Amazing to think that this time a year ago we were living in Bermuda in the build up to the America’s cup. Now as we hit the new year we’ve been living on the boat for 6months & the pace is certainly a lot different!
We’ve had a lazy few weeks in Martinique with some great great families. From chalking & skateboarding in St.Anne to hikes and runs via nude beaches, we’ve explored real life “pirate ships” and had various beach parties. It’s been a blast.
We met the self proclaimed Cornish pixie pirates & their beautiful scooner that they bought this year here in Martinique. Chris helped Lee, a triathlon coach, with his rigging change and the kids flung themselves off swings and booms left right & centre. They played at ours, on the beach, but always the “pirate ship” won the hearts. Awesome kids with a lot in common with ours. Hopefully we ll hang out over the coming months.
The beach chalking/ graffitiing in St.Anne went down a storm. Rhonda & the kids from party of 5 continued to be seriously good value. We tried to ply Rhonda with enough booze to loose Mexican train dominoes but failed miserably.
Christmas Eve Potluck on the beach saw the zoo of Cruisers hit the beach. We met many many more great characters and probably ruffled the odd feather. The food was varied and rich and in plentiful supply. I’m not sure my body knew what the hell to make of it & it was not happy. The next while was spent having the most unsavoury swim out to sea. However, I made a speedy recovery and manned up. Not how I saw my day panning out!
With an imminent departure on the cards, we made the most of our time & had party of 5 over for drinks. Not even 1 drink in & I walked full chat into our glass door…Doh!! I’ve had a slight black eye hue and delicate nose ever since!
Christmas was spent sinking our boat with all their presents kindly given them from family in the UK. Suddenly there is no where to put anything and a mass declutter is needed! We headed back to the beach with friends from Nomadica, Marie des Isles & a fab French sky diving couple. Eating a boat Christmas dinner on the beach was a unique experience & it nearly made it there warm. Must admit it wasn’t Elbow beach, Bermuda, but that’s going to be hard to beat. A perfect day was finished off by seeing my first green flash as the sunset- it’s not just some urban legend it turns out!
Boxing Day saw us, ok me, get “flip flopped”; it’s a verb for hanging out with Nix & Haig on Flip Flops. It was their son’s 15th birthday & it was pretty large. Their waterline was certainly a tad low with all the people we crammed onboard the 38ft cat (atleast 35). The sprinkler & lawn mower were out in force atop their tables as well as some other great moves to embarrass the kids with my Mum dancing.
Following a spectacular Beach Olympics with kids from 4-14 to celebrate Sol’s 10th birthday (Marie des Isles) the check out cafe was now open and we prised ourselves away from Martinique.
After a windy week we squeezed ourselves into a weather window. It was pretty breezy and bumpy start until we got into the Lee of St.Lucia. With upto 30 Kts we had 2 reefs, some sea sick tabs to pre-empt kids feeling ill & a good bit of surf downwind. We had a bit of compression between the islands as we came down and things got interesting off St Vincent with a tiny leak from the escape hatch to add to the gusts of 30knts which always seem worse in the dark. But let’s face it…it’s not the Southern ocean! Serious respect to our Volvo ocean race friends and heal quick to those off this next leg because the Southern Ocean flung them around.
We made it to Grenada in a little over 24 hours, we pulled back into Prickly Bay in very little breeze. It was a grey old day and the heavens opened, but the water tanks were happy.
The early part of New Year’s Eve was spent celebrating with friends we first met in the cup world with Prada. Adam & Sarah are taking the long way home to New Zealand via boat, having bought “Sailing Latitude” in France. Our plan was to join the party at Port Louis marina, the relative ritz of the cruising world. Subbing in didn’t exactly go to plan, but the fireworks were pretty cool! So good and slightly surreal to see these 2 diamonds & the 5 friends staying with them.
So the New Year sees us haul out next week for a month. We’re getting some work done on the boat while we take a pretty extravagant trip to the snow in Steamboat Springs Colorado. Secretly I’m not keen to leave our floating home and cannot wait for more adventures on Fille de Joie.
Happy New Year-May you make your dreams a reality for 2018.
The last misadventures of 2017:
-I accidentally dyed my roots ginger & now look like a crap Lindsay Lohan.
-Chris fell down a hatch.
-Harry fell down a hatch.
-I walked into a glass door (only 1 drink).
-I fell off another dinghy (only 2 drinks).
-Thinking 2018 should be the year of no drinks….
Adventures on Fille de Joie 