Caribbean Christmas

Welcome back Boatblog® Phanz (This Caribbean spelling is infectious.)

Indeed, I should say, welcome back to the award winning Boatblog site. Yes, my friends, we won the coveted prize for MOST VISITED BLOG SITE, during the ARC crossing. Alas, by some travesty of the system we failed to win “Best Blog,” but no matter. We got the people’s vote, and that’s what counts.

And Boatbloggers, that is down to YOU. (And in particular Alan who visited far more times than most, but that was mainly because he kept on getting cut off when he was trying to leave a comment.) So we accepted the award, which was pizza for two, not on our own behalf but on behalf of you ALL. Though admittedly we scoffed it by ourselves. 

And apologies for the long radio silence. This is our first blog since we arrived on this side of the Atlantic, and much has happened since then. We have had lots of visitors, which has made it difficult to find the time to write, and it’s hard to find strong internet connections, but I think the real reason for the delay is that we have embraced the Caribbean holiday lifestyle, and we are just too chilled to worry about this sort of thing.

EMBRACING THE CARIBBEAN HOLIDAY LIFESTYLE

Our first visitors were Rory, Joe and Alice who came out just before Christmas.

It’s quite strange seeing Christmas decorations out when it’s boiling hot and you’re sitting out on the beach.

CHRISTMAS CRACKERS

This is where you get your Christmas fruit and veg.

THE FRUIT BOAT

Though we spent Christmas and Boxing Day in a hotel.

SANTA’S BEEN!!!!

CHRISTMAS DINNER

After Christmas we set sail for Marigot Bay, a few miles south.

It really is the perfect tropical lagoon; palm trees, golden beaches, beautiful sunsets. All the usual cliches. And what’s even better is that it is right next to a thousand dollar a night hotel, and if you’re very nice to the security guard they’ll let you in to use the facilities. (Well it is Christmas.)

USING THE FACILITIES – IN THE INFINITY POOL

(I have no idea why it looks like our faces have just been stuck on to this picture. Rory was fiddling around with the settings on the camera, and this is how it came out. We were there I promise – we’re not just photoshopped on.)

It was here that we had problems with the halyard, and the halyard sheave again (that’s the rope and the little wheel at the top of the mast to you landlubbers.) In fact the halyard broke, so once again it was bravely back up to the top of the mast…

IT’S A LONG WAY DOWN

We may have given the impression that it was Ju that went up the mast. In fact, it was Rory.

SPIDERMAN

All repaired, we set sail towards Martinique for New Year. It was an easy crossing, but I think it is fair to say that Joe has yet to be bitten by the sailing bug.

 

Joe has a need for speed, which doing 6 knots by power of the wind alone does not satisfy. Waterskiing on the other hand…

JOE GETTING HIS SPEED FIX

Martinique is an island north of St Lucia, and actually a part of France. So the food is fantastic. But they speak even less English than a Parisian waiter, so we had to rely on Ju’s Franglais.

And of course, being France they eat all the weird bits of an animal that no true Englishman would ever touch.

DELICACIES FRANCAIS

It is an absolutely delightful little part of paradise.

LE TOWN SQUARE

New Year’s Eve was at a little beach bar…

…which was fun…

…even though the DJ had too much rum punch and forgot to announce midnight, and by the time he remembered he couldn’t find Auld Lang Syne so he did a reggae version of Jingle Bells instead.

We went au supermarche.

GETTING THE PROVISIONS

But it’s not all been fun and games. There’s still plenty of business to attend to.

A HARD DAY AT THE OFFICE

…and it’s not always sunny.

SWIMMING IN THE RAIN

But alas time was against us, and it was back to St Lucia, so that Rory, Joe and Alice could get their flights back home.

And here is a picture of Joe.

 

JOE COOL

And here is this episode’s arty farty picture.

UNE PADLOCK

James and Emma are with us at the moment, so look out for the James and Emma blog coming soon. Available exclusively to theboatblog.com

 

Yo Man

 

Ju & Lyn