Gold Medals, Good Friends

Re-posted from March 4/10...

We were delighted to have our good friends Louise and Janet spend the past 9 days with us! They arrived from Victoria just in time to enjoy the last part of the Olympic Games Caribbean style - and we made sure that St. Marten knew that Canada was in the house! It was so exciting to be able to enjoy both the men's' and women's' victories in hockey with a large contingent of Canadian fans that are here both as cruisers and for the Heineken Regatta that starts tomorrow. Olivia had her first taste of how crazy grownups in a bar can get. Louise and Janet fulfilled the required Exodo entry fee of 4 jars of Adams Peanut Butter and we had to laugh when they gave the jars to us - they were wrapped in such a way that we were surprised they didn't have the Drug Enforcement Agency all over them at the airport!


During our time with our guests, we rented a car and toured the island and poor Janet has a really swell sunburn to show for it. We also went for a day sail out the French side of St.Martin and up the coast to a beautiful bay called Grande Case to do a little snorkeling and also managed to get in a 3 day/2 night cruise to Anguilla (much calmer this time) and then on up to Tintamarre which is a small island off of St. Martin. At the island, we were treated to a great snorkel along side several sea turtles and spotted eagle rays, not to mention the colorful reef fish in between. We had Exodo sailing at 7.7 knots which is quite fast for this boat. On the way back from Tintamarre, we experienced a few more mechanical snags which have added to the list of things to do before we can begin our trip south. Captain Ron spent most of the trip back burried in the engine room tightening belts and adjusting settings. Just as we were entering back into the lagoon for the last bridge opening of the day, one of the belts on the engine finally gave way and we just barely limped back inside to the anchorage.

The 30th Annual Heineken Regatta begins today and runs through until Monday and has brought upwards of 30,000 additional people onto the small island of St. Marten. Every restaurant, beach bar, and refreshment outlet is now a cornucopia of languages and dialects from all over the world, but this weekend, they're all speaking the language of sailing! We hope to be able to take in some of the festivities and find some good places to see some of the races from.