First of all Happy New Year my dear reader! I hope you had a great party and wish you all the best for 2019. Make your dreams come true.
I spent my New Year among the crème de la crème in St. Barths. Well.. ‘spent’ is maybe a bit too positive. I was listening to the same live music as they were while I was drooling at them from behind a gate and ‘they’ totally looked their part staring down at us normal people. I didn’t even know there were so many richmans toys..
After I left the lovely dutch family last week I flew to St. Maarten where a friend of a friend was waiting for me to show me around the island, open up his (sailing) network and offering me a place to stay on his boat.
Han did his very best and I met tons of people. Still it was hard. The ARC was such a great event and due to the shared experience everybody became some sort of family. I found out really fast that ‘networking’ outside the ARC is a whole lot harder..
Through Han I got the opportunity to sail in a Melges 24 from St. Maarten to St. Barths. He brought his own boat down so we had a place to stay. Yesterday we sailed the New Years Eve Round the Island race of St. Barths and it was a great experience. It was nice to be out there again.
After the finish the Melges went straight back to Sint Maarten and Han followed a couple of hours later with his own boat. Per my request they left me behind. There I was at the prize giving ceremony with my bag (with my whole life in it!) underneat the table and talking like crazy with people. I still needed a couch somewhere, a group of (freshly) made new ‘friends’ for the evening party and preferably a boatride to Antigua the next day. Luckily my wishlist is not so big.. hahaha..
The first was quickly arranged. I could sleep on an empty local boat docked in the harbour. What a relieve! The second thing was kind of under control until a fight occured between a boy/girlfriend and the group split up leaving me behind… I tried puting my hand up like we used to do in school, but it was of no use. It was 11pm and I was on my own again. For one second I thought about going to my bunk, but I decided against it and moved my way towards the bar.
Just before midnight I accidentally got in contact with 4 crew of a boat that was also in the race earlier and one of them happened to be Dutch. That broke the ice. Talking about sailing was enough to keep the conversation going till far after midnight.
The next day I woke up early because I wanted to be at the Marina office before 8am. Loads of boats would be signing out and I still needed to check the third item off my wishlist.
However, this seemed a lot harder than anticipated and sometimes you just have to accept you can’t control everything.
So at 7pm I am taking the ferry back to Sint Maarten where a cousin of a very good friend of mine will pick me up and allows me to stay at his house. A ‘house!!’, a real bed and (hopefully) a warm shower!! The things you can miss when you are travelling the way I do..
Tomorrow I will catch a plane to Antigua and the adventure continues. On the 7th I will start a 5 day training to get my STCW certificate (A piece of paper that seems to be a necessity if you want a job on a boat..). I will probably rent an appartment because it looks like I will be spending some time down there. I am looking forward to it because I really need to start working out again, eat healthier ánd do some laundry.
We will see how it will work out though because if anything, this trip has taught me that plans are usually there to be deviated from.
Another thing is that this trip totally boosted my confidence in people. I am amazed how everybody is so willing to help this Dutch girl who says she can sail..
Angelasails.com 