La Vie en Marigot

Baie Nettlé, Marigot , St. Martin – Perhaps you are interested in hearing a little bit about our daily life in St. Martin.  We have yet to settle into a routine, but slowly we are getting to know the village of Marigot, our surroundings, our neighbors, etc.

Saint Martin, as many of you know, is divided into the French side on the north and a Dutch side (Sint Maarten) on the south, with a big lagoon on the southwestern part of the island.  There is one main road that follows the perimeter of the island, with various little settlements along the way.  The buses drive along this main road, but are not very frequent.  One can stop the buses at anytime, anywhere, without having to wait at a bus stop. If you can believe it… during the peak morning and afternoon hours there is even a traffic jam!

Our apartment is located in Baie Nettlé which is on the strip of land (about ½ mile wide) that hugs the northern part of lagoon.  Therefore, we have easy access to the lagoon and beach.  The apartment complex itself is called Anse Margot and I assume it used to be a resort, since it does have two pools and a restaurant.  The tell-tale sign though is that all of our kitchens are OUTSIDE on the balconies of all the apartments.  I gather these apartments did not originally have kitchens at all but they were added when the building was converted into apartments to live in.  Having a kitchen outside is quite interesting as you can hear/see/smell the neighbors all the time.  I can’t quite figure out how we don’t have ants, though I am very cautious not to leave any crumbs of any kind.  This means I actually have to mop the floor and do all the dishes immediately after every meal, which is not my normal m.o.  For the mopping, I just throw a bucket of water on the tiled balcony floor and squeegee all the water through the little drainhole.  The water then literally trickles down over a ledge to the plants below. Luckily, we are on the third floor so no one squeegees their soggy breakfast crumbs into our cuisine!  Boy, do I miss my Roomba (the self operating vacuum robot) from back home. 

The apartment has a pull-out couch on the first floor, with a full bedroom on the second-floor loft.  Two bathrooms…. Couldn’t have asked for anything better, really!

So, internet continues to be a challenge, only in the fact that we do not have it in our apartment and we are constantly having to use it in a public location.  This is fine of course, but just not relaxing, nor leisurely, nor necessarily comfortable – especially with two kids in tow who constantly either ask to use the computer  or whine because they want to leave.  Sylvan who owns the restaurant here, has no business, so I go as frequently as possible to buy something to drink and use his Wi-Fi.  But the bugger changes his password every day, so it forces me to have to buy something to ask him for the new code!!! I can’t just mooch it off him from my apartment. I am trying to write all emails and blogs beforehand so when I arrive at a place I spend the least amount of time possible.  For this reason, I look forward to next week when school starts so I can sit at a café for a long period of concentrated time to use QuickBooks and do our taxes!  I just have to remember to bring my bug spray…. Those mosquitoes love me – especially when I am sitting still.

It is extremely hot here, and while it feels like it is above 100 degrees, I think it’s really only about 85.  We did have some uncomfortable moments when the electricity was not working in the apartment and we could not use the a/c or the fans.  The owners were very responsive and had someone come out immediately to try to fix the problem.  The electrician came out three times.  On the fourth day, the electricity was out again and I was really frustrated to have to call again…. I was comforted (?) and relieved (?) when the agent told me, “Oh no…. it is not your apartment alone…. The entire island has had a blackout!!” C’est la vie!

 What else? The neighbors on either side of us each have big German Shepherds who greet us at every sighting, including when we’re eating on the balcony.  There a two or three children that I have seen playing around; otherwise I see many retirees and many apartments closed with hurricane shutters, etc.  The kids have been keeping busy collecting and painting shells and going exploring around the complex. 

Saint Martin is a cultural melting pot.  Even though it is only about 66,000 in population (this includes the Dutch side) you can hear English, Spanish, Dutch, Papiamento, Portuguese, etc. spoken all over the place.  I am afraid it is so easy to default to English that I really have to push myself to (try to) speak French.  Today we are chillin’ with the a/c indoors and I am playing the kids’ French software games.

Marigot, the “capital” of the French side, consists of about 3 square blocks.  It is the heart of all activity.  Lots of tourists visiting the outside marché .  And lots of nice shops and restaurants are located along the waterfront so during the day Marigot is bustling.  At night though, everything closes around 5/6pm and the place is dead.  People have recommended we not walk around by ourselves after dark.  I am going to try to get all my errands done in Marigot at the same time.  The bus is $1.50 per person each way and even to use the ATM you have to go all the way into town.  I guess we are spoiled in the States where you can have every service at any time.  We used to having an ATM, a Laundromat, a hair salon and a market on practically every corner, so we don’t have to think ahead… here I feel like on a Friday I need to prepare ahead and think about all the food, money and other items I will need for le weekend.

Our big luxury will be fresh fruits and veggies… we are just going to close our eyes on the cost.  We have grown tired of different variations of the same Bread-Cheese theme:  crackers and cheese, pizza, pasta and cheese.  With a diet super high in carbs, I am certainly looking forward to trying to eat well and exercise more while here.

Sebastian is on Day Three of the Crossing and I finally heard from him today by cruise email.  It is one of the ways we have decided to communicate, and while he will try to check once a day, the propagation doesn’t always allow for a connection. I am supposed to try not to worry if I don’t hear from him in a couple of days.  The backup is a man named Alejandro located in Buenos Aires who has a sailor’s network and offers people help in communication through the Single Sideband Radio (SSB).  Once a day Sebastian – and other Spanish speaking sailors – listen in to the same frequency at 7pm and can talk to one another, relay information and share stories.  It helps the trips go a little more smoothly since it gives you yet another thing to do while sailing, and gives you peace of mind that there are others out at sea as well.  I can email Alejandro in case of emergency or if we find the cruise email isn’t working and he will communicate between Sebas and I.  Trés romantique!!

Anyway, it appears Begonia’s position as of last night was 20º 54´ N y 63º 46´ W northerly winds.  Travelling at 6 knots they are 700 miles to Bermuda . Tomorrow they will deicde whether they will continue north or head diagonally to the Azores.

Our home:  top floor, open balcony, no curtains

View from my cuisine/balcony.  You can see the lagoon in the background. 
This was where Begonia was parked during preparations.

View of my neighor's cuisine.  See how close!  We wave at each other in our pijamas... what else can you do?

Other view of the kitchen.  There's my tiled floor that I squeegee daily.

Living Room with door out to balcony/kitchen.

View of stairs going up to loft from living room.

View of upstairs bedroom.

Another view of bedroom.

View from front door into yard.  You can see others' kitchen's as well.

View of Lagoon, pools and restaurant.

View of Anse Margot from dock of Lagoon (low tide).  You can actually swim on this side of the Lagoon.

Need I say more about the prices???

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FOUNTAINE PAJOT ATHENA 38 CATAMARAN FOR SALE – After our wonderful experience, BEGONIA is ready for its next sailing family – with or without children!  Please contact sebastiankoziura@hotmail.com for more information.

BON VOYAGE, Begonia!

Baie Nettlé, Marigot , St. Martin – Phew!  What a spectacular week!  Since arriving in St. Martin we have been non-stop.   Even before St. Martin with the visit of Enrique and Jane and family, we had (gladly) changed our routine a bit:  no homeschooling, not a lot of cooking on the boat and a lot of sight-seeing.  After about a week in St. Martin, getting acclimated to the island, we were visited by Pablo and Nicole and family.  Pablo is a dear friend of Sebastian’s from Patagonia and he and Nicole currently live in Vancouver.  It was a long journey for them and their little guys:  Lucas (6) and Sebi (4) but they made it here about 10 days ago, renting a condo on the east side of the island in Oyster Pond.   The condo served as our home base where we had a pool, showered, BBQ-ed, etc.  It was thrilling to swim in water that was not salty and use endless amounts of hot water.

Unfortunately the sea was very rough during their visit so we really only sailed twice with the two families – much to the kids’ dismay, since they were chomping at the bit to go snorkeling.  The first day we did get out on the water with everyone, it was very hot and uncomfortable – probably the worst seas we have had yet on this voyage.  Most everyone was feeling a bit queasy  – especially the kids.  We had all the tell-tale signs of sea-sickness:  yawning, burping, irritability, either whining or complete silence and lots of fixating your gaze on a stable marker so that even if someone is speaking to you, you don’t even look their way because the risk of turning your head from the horizon just a fraction of an inch will have you visiting the side of the boat pretty quickly!  Luckily no one actually got sick on the one-hour sail to the little island of Tintamarre where many snorkelers go.  The kids enjoyed it and it was a pleasant treat after having felt so sick.  Most other days we spent at the pool, which the kids enjoyed immensely anyway.

Mid-week, after signing a rental contract on my apartment, the group made the collective decision to change hotels and locations.  This way, we could use the already-paid-for apartment as home base and Begonia would just be parked out in front in the Lagoon.  Pablo and Nicole could save on hotel costs and it would be more convenient due to the apartment’s location for getting the boat ready for the Atlantic Crossing mobilizing people.  Not only did we have the visit from Pablo and Nicole, which in itself was a blast, but we had two other guys, J.C and Daniel, also great friends from Patagonia and crew members for the Crossing arrive midweek, so the dynamic of the group changed a bit with Pablo sleeping on the boat in the lagoon so all the 4 could relive old times, and Sofia and Benjie and me sleeping with Nicole and her boys in the apartment.  I felt sorry for Nicole who had intended to have a nice vacation with her family and then ended up shacking up with us!  The 4 kids had a blast though having a “sleepover” every night… although it sure wasn’t a “blast” for Nicole and I to try to get 4 very excitable little kids to sleep in a shared bed for about 4 nights in a row.

It felt a bit like we were in the “Chicken Little” story where new characters, like “Turkey-Lurkey,” and “Loosey-Goosey” keep  joining forces with others to visit the king… we kept adding characters  to the picture and people to the apartment and boat! 

A couple of days after “J.C.-Schmacey” and “Daniel-Waniel’s” arrival, Lula and Malena arrived.  These two Argentinean women are also friends from Patagonia who have already done an Atlantic crossing.   This will actually be Malena’s third crossing, so input as crew for the Crossing has been important.    Poor ladies ended up sleeping on Begonia’s salon table which converts into a bed.

I always knew we were extremists.  It’s not enough to live n a sailboat for a year (and a half?), but we vacationed with Pablo and Nicole, the 4 boys/men had a reunion, the crew arrived for the Crossing and on top of all this, we worked hard to get the boat in order: repairs, laundry, provisions, water, fuel, etc.  We intended to have a nice Bon Voyage dinner with the 12 of us, but with everyone working so hard and so late, the party kind of fizzled.  We were extremely ambitious.  At least with so many people around the apartment and the boat, we were able to split off into smaller groups once in a while to do a little bit of sight-seeing or relaxing or drinking coffee, etc.

So, with that said, Sebastian and his crew left this morning, Friday, May 6 at 8am to cross the Atlantic.  Estimated arrival in the Azores:  15-20 days.

We are very thankful to Pablo and Nicole for helping with the kids while Sebastian and I were arranging the school for the kids and our apartment, for allowing us to use the rental car for this purpose.  Thanks also for the wonderful meals and gifts for the children.  La verdad se pasaron!  Thanks mostly for their friendship.  It was yet another great moment spent with the Nepomnaschys.

Pablito and Nicole - dear friends

Night on the Town!

Girls' Afternoon in Marigot

The four "cousins"

Just Hangin' at la plage

A Patagonian Planning Party

The Crossing Crew: (l to r) JC, Sebas, Daniel, Malena, Lula

Bye-bye Begonia... we'll see you on he other end of the pond!

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FOUNTAINE PAJOT ATHENA 38 CATAMARAN FOR SALE – After our wonderful experience, BEGONIA is ready for its next sailing family – with or without children!  Please contact sebastiankoziura@hotmail.com for more information.

A Schcolnik Visit

Saint Martin/Sint Maarten - A quick message (at an internet cafe... with everyone waiting for me to go eat lunch on the boat) to let people know we have arrived in Saint Martin, the place from where Sebastian will launch his Atlantic crossing and where I will stay with the kids for the month of May prior to meeitng up with Sebastian in Lisbon once he arrives there by boat.  Beautiful place - will write more later.... for now wanted to share some pictures of the visit we had from the Schcolniks - Sebastian's cousin Enrique, wife Jane and kids... we hope you enjoy the pics as much as we enjoyed actually living it!  It was great to have people aboard to share our experience with us.  We are very thankful to them for making the effort and hope they had as good a trip as ours.

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FOUNTAINE PAJOT ATHENA 38 CATAMARAN FOR SALE – After our wonderful experience, BEGONIA is ready for its next sailing family – with or without children!  Please contact sebastiankoziura@hotmail.com for more information.

Back in the US!

Is it a girl or a fish??

Mastering Kayaking

Getting comfortable in the water

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands – Here we are again in Charlotte Amalie parked at a marina awaiting the arrival of Sebastian’s cousin, Enrique and his family.  They are arriving tonight and we have spent the day in the boat cleaning and getting prepared.  It poured rain so it was the perfect day to be cleaning.

We have been lax in our internet postings due to no frequent internet connection, so I want to apologize.  Now, you’re getting two blog updates somewhat in a row.

The last week or so we have been in and out of the US and British Virgin Islands.  Everything is so close, it is very easy to island hop every day, so we have found ourselves waking up every morning in a new – and beautiful – anchorage.  Specifically for those who are interested, the places we visited, Jost Van Dyke (and the famous Foxy’s Bar), Marina Cay, the Baths in Virgin Gorda, Great Harbor (Peter Island), Norman Island (where we snorkel at the Indians and visited the Caves), Sloper’s Hole on Tortola – all in the BVIs and then Francis Bay, Christmas Cove on St. James Island in the US territories.  This is absolute paradise… although we still think the Bahamas beaches are the most pristine we’ve seen thus far.

We are looking forward to the next phase of the trip:  Sebastian’s Atlantic Crossing and my stay in St. Martin while he’s crossing.  It will be nice to have a change of pace and lifestyle and accomplish two of our goals:  Sebas crossing the Atlantic, of course, and my learning French.  The idea, as I have mentioned to many of you is to rent an apartment and also enroll the children in school so they can build on the foundations they have learned in French, but most importantly so they can hang out with kids their own age and have a bit of a school routine.  Thanks to my Dad who researched all the schools there and thanks to Gabriela who called the schools to find out if this proposition was even feasible for our family. The public schools in St. Martin were not the least bit interested in having my kids for 4-6 weeks at the tail end of the school year, but the private schools we called were.

We said “au revoir” to our French Canadian friends on “RomantaSea,” who are ultimately heading toward Grenada.  I can’t believe we were sailing together for 2 months straight!  What a fun time… and we hope to see them again somewhere in the Caribbean and perhaps back in Treasure Key, Bahamas where they live. “A bientot!”

The kids are thriving every day.  Yes, I must admit that some days the boat seems really small and we are on top of each other, but in general our trip is positive and the kids are growing in leaps and bounds.  Both kids are feeling more and more comfortable in the water.  Of course, since our last blog where I mentioned we had to convince Benjie to get his face wet and run some practice drills off the bow of the boat, he now cannot be stopped and wants to jump in all the time from everywhere.  Not only that, George, from “RomantaSea” taught him how to snorkel, so we can now finally go all together as a family.  Who knows why that is, that children always seem to learn better from others?  Thanks, George!

Both kids will soon replace me as “First Mate” (oh, darn!) as they learn to pull the ropes, tweak the sails and are eager to help when the Captain requests it.  They know when we approach land in the dinghy to grab the rope/”line”, jump off and reel us in…. they know once we have a couple of raindrops to run around the boat closing the hatches.  Both kids are even working on driving the dinghy… we start the motor for them and then they can drive on their own, with us in with them, of course… They can do it better than me, for sure.

Benjie also has become our official “Flag Boy.”  Whenever we see a boat with a flag from a different country (as every boat has a few flags:  a courtesy flag of the country you are visiting, a flag of the country where the boat is registered, and then perhaps a flag indicating where the crew is from), he runs to get the flag book to look up and inform us what country the flag comes from.  Begonia, for example, has a US flag for where we have her registered, but also an Argentian one for the Captain… and we actually have met a few people because of it). 

Sofia is our “Word Girl,” running to look up a word we all might not know… and she delights in being the one to be the first to know the definition.  As far as homeschooling, I have simplified as much as possible to make it more pleasurable.  It is better for both of us and she is doing very well.  She is also still very into fairies and we try to catch them every chance we get!  Each failure to catch one motivates Sofia to tweak her design and add new features to her fairy houses so that “next time she can catch one.”

Meanwhile, we continue to meet other kids once in a while and when we do, we make sure we stay so the kids can get a real good dose of playing.

So… not much more to tell… we will probably stay in the same general area and not venture too far, perhaps repeating some things we’ve seen, since we don’t have a lot of time with Sebastian’s cousin.

NEXT STOP:  St. Martin

Snorkeling is my thing!!

Visiting a lighthouse with our friend Joanne

Celebrating Katie's birthday in Honeymoon Beach

Begonia's crew

Argentinian Restorante in the Caribbean

Everybody getting more comfortable

Caves in BVI

Where is it?

Begonia's crew underwater

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FOUNTAINE PAJOT ATHENA 38 CATAMARAN FOR SALE – After our wonderful experience, BEGONIA is ready for its next sailing family – with or without children!  Please contact sebastiankoziura@hotmail.com for more information.

From Culebra to St. Thomas

St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands – The invitation read “Please Come and Celebrate Katy’s Birthday this Sunday – Honeymoon Bay, St. Thomas.”  The problem was… we were in Culebra, Puerto Rico! But that’s the benefit of living on a sailboat, your home and main means of transportation and having the flexibility to have fun events like this determine your next port of call!  We made it to Honeymoon Bay in time to give Katy a nice cake (I am getting better at baking on Begonia) and to shake our bones a little on the dance floor.  The “place” was literally a cart on wheels with someone selling (tons of) alcoholic beverages… and the “dance floor” was a little space someone designated on the sandy beach, with a guy in the back with a guitar playing Jimmy Buffet covers.  Honeymoon Bay is a haven for many children of the sixties and seventies who came here to St. Thomas when it still was a “virgin” island and they have not left since. Notes of patchouli were in the air.  (Not that there's anything wrong with patchouli.... I'm just trying to give you accurate imagery).

Since then we have visited Charlotte Amalie, the capital city, where I am writing from now.  This is a very different scene… lots of cruise ships and pleasure yachts.  Notes of Gucci, Versace, Louis Vitton in the air!

Back in Culebra we met two other families with lots of kids.  Needless to say our little ones were very happy to commiserate with others on their “same boat.” We ended up spending more time there than expected due to this reason.  Sofia and Benjie are getting a little tired of having just each other…. The little tiffs between them are getting a little more frequent and Sofia now has decided she “wants her own room.”

We have spent the last couple of days running “drills” for the children on the boat.  In the event they were to fall in the water we want them to know exactly what to do:  what does it feel like to fall in from the bow of Begonia (5 feet high), and if we’re at anchor, we discussed remaining calm and swimming to the bridle and/or anchor lines.  If we are running, we discussed remaining calm and floating on their back until we can come back and pick them up.  I was glad we did this…. Since if you can believe we’ve already been at sea 3 months and this is the first time.  Sofia feels very comfortable in the water and her personality is adventurous.  Benjie is more cautious and never liked getting water in his face.  You can imagine how difficult it was to convince him to jump – just once – off the bow to practice the drill.  And that was with me standing next to him and Sebastian in the water waiting for him. Now… the little guy is a fishie… once he jumped once, he could not stop… and now wants to do it every day.

We have met back up with our friends Joanne and George from RomantaSea and are travelling with them today.

Charlotte Amalie has been nice for a different scene than what we have been used to these past few months.  The city itself is very “Caribbean.”  You can imagine the pirates hanging out in the alleys of the town, which are now lines with jewelry store after jewelry store.  The people are extremely friendly.  The highlight was visiting the Jewish synagogue which is the oldest on the Western Hemisphere.  A two-day respite – but it’s time to move on.

NEXT STOP:  Christmas Cove, St. James Island, St. Thomas, USVI

Get the play on words?

The t-shirt was a creation of our dear friends "Los To"

Hats are a must... the sun is getting stronger the further south we go!

I thought the sign on this cart was hilarious.... every time we passed it, it was closed!

Here's Katy and a friend celebrating their birthdays in Christmas Cove.

Charlotte Amalie harbor

No one can stop him now!

Sofia, always the adventurous one, takes a dive....

Now getting fancy... jumping with Papa!

Good guard dog... makes us miss Martita

Big cruise ships, Charlotte Amalie

Street scenes of Charlotte Amalie

Sofia's rendition of the trip so far.... that's her a Benj snorkeling

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FOUNTAINE PAJOT ATHENA 38 CATAMARAN FOR SALE – After our wonderful experience, BEGONIA is ready for its next sailing family – with or without children!  Please contact sebastiankoziura@hotmail.com for more information.