Life on the Lagoon

Our week here on the Lagoon at St Martin has not been all beaches and sunbathing.  Instead we have been fixing and fitting.  St Martin is a yacht chandlery mecca, having two massive chandleries and a number of specialist shops stocking parts for every make and model of generator, air conditioner and water maker available.  Most of the boat shops are right on the Lagoon with their own dinghy dock, so are easy and convenient to get to.  Half of the Lagoon is on the French side, so we have been dinghying there to buy gear and parts too.

The heat seems to have skyrocketed since we got to the Caribbean late last year.  It doesn’t help that we can’t jump off the back and have a swim to cool ourselves down.  The water is not clean enough to swim in the Lagoon, nor would the water be particularly refreshing at 32 degrees Celsius.  Added to the heat and lack of swimming relief, we (well ok, mainly Gary) have been working in confined spaces to service the generator and engine – which are hot in themselves.

Suffice to say, we have been running the air conditioning a lot at night to cool the bedroom down before we go to sleep.  We didn’t put any value on the air conditioning when we bought the boat, but now I can’t imagine life without it.  It is the best thing since sliced bread.  Although we can’t run it all the time, it is so fabulous to be able to cool down when we really need it. 

We have had some fun adventures this week.  Last night we decided to treat ourselves to a dinner out.  We went to Bistro de le Mer at Marigot.  We greeted the waiter in French and were shown to our table.  It was not until they asked us something which must have amounted to “what would we like to drink”, that they realised we didn’t speak a word of French.  But the French here are much more relaxed than those in Martinique.  As half the island is Dutch, but English speaking, everyone here seems to be able to speak both languages fluently and are happy to converse in either.  I ordered the Linguines Fruit Mer and Gary had Carré d'agneau - both were amazing.

I am, however, getting itchy feet and eager to move on.  Working on the boat and waiting for parts to be ordered in isn’t the most fun to be had in the Caribbean.  All the nice beaches here are unfortunately too far to get to by dinghy or on foot so we are stuck in the Lagoon for now.  We are hoping to be on our way to St Barts late this week, where hopefully we will be swimming, chasing turtles and basking in the sun once more!