Christmas; Very busy time

I have not done an update in a while, I am not sure where to start.

It has been very busy, with the Newtons visiting for a few days, and now
Paul, Joanne and Valerie (PJV) are here for 8 days. Dana arrives before PJV
leave, then Jonathan and Katie arrive the very next day.

Had a great time with the Newtons, but it is clear that some of them are
glad to be ashore. One of the highlights for me was when Stephanie was using
my training kite to tow herself downwind in the inflatable tube. She started
to get alarming speed, which when coupled with an inherent lack of course
selection resulted in her heading out into the open harbor and deeper water
without any real control. I was running through knee deep water (read:
slowly) chasing her yelling "CRASH THE KITE, CRASH THE KITE". She heard me
and did so, negating the need for a dinghy rescue.

Christmas on the boat was great, thanks to the thoughtfulness of PJV, who
brought me several presents which were eery in their accuracy and precision.
I spilled red wine on my shirt, and Joanne says, "oh, I will give you one of
your presents early - We bought you a stain remover pen". Spooky. Then I
used some duct tape to secure the broken head door, and it left adhesive on
the wood. "Here is the gum remover we bought for you". Weird. I am so glat
that they did not bring an emergency pump or man overboard equipment. Or a
fire extinguisher, or epi-pen. Phew.

We are off to islands south of here, leaving today. We will head to Antigua,
but depending on the sea state, we may get turned back, or head to St Kitt's
or Statia.

ttyl

I never thought I would utter the words; Kiting Galleon

Today the Newton girls discovered kiting. I set them up with a 1.8 meter
training kite and left them to their own devices. We did nearly bean a local
kid with the kite. Laurie from Cat Tails took the controls thinking it was
just like his two line kite, but it responded differently, so he crashed it
pretty quickly. Poor kid never even saw it coming. It as a lot like the time
my niece Anna crashed it right AROUND her cousin Jonathan. This young fellow
was just minding his own business, making a sand castle, when WHAMMO, an
ICBM takes the castle out, and he was nearly collateral damage.

The Newton girls took to it like flying fish - by the time I came back, they
were body dragging across the lagoon. The prior day we took the surf board
and towed it behind the dinghy, both girls managed to stand up and ride.

Today's nudity report: I was headed back to Madness with Steph and Val who
are 19 and 18 respectively, when a Catamaran pulled up to a mooring that I
was anchored too near. I went over to discuss with the skipper, having seen
a fully clothed woman on deck. The woman was clothed OK, but the man, who
appeared clothed from a distance, was in fact clothed only from the waist
up. By the time we discovered his subterfuge, we were committed to
discussion the anchor situation. This discussion, held primarily in their
weak English and impromptu sign language, went on for some time. When AI
looked at Steph, her expression was priceless. She said that she found many
facets of their boat much more interesting to look at than on other boats.

We later discussed the situation, and decided that it was OK to say: I am an
American and therefore not entirely comfortable with nudity, could you put
on a Speedo?" No there is a string of words that I never thought I would
utter: "would you put on a Speedo?"

ttyl

Guests, Guests, and more guests

Ted has come and gone, and now the Newtons are here. As soon as the Newtons
leave, Paul, Joanne and daughter (whose name I cannot recall) arrive. Then
Dana arrives, then Paul, Joanne and daughter depart, then Katie and Jonathan
arrive, then Katie and Jonathan depart, then Dana departs, then maybe Ken
and Leann arrive. Phew!

I am very glad for the company, but the logistics are a challenge. So far,
so good.

Beautiful day today, we may set sail for St Barths, but we will not check
out of St Martin until we establish that everyone is seaworthy. Otherwise we
will do Grand Case and Cul de Sac, maybe Baie de Orient.

The kids enjoyed the nude beach, especially the humorous prospect of having
a nude waiter in the restaurant serving you your scoops of ice cream or your
sausage platter. We decided that it was a good idea for all tables in a nude
restaurant to be bar height.

Full Moon Party

After hearing Sophie and Frederick's tale, we were invited to a full moon
party above shell beach. There is a trail that leads up to one of the
smaller hills. Just bring a few beers and yourself, we were told.

We arrived a little after sunset, and found a small group of people having a
picnic, waiting for the moon to make its appearance. Good food, good wine,
and most of all good music! There was a classical guitar player in the group
(who by day is in the villa rental agency business) who was amazing. YoYo
and Frederick joined in on the spoons, mouth harp and bottles. Frederick
eventually joined in on the ukulele.

The songs were all in French as was much of the conversation, but the event
was not lost on me. I was thankful to be there on that beautiful hillside
experiencing their Joi de Vive. I am at a loss for words...The experience
was so much more than I know how to describe.

BTW - We hosted a small cocktail party on the boat last night, and I found
out two bits of info regarding previous stories - First, Frederick did not
fight to save the boat for two days, he hit the whale in the morning and the
boat was scuttled before sunset. I had been wondering about when YoYo
changed co-pilots on his motorcycle trip from his friend to Edith; It was
after he completed his first world tour and was back in Switzerland. He then
proceeded to do it again with Edith. This time they went through Canada to
Alaska and down the inside passage. There they kept seeing people cruising
in boats, and thought it looked cool, so they sold the motorcycle and
sidecar for a premium price to a collector who was fascinated by its
history, and bought a boat. Off to French Polynesia!

Sophie and Frederick

BTW - I sent you a picture of two women smoking in a café last time; I just
thought they looked so French, that I took their picture and sent it along.

Also BTW - Last night we sat on the deck of THE Villa and watched the
Maltese Falcon set sail and head over to Simpson Bay. It was a fantastic
sight. It looks like it sails like a 50 footer.

I think I told you that when we were looking for YoYo, we stopped by his
boat Cheriveri (this is old french for a sea chanty that mocks the captain)
there was a man on board, who knew YoYo and wuold tell him we had come by.
After hanging out with YoYo in the Villa, we went back to his apartment
where we met that same man again - Frederick, along with his wife Sophie.
Over early afternoon beers, we learned Frederic and Sophie's sad tale. It
had happened just two weeks ago.

The lived on their aluminum boat for 12 or 20 years, I don't remember, and
decided that it was time for an upgrade to a larger catamaran. They brought
their boat to Annapolis and sold it there, and bought a Cat. They pulled the
two boats up next to each other, and transferred all of their wordly
possessions and memorabilia from world cruising on their new boat. Sophie
flew back to St Barth's to attend totheir life here and finish the paperwork
on the boat ownership and insurance, and Frederic and a friend set out for
St Barth's. A few days into the trip they struck a whale. I think he said
"Mal chance".

The whale was mortally wonded, and unfortunatly, it appeared to them that
the Cat may have been too.

The whale suffered a large gash in his back, and swam off streaming a swath
of blood meters wide. Frederick could not tell what kind of whale it was,
nor the extent of the injury, as he had to turn his attention to his boat.
The forward compartment on one of the hulls was compromised which did not
present a great problem. Like most cats, there was a watertight bulkhead
behind this compartment. But the saildrive had been stove in, and in
addition, the rudder had been twisted up into the stern section of the hull.
He had water coming in to the forward, middle and aft sections of the boat
on one of two hulls.

One nice thing about cats is that the don't have any ballast. Madness has
about 8000 lbs of lead in her keel to provide righting moment. Cats rely on
form stability to keep the shiny side up. So Frederick did not have to worry
about the lead dragging the one good hull to the bottom. They had a fighting
chance.

I was spellbound listening to Frederick tell the story, sipping on our tall,
thin Heinekens at the table in YoYo's living and dining room. On the wall
above Frederick was the picture of the motorcyle and sidecar, not far away
was the guest bed with it's white mosquito net draped over it. Frederick sat
next to two open windows with no screens to block the view of St Barth's
harbor below and hills above though YoYo's lush tropical plantings. I
realized what a rare privilege it was to be there hearing his story and
experiencing the culture adventurous and fun-loving people. I asked
Frederick and Sophie if I could take their picture, the result is attached.

Frederick and his friend fought to save the boat for 2 days but were losing
ground. The USCG flew over to assess the situation and to see if Frederick
was willing to abandon ship. The julls were sinking lower in the water, and
the good hull was starting to be threatened with flooding. Also, they were
not making much progress toward land.

I don't know what information was available to Frederick and Sophie at that
time, but not all of the paperwork was completed on the boat, and their
insurance was not in force. So I cannot tell you if he knew this when he
told the CG that he was ready to abandon his ship and all he possessed in
order to preserve his life.

The Coast Guard routed a frieghter bound for Puerto Rico to his aid, and
they were delivered there. The reason we met him on YoYo's boat is that they
needed a place to live.

What is remarkable was/is their humor and good spirits. You can see moments
when the magnitude wheighs them down, especially with Frederick...but he
shakes it off and tries to lighten his spirit; I think for himself more than
for his company. He said yesterday in french "time to turn the page and look
to the other shore" In French it rhymes - Paagsh and rivaagsh - so it is
more poetic.

So enough of this sadness, Frederick concluded. Tonight is the full moon
party, do you want to come?

ttyl

YoYo

I promised you a glimpse into YoYo's life here in St Barth's so here we
go...

We headed to St Barth's on the promise of a party. Ted knows a Jazz singer
Christine Gordon www.christinegordon.com who performs often in St Barth's.
She promised us a party and a performance, so we had no choice but to set
sail.

We sailed into St Barth's a few days ago, and started looking around for
YoYo, his son Gael and their friend Kareem (who I called Guy in a previous
post, because I could not recall his name; sorry). You may recall that Omar
killed Kareem's boat.

As we sailed in to the harbor, we had much to look at. First we sailed
circles around the Maltese Falcon super yacht) (Google it, you will be
amazed). We also swung by Emerson Fittipaldi's yacht "Pilar". Then as we
approached the inner harbor, we admired a house high on a precipice looking
back over the harbor entrance and admired the architecture stonework and
location of this villa, and we waved to the men on the deck who seemed to be
watching us sail in (obviously with envy).

We found a spot to anchor, and went in in search of either Christine or
YoYo. We found Christine right away and met her at Le Select and made plans
for the evening. At Le select, we asked the Bartender about YoYo, and he
pointed to the house on the precipice and told us that YoYo lived there! We
walked up and found that it was YoYo that was waving to us, and he had
recognized Madness.

The villa belongs to the guy who owns Bannister's wharf in Newport, and YoYo
is the live in caretaker. If you want, you can rent the villa (~$100k/week)
He took us up to the main house (there are 2 houses and 2 guest bungalows)
through the courtyard. As we walked across the teak deck, turtles started to
appear out of the hibiscus bushes moving toward us like little reptilian
zombies, moving slowly, but clearly heading toward us, inscrutable intent.

"Ah, these are my turtles, they come to me when they hear my footsteps! Pick
them a Hibiscus, they love to eat them" see pics. YoYo was justifiably proud
of his gardening, his herb garden with Ginger, mints, sage, thyme, etc. and
his naturally balanced fish pond above the infinity pool. No pumps, no
chemicals, just an ecologically balanced system, which I think is very hard
to do. We looked down on his 44' Jeanneau Sun ??? And Madness right below
the cliff.

YoYo showed us around the villa (more pics) and invited us back to his
apartment in the second house for refreshments where we once again met
Frederick and Sophie who lost their new catamaran on the delivery back to St
Barth's.

I can't remember whether I told you about them, I will go back and check. If
not, I will tell you about that tomorrow. I must go eat my croissant now.

BTW - we were invited to tour one of the superyachts today, and YoYo offered
us his car for the day. Nice!

ttyl

St Barth

Really, I have nothing against my American heritage, but now I think I may
want to be French.

Last week, I met three men from St Barth's in a 26 foot boat. They were
waving enthusiastically to me as I sat in the dinghy talking to another
cruiser. They wanted a ride to shore, which I was happy to oblige. Once I
deposited them on the concrete wharf, one at a time, timing each with in
incoming swell, they invited me to join them later for drinks.

Drinks turned into drinks and dinner with good conversation and growing
fellowship. Yo-yo and his son Gael (Guy-el) were bringing Gael's boat back
from repairs in St Martin to St Barth. They had Gael's friend Guy (Gi) along
for the ride. Guy's boat As the conversation unfolded, I Learned that Guy's
boat had been destroyed in Hurricane Omar. He was not without humor about it
though, we spent a good deal of our time talking about different ways to
dispose of the wreckage - like C4, spreading rumors that the ballast was
contraband, having a boat de-construction party, where everyone goes home
with a souvenir. As you may have already guessed, no actionable plan was
arrived upon.

Another bit of humor regarding his lost boat. There was a news story in
France that was very much in the public dialogue regarding a women who was
murdered and had apparently scrawled in her own blood "Omar killed me". See:
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/10-17-2002-28398.asp Well, after the winds
subsided, someone went out and scrawled "Omar m'a tuer" on the bottom of his
boat. See the picture.

Yo-Yo told me that he had once traveled the world on a motorcycle with a
sidecar. He went all through North and South America, then took a freighter
to Cape Town, and headed north through the dark continent. They went all the
way up through Europe. Somewhere in those travels, he met his wife, and she
joined the trip in place of his friend. See the picture of Yo Yo and friend
in the dessert. He said that they saw the bones of a camel in the desert and
took the picture to say "F%$& you desert, you killed the camel, but we are
still alive!".

We are in St Barth's now, and have looked looked up Yo Yo. Wait until you
hear about his life on the island...

ttyl