We didn’t love Saint Martin on the way south, and that sentiment didn’t really change on our way back north. The island is quite overcrowded; not really very beautiful, in relation to other places nearby; and doesn’t really seem to have any discernible culture. That said, we got a lot of work done on the boat, including a cool upgrade and we got to see Grete’s mom for the third time since we left home 16 months ago.
Haul-Out
Our haul-out at Time Out Boat Yard (TOBY), was really smooth. No issues getting on the pontoon and lifted out, and no issues a month later when we went back in. Also, as far as boatyards go, we had an amazing view, and they set us up in a pretty decent direction to get good airflow through the boat. The bathrooms were clean; the showers were hot; and there were groceries, laundry, and good restaurants a short walk away. The issues were abound in between though.
First off, we had arranged to have work done on our boat about two months in advance. We chose a date for the haul out and set up all the work. I kept in touch every few weeks leading up to our time and lastly contacted everyone right when we hauled out.
The welding work we needed done was delayed due to a family emergency that the welder from FKG had. It was only a week or two behind schedule and we are really happy with our new dinghy stabilizers and Starlink mounting bracket. We also had them straighten out the bent stanchions and pulpit mount that were damaged when we got dragged into a couple of months ago in Point-à-Pitre.
We were supposed to get a new fridge installed, but when it was actually time, they said they didn’t have the fridge in stock (despite saying so before) and that we weren’t on their schedule. We called another place and they were responsive and super friendly…and quoted us almost $5,000 for a $2,000 fridge. In the end, we ordered the fridge ourselves, shipped to a freight forwarder in Miami and got it about two weeks later. So far we are very, very happy with the new front-loading fridge. The kids can actually grab themselves a snack or drink now, and it keeps our food cold. The fridge also has a freezer which expands our ability to stock up on meat for more than a day or two at a time. Most importantly, it does all of this using far less energy that our old fridge (less than half from what I can tell after several weeks of use).
We also had some rust coming through our keel as well as a few spots where our bottom coating was coming off so that sea life was able to easily grow on our boat, slowing us down substantially. We had lined up the best guy on the island for our bottom type (a product called Coppercoat), but when we actually got to the yard, he jerked us around for a few days before finally saying he was too busy to do our boat. So, we had the keel sanded and primed by a shop in the shipyard and Grete and I applied the new Coppercoat ourselves. It is the most finicky product in the world. It is the best bottom coat on the market, but the preparation and application must be done in a vacuum at 60 degrees, or damned near that. We did our best and time will tell. The image is of the keel right after we hauled out (bottom right), then after rust inhibitor was applied (top left), then primed (top right) and after Coppercoat application.
We had a shop lined up to replace our timing belt and service our fuel injectors as well. Everything was looking good, but then the day that they were supposed to show up, I called since I hadn’t heard from them. They informed me that they had a fire in their shop a week before we got to SXM and that they lost the tools, etc. needed to do the work.
Our last big fail was that we had a carpenter lined up to help cut out the wood for the fridge install, and to do some wood panel repairs and replacement on the Hoss. He was super responsive and accommodating and everything was looking really good. On the day he was starting work, he and his helper came aboard, put up plastic sheeting and started getting to work cutting out the old fridge. They removed the old Freon line and had to get off the boat for a few minutes while the gas dissipated. In that few minutes, things imploded. I was in the electronics shop talking to Hervé about our autopilot and apparently the yard manager, who lives on the boat right next to ours, lost his mind. He started yelling at the helper and ultimately kicked them both out of the shipyard. When I asked him what was going on, he said that no one gave them approval to be in the yard. I told him that I let them in because the woman who works in the office (incidentally, his wife) was in the hospital for cancer treatment so there wasn’t anyone in the office. He started yelling at me about how the guy was under his boat, rifling through his stuff and that when he confronted the helper, he blew him off and disrespected him by strutting off and puffing out his chest. Absolutely none of that was even a little bit true, but as we found out in that moment and others, the yard manager is completely insane and blows up all the time. Also, he’s crazy racist, evident most clearly in the fact that he was kind of mad that “it’s one thing to be disrespected in my own boatyard, but by a black guy?!” What an absolute piece of work. So, we had no fridge and no one to do the work since they were no longer allowed in the shipyard. We were walking on eggshells for a few days until we realized that he doesn’t seem to remember anything happening. Obviously, since I already discussed the installation of the fridge, we did find someone else to do the work. They didn’t do as clean of a job as the other guy would have done, but all in all it ended alright for us. Add this in with everything else and the first week in the yard was absolutely gut-wrenching.
We did several ‘small’ things that weren’t exactly simple, but still don’t make for interesting conversation. We replaced our alternator due to squeaky bearing and had the old one repaired to keep aboard as a spare. We had some small engine work done, specifically fuel injector service and timing belt replacement. We replaced the shaft seal and cutlass bearing. We replaced a thru-hull and all related hoses and valves for our toilet holding tank discharge (which seems to be working very well now). Cruisers know the importance of being able to empty that tank with ease. After the addition of a solar arch and the shift of the dinghy storage to the stern of the boat, the waterline has gotten lower in the back end. So, while we were already sanding, priming and coating, we moved the waterline up a bit right at the back of the boat so that we stop growing a green beard on the back of the boat. With all the other painting, we also had our green boot-stripe that goes around the boat redone. Now it looks really green and shiny. We also had someone troubleshoot our auto-pilot and then we had the faulty motor repaired at the same place as the alternator (Claxton’s repair shop in Philipsburg).
I think when I ran us aground in Martinique on our way south, the rudder got a hairline crack in the bottom, aft corner. We had the rudder ground down, re-fiberglassed, faired, and primed before Grete and I Coppercoated it.
One other shipyard thing was that right before we hauled out, I had decided to grow a beard, but just a bit. Then, Grete told me I wasn’t allowed to shave until we were going back in the water. So, fast forward a month and I had a legit deer-season beard, in the tropics.
Sight-seeing and Friends
Of course, we didn’t just sit in the yard. It may have consumed my time, money and patience, but Saint Martin being a great place to ship in parts and access skilled labor makes it a spot where lots of cruisers stay for extended periods. All that basically boils down to: kid boats.
The day we hauled out was the birthday of a friend of Dublin’s from Grenada whom we hadn’t seen in several months. We met up with them and others at a beach party at a famous beach called Maho. The beach is nothing special, but the planes coming to and from SXM land and take off right over the beach. The back blast of the jets taking off basically sand-blasts all the people dumb enough to stand in the way. We watched from a little ways off, of course you still get some sand blast.
In driving around to get boat parts down on the Dutch side of the island, we drove past the most ridiculous port-a-potty truck in history.
Every day at 4pm, the track right next to the shipyard was a meeting place for all of the boats with kids in the area. Some days there were just a few of us, and other days there were tons of people. The kids were essentially feral and the adults just hung out chatting while the kids ran off their energy. It was a great thing to do at the end of each day and we got to meet up with tons of friends we haven’t seen in weeks, or months.
Every Friday, a restaurant called Buccaneers has a “kids night”. They have free face painting, cotton candy, and popcorn and cheap buckets of beer for the adults. We went every Friday we were on the island and the kids and us made new friends and played with old friends.
Buccaneers is in Simpson Bay on the Dutch side which is a great place for watching the sun set. One night we had a great crepuscular ray sunset.
Our last week in town, we went one last time. Like the 3-4 weeks before it, the gluten free pizza crust was still unavailable (finished in island terms).
Our schedule and access to dining, etc. has made it a challenge for me to take Dublin out for his birthday date. We were finally able to go out for a nice meal, complete with dessert, right before we left the shipyard. On a side note, I was going to take Dublin the day that I shaved my beard down to just Walter, my mustache, but Dublin hates the mustache so much that he started crying and said he didn’t want to go. I relented and got rid of poor old Walter so we could go the next day.
On the day we dropped off the autopilot and alternator for repairs, we also headed to downtown Philipsburg and strolled around for a bit. We ate some ice cream, and found a cool walk-through trellis path lined with flowers and vines of all types.
We also hit up That Yoda Guy museum, which is owned, and run by one of the guys who made Yoda, and other animatronic characters from just about every movie from the 60s-80s. He is getting up there in years but is still really passionate about his work and hung out to answer questions and everything. It was a super cool spot.
One positive thing that I already mentioned about the location of the shipyard was the nearby eating options. We ended up going to Le Dock a handful of times. The waiter was always quite drunk, the food always quite good, and the prices very inconsistent based on whatever random discount they gave us for the kids.
One night, the chef was telling us not to leave in his broken English and pulled up a translator app that said “I spit fire”. I wasn’t sure what he was trying to say. He said “Birthday” and pointed to a couple of nearby tables with several kids. We pieced it together and were super glad we stuck around.
Muddah Goose Visit #3
Since we knew a couple of months in advance that we would be in SXM for several weeks (at least), Grete’s mom decided to come for a visit. An old family friend named Eric, whom we hadn’t seen since 2010 also came along, so that was cool.
Due to the heat, sun, and hilly terrain, we were somewhat limited in what we could do with them but managed to have a good time and eat some great food out.
Every Tuesday at Grand Case, there is a Fat Tuesday celebration, sort of a mini-Mardi Gras. There was music, costumes, and food all around and vehicular traffic was blocked off. We had a good meal and a really fun time, even joining in and moving along with the small parade for a quarter of a mile or so until the end.
The Air BnB they stayed at was right next to the beautiful cliffs of Cupecoy Beach on the west coast of the Dutch side.
There was a spiral staircase down to the beach where there were cool caves and rocky shoreline.
Most days, the kids got to go swimming in the pools on the property and they all had a great time keeping cool in the heat.
Their visit spanned Easter Sunday, so Muddah Goose brought some eggs for the kids.
We drove out to Philipsburg to go to Parrotte Ville, a small Parrot park where you get to hang out among tons of colorful birds and feed them to your heart’s content.
Dublin got rather attached to one parrot when we first got there, I think because it was the only one that didn’t seem interested in eating.
I pretty much never fool around with the slow-mo stuff on my phone but decided to give it a whirl to catch the birds in flight. I’m pretty happy with how it came out.
We hiked up to Fort Saint Louis with Muddah Goose to show her the views of Marigot Bay and the fort ruins. Eric decided to skip the outings for the day so he isn’t in the shot.
Our last stop during her visit was to go to David’s Hole (Trou David), which incidentally is the only thing I had really felt like we missed on our fist pass of Saint Martin. Now that I’ve seen that, I think I can say it is unlikely I’ll ever feel the need to return.
Since we had so much work done, we decided that the best place to go next was not straight to the BVIs as we had planned, but rather to nearby Anguilla in case anything needed fixing. We managed to convince two other boats to join us for the trip, which I’ll talk about in the next post.