SXM2

When we started covering old ground, flooded our camera, and faced the reality that we were on the home stretch of our trip, my desire to post any updates kind of died. But I'd hate to leave things dangling so here goes....

I can't believe it's been more than three months since we were in St. Martin again. We returned partly because we had to but mostly because we really, really wanted to. Everyone was eager to re-connect with friends. Drew wrote a movie script and Evelyn managed to convince their friends to film it. We had a lot to do in a short period of time! But we had a lot of fun getting there and being there.

We sailed at first light from Barbuda to St. Barth's and grabbed a mooring ball in beautiful Anse de Colombier at dusk. We decided to forego clearing in and visiting St. Barth's. The anchorages were so crowded and the scene just didn't appeal to us. Plus we weren't clean enough. So the next morning we hopped to Ile Fourchue and enjoyed some nice snorkeling off the boat. This is an interesting File fish. We had never seen one with this coloring. 

Nassau Grouper.

Ile Fourchue is private but mooring balls have been put in place and are free to use. Since the anchoring has been limited the turtle grass has returned and so have the turtles! We saw about a million of them. But it never gets old. 

The sail from Ile Fourchue was another beautiful downwinder. It was a short distance so we took our time and enjoyed the boat watching. The kids took in the view from higher up.  

We sailed right through a beautiful race.

We hadn't even dropped anchor in the bay before the kids got on the radio to call their friends. They had to wait for us to clear in and get settled in the lagoon in the afternoon before making plans. But we got together right away the next morning for a trip to the beach. Unfortunately Andy had the camera and took a thousand pictures of Sparkle instead of everyone else. Justin and Drew playing in the waves with an excited puppy. 

The kids stayed on Osler for a movie while we had our first time alone in what felt like years. So we enjoyed a stroll on the French side and an afternoon treat at famous Sarafinas. Lovely!

Shooting of the movie begins! When we agreed to help the kids make a movie we thought it might take a few hours. Ha!

Two days and many frayed nerves later.... 

We took a break from filming due to weather. Which gave Cubby a chance to go to a beach birthday party and spend the afternoon playing games and swimming with lots of other boat girls. And Drew and Justin were treated to an awesome hike with Judith. Here's the path.

More path

A dragonfly. Drew takes lots of photos.

Justin and Judith heading up.

Big spider.

Great view!

A view of Saba.

Justin and Drew taking a break at the top.

I'm glad they weren't standing up.

Climbing higher.

And an even better view. 

Overlooking the lagoon and Simpson Bay on the Dutch side. Tangent is the small catamaran with the dark sail cover on the left of the anchorage. You can really get a sense of why some boats earn the term "mega yacht."

We sat in the shade while Andy and the kids were hard at work. 

Filming the last scene - the rescue! That's a wrap! Thank f*cking goodness.

A final shot of the cast of "The Wreck of the Faith"

Cast and crew. So relieved it's over! In spite of the frustrations, the kids worked really hard and were deservedly proud of their efforts. It was really great that they saw it through to the bitter end and have great memories of this time. The best souvenirs are the ones we don't buy. 

"The Wreck of the Faith"

More grown up time! The kids stayed on Tangent and did who knows what and who cares while we watched (some of?) the Commodores perform on one of the megayachts for someone's birthday. About halfway through our trip they suddenly became older and more independent which gave us more time with adults. Too little too late you rugrats!

We packed so much into so few days that our departure was quite harried. But we still managed to squeeze in a movie wrap dinner with the crews of Sail Pending and Osler. Before that we moved the boat out of the lagoon and into the bay (past this scene at the yacht club)  to stage for a night departure. It was pretty emotional passing through the bridge for the last time. It suddenly became the moment we were really turning our bow towards the end of our cruise. Yuck!