Pre-wedding Episodes: Finding the “Right” Rings

Neither Mark nor I like shopping. But, I’m the woman, which means I “have” to go shopping more often and during those sprees, I end up in Philipsburg once in a while. Philipsburg is the capital of Dutch St. Maarten and shopping heaven for cruise ship passengers. Back Street contains the local clothes shops (where I found my wedding dress) and Front Street exists of jewelry store after jewelry store, after souvenir store, after jewelry store. There are literally hundreds of them and ever since we (I) decided to buy wedding rings, I have been dreading the moment of trying to find a suitable ring in this plethora of stores. While running around town for other items one day, I quickly checked out a few and found a great silver ring, elegant, pretty and affordable. Upon my return to Irie and my excitement about the ring and how easy I found it, Mark’s reaction was: “No silver on the boat!” Silver and a salty environment do not go together and that was that.

So, Mark and I marked a date in our calendar to go shopping for rings together. The question was: what were we looking for? Our requirements: something simple, silver color and not too expensive. We are boat people after all and Mark had already indicated he “would never wear it”. After browsing through a few real jewelry stores, checking out the white gold and staggering at the prices, we stumbled across a split store electronics/jewelry. They had an extensive array of silver colored rings to pick from, especially after depleting their sister store and bringing all the items to our store. Our eye fell on very attractive and elegant white gold rings, a matching pair. The price was too high however and after bargaining a bit, the saleswoman carefully steered us away from them and towards another set of rings we had been looking at. These were made of stainless steel and were a better match for us, our lifestyle and our budget.

Mark and I did some thinking, really loved the expensive set, but didn’t have an extra $500 lying around (and only one of us was going to wear it anyway), so decided to go for the stainless steel. All that had to happen was bargain the price down a bit and have the rings resized to our respective fingers. We held our hands out and discovered the size of our main ring fingers. An hour later, we were the proud owners of stainless steel wedding rings. The price was right, the material perfect!

Later that day, Mark and I met up with some friends at Lagoonies for drinks and live music. While excitingly telling the story of finding the right rings, I glanced over at my married friends’ hands. Curious about something, I asked” Why do you guys wear your rings on your left hand?” They gave me a funny look, explaining that that is the hand you are supposed to wear wedding rings… All my excitement was gone in a split second. Mark looked at me and blamed “Why did you not know this? You are a woman! Women should know this kind of thing.” I got right back at him “And you’ve been married for seven years before, wearing your wedding ring every day, on your LEFT hand!” Then both of us: “Why didn’t they say something at the store where they measured our sizes?” At the end of the day, we just decided to wear our rings on our right hands. It fits our status of always being a bit different. Mark’s explanation: “I tried wearing a wedding ring on the left hand and that didn’t work out so much, so now I’m trying it on the other hand!”

Speedy Haul-out or “on Vacation” in Philipsburg?

Irie had a little problem with one of her engines. Actually, Irie has a few problems with her engines, but this one became a bit more worrisome when the blue turned black saildrive oil also rose in level. This indicated one thing: salt water was coming in. The only way to deal with saildrive issues is… to haul the boat. Didn’t we just do that a few months ago in Grenada? Yep. We just had to do it again. Luckily, there is an affordable boat yard in St. Maarten and Irie snugly fits in its travel lift.

On the first day of spring (after a winter that never came), Irie and her crew left the lagoon, heading for Philipsburg. Mark and I felt a bit excited about finally leaving the nasty “pond”, albeit for the wrong reasons. The cleaner water in Great Bay invited us for a swim and the long boardwalk and wide beach called Darwin for a long walk. Even the chaos of the cruise ship passengers and ferries couldn’t spoil our fun of being in a relatively beautiful place again.

When Monday morning came around, we moved Irie towards the fairway at Bobby’s Marina. A heavy cross wind caused us problems to dock the boat and, with only one line attached to shore and a port engine that suddenly refused to work, Irie turned sideways, creating a bit of a panic. Luckily no substantial damage occurred and we managed to dock safely in the end. Once hauled out of the water, we noticed that the propeller of the port engine had come loose, the reason it didn’t work properly when engaged… An easy fix, especially on the hard.

From the moment Irie arrived at her spot in the yard, Mark and I got to work. We were committed to spend as little time as possible in the hot, dusty and grimy boatyard. Darwin was placed in the shade with a blanket and a bowl of water and he was extremely well behaved. While he rested and stayed put, the humans in our little family scraped barnacles, fixed the prop, disassembled the sail drive, sanded some areas where the paint didn’t hold up and painted them, cleaned the waterline, filled the tank, sun showers and jerrycans with water, waxed a few spots, flushed the fridge hoses, equalized the batteries and cleaned Irie’s deck and cockpit.

In the meantime, a Yanmar mechanic picked up our saildrive and managed –with some effort and time-to replace the worn gaskets. We were ready with all the chores on our list by noon on Tuesday, but had to wait another couple of hours in the dust (this is the Caribbean!) before we got “splashed” again. Out and back in the water in less than 30 hours and for less than $ 1000! Not bad…

That afternoon, we treated ourselves to some peace in the anchorage, a swim to remove all the dust and another long walk with Darwin. Philipsburg has its charm and we were happy to enjoy some of it, too tired to make it back to the lagoon the same day anyway. That was the plan for Wednesday morning. We returned to our usual spot off Explorer Island and got back to The Wirie business. Our “being out of touch” for three days, prompted people to inquire about our getaway and ask us how we enjoyed our “short vacation”. In a way, we did enjoy it, actually!

Our Little Vacation

A few weeks ago, Mark, Darwin and I took a little vacation. I hear you think: “Huh? Aren’t you guys on vacation every day?” No, as a matter of fact we are not. I know this sounds hard to believe, because how can life on a sailboat in the Caribbean NOT be a vacation, right? Well, with vacation, I mean that Mark and I took “the week off”, went on a sailing trip around St. Martin/St. Maarten and did exactly what we wanted, without responsibilities. We sailed up and down wind (to circumnavigate an island you have to do it all at one point), took Darwin for walks on the beach, sat in the cockpit with cocktails, enjoyed sunsets, rested, read a lot and did absolutely nothing whenever we pleased! It was a great vacation…

The first stop on our sailing trip was Grand Case. You’d think we would be sick of that place by now, since we took ourselves and our parents there multiple times, but… it is a nice anchorage and we hadn’t been to the weekly Tuesday festival yet. From 6 pm on that day, the main street is closed off and a lot of artisans and artists have their booths set up. Food is readily available everywhere and some live bands cheer up the night. We didn’t think it was too special, but –once again- we enjoyed the cheap BBQ food at the lolos for dinner. $4 ribs or $2 chicken with a side for another $2. You can’t beat that!

The next day we actually back tracked a bit and anchored in Friar’s Bay. That bay is famous for the reggae bar and restaurant on the west side of the beach. The place is called “Kali’s” and we had to stop by. Sadly enough, our Kali wasn’t around, but nevertheless, we gave our girl some extra thoughts that day. There actually was a dog that looked a bit like Kali, but he was leading a happy life and we’re not ready for a second dog (yet), so we left things the way they are. The drinks were expensive, so cocktail time was on Irie, as usual.

From Friar’s Bay, there is great walk over to Happy Bay, which is only accessible by foot and by boat. Happy Bay has a pretty stretch of white sand with a few palm trees and is very quiet. You see a few nude people, but they don’t bother anyone and we don’t bother them!

Next, we sailed over to Tintamarre, a raved about island on the east side of St. Martin. It was pretty indeed and especially the water was pleasant and beautiful. During the day, however, a lot of charter boats and day trips have Tintamarre as their destination. The beach and the anchorage get very crowded. There is a trail leading to the ocean side of the island, where more peace can be found, but where the sea is pretty rough, resulting in a lot of seaweed on the beach. Between 5:30 pm and 9 am, the island is quiet and attractive. Then we also felt comfortable taking Darwin to shore without the chance of getting yelled at, since Tintamarre is part of a National Reserve.

Closer to the mainland sits Green Cay. We anchored near there, opposite Orient Beach, which is famous for its big nudist resort. Since nudity is nothing new for us anymore and we did visit this area overland, we weren’t inclined to drop our dinghy down. The anchorage was also very rolly, so we just stayed for lunch. In the afternoon, we had a good sail to Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of this island. Here it’s called St. Maarten.

Philipsburg is a very pleasant town. We took the bus there several times and always wondered how the anchorage would be like. The bay is very protected and the water is clear and calm. All the amenities are reachable by dinghy and the wide beach is perfect for strolls with Darwin. A lot of cruise ships stop in this harbor, especially during the high season from November through April. That results in a lot of business and activity in the center of town and on the water. The ferries transporting people back and forth create wake, so we bobbed back and forth quite a bit. After five o’clock, though, all becomes calm and peaceful again. I inquired for some work (with thousands of cruise ship passengers a day descending on the town how could they NOT need somebody else to help?), but the season was dwindling down and no extra help was needed anymore.

We spent a few days in the Dutch capital before finishing our sail around the island. To our surprise, the fees ended up being pretty steep and a little bit ridiculous (pilot fees??) in Philipsburg harbor, so that dampened the fun a bit, but we still enjoyed our stay there. We rounded the west side of the island, saw a few planes land over Maho Beach and studied all the other beaches from a distance. Once the big hotels, condos and casinos made place for smaller buildings or no structures at all, we were on the French side of the island again. We arrived in time for the 2:30 pm bridge opening in Marigot Bay and entered the lagoon again for another extended stay. Now, it was time to focus on money.

One of our goals during our circumnavigation of St. Martin was to check out a new wireless device we put together. This prototype worked splendidly and we could call online from every place we anchored, except Tintamarre, where we actually didn’t even try to connect. Now, we knew we could order more parts and start putting these marine wireless solutions together. One of our many work ideas before we leave this country!

Our Parents' Visits in St. Martin

When Mark and I found out both sets of parents would visit us at about the same time in St. Martin/St. Maarten, Mark got a bit stressed and initially didn’t like the idea. How were we going to split ourselves up, spend enough time with everybody and not give the parents an overdose of each other on this first occasion they met? I promised him it would all work out fine and was excited about this great opportunity for all the parents to meet, the first opportunity in over four years!

My parents, Jacques and Agnes, arrived early March, a week before Carol and Stan (Mark’s parents) showed up. They planned to stay on Irie for a week and we all hoped to sail around the island and explore several anchorages along the way. Bad timing brought us a serious engine problem and just like that, the four of us (and Darwin) got stuck on Irie in Simpson Bay Lagoon. Luckily for us, we were anchored in a very safe, comfortable and convenient spot (with a beach for Darwin and stores for us), before we became immobilized. My parents and I, sometimes with Mark and Darwin, decided to do most of our explorations by bus and one day, we all rented a car to see the sights of the island.

Grand Case, the only other place in St. Martin we had taken the boat, was visited for a tasty lunch and my parents walked from there to Friar’s Bay and cosy, pretty Happy Bay. During their stay, we walked around in Philipsburg, the capital of St.Maarten and in Marigot, the

capital of St. Martin a few times.

We tried the beaches of Mullet and Maho Bay. The second one is famous for its setting, right at the end of the runway. Big planes take off from here, creating a blast that might throw you in the water and when a jet arrives right above your head, you instinctively take a few steps back, because it feels like the roaring machine will hit you. Exhilarating to say the least!

On our tour of the island, the five of us walked some trails on Pic Paradis, the highest mountain on the island with some spectacular views. We had lunch on Orient Beach where we made sure that the southern end of the beach is, indeed, full with nudist. This phenomenon is also noticeable at other beaches on the French side of the island, but never as prominent and publicly as here. In the afternoon, we checked out Oyster Pond and the ruins of Fort Amsterdam near Philipsburg.

By the time Carol and Stan arrived, my parents were settled in their comfortable hotel in St.Martin, bordering the lagoon. We focussed on Mark’s parents for a bit, doing very similar things than with my parents and visiting the same towns and sights. They stayed in a very roomy, self-contained condo at Simpson Bay, St. Maarten, where one of the most beautiful beaches on the island is located. Mark, Darwin and I enjoyed spending time with them and relaxing in the condo and on the beach. Once in a while, I, or we, would go over to my parents’ hotel to check in on them and their activities.

A big highlight was the meeting between the parents. The first time, we all had lunch on the French side and that went well. Everybody got along fine and more “appointments” followed. The whole family spent an afternoon on the beach near the condo, went sailing on Irie and concluded the visits with another lunch near Marigot. Mark’s parents had brought the new piece we needed for our broken engine and from the moment that was fixed, we arranged a day sail for everybody. It felt great to finally leave the lagoon! Mark manoeuvred Irie through the narrow bridge and before long, we glided through the turquoise blue waters of the Caribbean Sea. We stopped at some rocks near Grand Case to snorkel and had lunch on the boat. My mum was still suffering from seasickness, so I brought her and my dad back to shore in Grand Case. The rest of us sailed a couple of hours longer along the north coast of St. Martin and back. On the trip, we crossed the “border” with Anguilla and gazed at the contours of Tintamarre and St. Barth. The weather was wonderful and the sailing awesome!

Mark’s parents left ten days after they arrived and my parents stayed for three weeks on the island. Everybody had a good time and it all worked out fine. We hope to get together again in the future. Mark and I both appreciate the effort of our parents to fly these long distances to see us and be with us. I guess we are a good excuse for a distant vacation and an encouragement for them to see different cultures and places. But, I’m sure, deep in their hearts they would like us to stay put somewhere, ideally within reach, and live a normal life…