Simpson Bay Lagoon, Day 5

Well today is the day that Johanne and Steve arrive and I couldn’t be more excited, but the weather is still against us.  Erika may have been downgraded to a depression but she has a huge cloud formation around her and this morning, she decides to dump it as rain on St Martin.

The boat is still in such a mess I could cry.  I have to get Johanne and Steve’s cabin ready so after much heaving around we manage to get all the aft cabin beds and mattresses etc into the other aft cabin rather than the companionway, leaving me room to get into the stern cabin to clean, tidy and make the bed.

Photo:  The mess

We then had to get Jeannius over from the middle of the slip to the dock on one side so we can get on and off.  Mike goes out in the dinghy to get the stern anchor up.  This is really difficult because it is bloody heavy with a ton of chain attached to it too, and also because if it comes up with the pointy side uppermost it could puncture the dinghy.  I pull in all the rope then Mike brings the dinghy back very slowly – it is so low in the water.  He heaves the anchor onto the back step and leaves it there until he has some help to take it to the bow locker.

Getting Jeannius pulled to one side is a tedious process.  From the dinghy Mike removes some of the stern warps then goes to the port side and undoes the huge new warps where they were doubled back to the dock.  I then have to heave them onto the boat through the water as quick as possible because for some reason there is diesel spillage in the water and we don’t want it on the nice new warps.  They are so heavy and I have to work quickly.  We then loosen all the warps on the port side and rush over to the starboard side to pull the warps in tighter.  Then it’s back to the port side to loosen again, and back to starboard to tighten.  This goes on, backwards and forwards until Jeannius is at last against the dock.  All this time it has been throwing it down with rain.  I have just my deck shoes, a swimming costume and my faithful hat.  The guys in the marina office watch us from the office window, no doubt amused that stupid English people not only go out in the midday sun but also in the pouring rain.  At one point we have to take shelter as the rain is coming down so hard it’s like needles.

We are unable to locate a hire car near the marina, so we get a taxi to the airport.  The Air France flight is slightly delayed so Mike goes off to sort out the car and I wait at the arrivals gate, craning my neck to get a look around the automatic doors every time they open to see if they are coming.  Mike just arrives back and I turn round to talk to him.  I turn back and Johanne is there.  Squealing with excitement I bound round to greet her.  Enveloped in a tearful bear hug, we must have looked a right pair!  While we are doing this, I presume that Mike and Steve are no doubt doing the blokey thing – a handshake and an ‘alright mate’ greeting – but apparently they hug too, albeit a quicker one than Johanne and I!!

Luckily by the time we leave the airport it has stopped pouring.  We go back to the boat and almost immediately have to go to do the provisioning so it’s off to Le Grand Marche.  We fill the trolley with goodies and then have fun trying to get it all into the limited storage space on Jeannius, but I am getting very good at this so it all fits.

Although they are both shattered after their long journey, Johanne and Steve decide, correctly in my opinion, that their best option is to stay up until normal going to bed time here to acclimatise to the time difference, so we go out for an Indian meal to Lal’s, back by the airport.  We have a great meal.  (No, Victoria, no one eats a Bunny, which, if anyone else is reading this and is horrified by having bunnies on the menu, is actually a chicken curry served in a loaf of bread!)

Everyone is flagging by the end of the meal, so we go back to the boat for an earlyish night.