitantly beginning to allow the lingering thought of theft to slip into our heads because we could not figure out how Harry could’ve thrown off the clasp in such calm weather. Bill made his way over to talk with the security guards about the situation while I pulled up the coast guard contact information online. A few minutes later, one of the security guards came to the boat and said he had found a dinghy stuck under a far dock. Bill took off to see if it was Harry. I waited impatiently for the hopeful sound of our new motor putting along home. No sound. Bill returned and my hopes were dashed until he announced, “Harry has made his way back home again!” I said, “That’s awesome but I didn’t hear the motor so I thought it wasn’t Harry they had found,” to which Bill responded, “That’s because I was rowing. Good news, Harry is found. Bad news, motor wouldn’t start again.” We still can’t figure out how Harry managed to escape off the dock but he certainly lived up to his name on this escape because it is a mystery. As for the motor, it was returned back to Shrimpy’s shop for another makeover. We have voted this will be the final makeover allowed no matter how many more times the mechanic says, “Just a small issue. All fixed now!”
Other than Harry providing unwanted entertainment, we have just been doing small projects and enjoying the pool. Since it is officially the off season in St. Maarten, we have had the pool to ourselves most days. The pool is part of the country club which offers a gym as well as tennis courts. Tennis seems to be a very big thing here and the courts are usually crowded so we are glad we don’t play tennis! Far too much work when I can choose to float in a pool instead. To get to the pool, we must walk through the clubhouse and check in with the reception desk. The first day we arrived, the receptionist tried to put a colored paper bracelet on our arms to prove we had checked in to use the pool. Bill told her he wasn’t going to wear the bracelet so she said we could just put them on the handle of the backpack. The funny part is that every time we check in, they give us another colored band on the backpack. Not just one band but two bands….one for each of us. We currently have two purples, two reds, two oranges and two yellows. The same three people check us in every time we go. We are the only ones in the pool. One would think that eventually they’ll say, “That’s okay. Just go on in,” but that has yet to happen. No denying the Islanders know how to follow rules! To close out our week we are headed to the movies again for popcorn and Jurassic Park premiere! We will follow up with some delicious shawarma for dinner. That plan may not sound like much of an adventure to others but to me, it sounds like a perfect day in paradise! We are getting into the ease of life in St. Maarten. We are slowly but surely ticking off estimates for boat projects so we can decide what we want to work on this summer. Unfortunately, we had to add one item back to the list. We took our dinghy out for a day trip to run some errands and to get lunch. We noticed it was running a little rough but we optimistically kept going. After lunch, we climbed into the dinghy expecting an easy ride back to Galt. Bill tried to start the motor. Nothing. Again and again, he tried. He even threw out quite a few colorful words that usually work in difficult situations but to no avail. Our new dinghy motor was dead. Needless to say, we were not pleased. Picking up our all to familiar oars, we began to row against current back to the marina. Luckily, a tour boat group called “Rum Bums” was coming back in from their tour day and the guys kindly threw out a tow line. They dragged us over to the marina and we rowed the rest of the way to Galt. The next day, we had the marina dockhand take us and the motor back over to Shrimpy’s to test out his “warranty” he had given us last week. Sticking to his word, he had his mechanic repair the motor and it seems to have been a spark plug issue. Shrimpy swears it runs like a charm now. We will see when we pick up the poor little engine this week so stay tuned for more engine adventures.
Our main event of the week was going to the doctor to get some of our inoculations for our trip to Africa. We needed Hep A/B, Yellow Fever, Typhoid and Malaria pills. We walked into the doctor’s office with no appointment. The receptionist took our driver’s licenses and told us to have a seat. Not one piece of paperwork was given to us. Five minutes later, the receptionist told us to go into the doctor’s office. We sat down and discussed shots we needed. The doctor made his recommendations on the timeline for the shots. He wrote us prescriptions for the inoculations. He then said, “Go over to the pharmacy and get the inoculations that we are going to do first. Then, bring them back over here and we’ll do them”. He did not take our blood pressure or temperature or prod us in any way. He just listened to what we needed and made it so. We were out within 10 minutes. We made our way over to the pharmacy. The pharmacist reported that they had exactly two of all the shots we needed in stock. I told her we only need the Yellow Fever and the Hep A/B at this time but she recommended we go ahead and pay for them all. She would “put our name on them” and we could pick them up when we were ready. Easy enough! We headed back to the doctor’s office with shots in hand. The receptionist took us back to the exam room and proceeded to give us shots. She did not worry about wearing a gown, a mask, protective eyewear or gloves. She simply gave us a shot. It was very refreshing to not feel like we were walking incubators! She walked back behind the desk, I handed her the credit card and we were done! At least until we go back in a month for stage two of the shots. As far as side effects, I was expecting something horrible from the Yellow Fever shot but we did not have any side effects! In fact, it was 100% better than the Stupid vaccine! And for a reward, the doctor gave us a cute, yellow booklet that is an International Book of Vaccination. It looks like a passport but it has all of your vaccines in it. Much easier than calling the doctor in the States every time I needed that information! Overall, it was a very pleasant week, minus the rowing and the shots! This week, we will pick up the dinghy motor for round two and begin to prep Galt for haul out. I do need to take a moment to brag on my nephew, Joel. He took home the gold medal in the Georgia Special Olympics in swimming and this week, he will be competing in the USA Special Olympics in Orlando. He was flown to Orlando on a private jet yesterday so he is living the highlife….my sister had to drive…..such is the life of celebrity! |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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