Adapting to a Quieter Life
Thursday 30 Nov 2023
It is often said that cruising, even in the Caribbean, is not all cocktails at sunset, and we would certainly agree that this is true. There has been a lot of planning and boat work that has gone into this adventure, and as you have no doubt gathered, it can be quite arduous getting the boat south and east. In many ways this activity suits my personality; I love to be busy and have things to plan and work on. However, at some point it would be great if I could dial it back to a slower pace. It was wonderful having Jo, Pete and Simon staying with us for our first ten days in the Caribbean, but now Gloria and I have to get used to being on our own again.
Yesterday morning, after just a couple of hours of sleep, we started the process of checking in at St Martin. Whilst still having breakfast, we were visited by a small boat from the Port Authority and were given some useful information and instructions. We re-launched the “Dainty Dog” and motored over to the Port Authority building and worked our way through the various steps. They needed our passports, vessel documentation and insurance. We also decided to pay for a mooring for a week, closer to shore and with a secure easily accessible dinghy dock, all for 10 euro per night. I have to say, we were very impressed by the local officials; they were well organized, super friendly and charming. So far so good …
We went back to Cotinga, tied off the dinghy, pulled up the anchor and headed in towards shore to pick up a mooring. We had been provided with a mooring map, giving individual depths, and selected an empty one that seemed ideal. However, we couldn’t lift any mooring lines from that ball and realized we needed to tie off our own lines to the ring at the top of the ball (well below the foredeck of Cotinga). We circled around and tried to find the mooring hook we carry for just such an exercise … not where it usually is, and after some frantic searching we found it in a different locker. Then, the clip that holds the mooring hook to the boat hook had broken off, so it required some extra effort to use it. At this point, Gloria and I switched our usual roles and she was driving and I was doing the hook up, which no doubt added to the stress. We had become a little disorientated and argued about which number ball we were trying to tie up to, and ended up on a different one than intended. We got all the lines securely fastened, but we were both frustrated and irritated with each other. It turns out the ball we are on has plenty of depth (10ft) and although classed in a lower category, is only 3 inches shallower than our intended mooring! Obviously, this really was no big deal, and other than having to circle around and taking a little longer to sort out our lines, it all went fine. We were just reacting badly and failing on Tasha’s instructions … “be kind to each other … especially when you are tired”.
After a lovely salad lunch we spent the afternoon doing some boat cleaning. Our sense of humor gradually returned, and after cooling off with a late afternoon shower, we ate a fine dinner of pork chops with pearl couscous, cooked with onion, squash, roasted cashews, raisins and cinnamon. It was really delicious. Good fixes most things!
Yesterday I felt tired and hyper, this morning I feel tired and lazy … I think that’s a step in the right direction!
Mike
We had a great day on shore the following day ... more on that later ... but here are a few shots of some iguanas and lizards that I took up at the fort overlooking Marigot Bay.
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