Kitesurfing at long last

Friday 15 February, St.Maarten day 18: Procuring a hire car and some reacquaintance with my kite board.

A wonderful nights sleep in the peaceful Marigot Bay anchorage. So nice to have breakfast surrounded by turquoise water again. There is swell but it’s very very gentle.
I’ve booked a hire car for today, from the Dutch side. But I am now anchored on the French side. So first I go ashore and check prices and availability here, in France. On the Dutch side I find that the rental center has anyway not honored my booking and they now have no cars available till Sunday! I had a feeling this would happen. So I dinghy back the 2 miles to the French side again and arrange a car there. On the way, I spot an interesting sunken boat. See photo 🙂

Before getting the car my nose takes me into a small cafe where I smell fresh French baking and coffee. And there I sit for an hour relaxing, with cafe-au-lait and pan chocolate … or two 🙂 It really is a different feeling over here in France. So laid back, so friendly. And, of course, French eating traditions. When I go to pay I start chatting with a French lady. She has a Jenneau Sunkiss 44 which she lives on. But it lost its mast in hurricane Irma, as did ALL the yachts in St. Martin. A new rig, with delivery from France is a staggering 25,000 Euros. Thats just the rig (mast boom etc), not sails. More than the yacht is likely worth. In France it would be 1/2 this amount. I feel for her, and all the hundreds of other yachts I see, sadly in various states of dilapidation and all with no rig. I guess there are not many who were insured or can afford to repair their boats.

Once I get the car, I go back to Cloudy Bay and start loading up the dinghy. Laundry, kite boards, kites, pump and kiting gear. The dinghy is full! And so is the car once I’ve transferred it all. First stop is to drop off the laundry. I’ll pick it up tomorrow, nice and clean and folded, hopefully. I don’t want Oana to be greeted with an over flowing laundry basket, now do I. Then onward to check out the nearby B52 kite boarding school. I find it on the lagoon side of the peninsula next to a set of condominium flats that have been ravaged by Irma. All still awaiting repair. Infact this whole French peninsula is still clearly devastated by Irma, from 18 months ago. Roofs missing, walls broken and bits of boat debris everywhere. It seems to be taking a long time to clean up on the French side.

At B52, the 3 French instructors are very pleasant. I book a lesson tomorrow, to train on a hydrofoil board. Just before we left Dubai, I did try a hydrofoil, with a 1m deep wing, or “oversized bread-knife”, as I described it! But after 30 mins I was exhausted and with 2 almost broken ankles. I vowed I’d never try it again. But these guys here train with much small foils and tow you behind a dinghy first till you get used to it. I like the idea. But today, I will just have a standard kitesurf to get back into it. I haven’t kited for almost a year now. Union Island in the Grenadines was the last place. Seems criminal considering the beautiful beaches we have seen. Clearly I’m totally spoilt! I’ll certainly never kite in grey cold water ever again!
After a couple of hours of kiting, in fantastic wind and flat water, I reckon I have all my previous skills back. Infact I return to the beach and the kite is still dry. It’s a bit like riding a bike really. But as I pack all my gear away I can feel my body aching all over. Maybe I’m getting a bit to ancient for these extreme sports? Nawwwww. Not yet. I want to still be able to go kiting at 70!

I then drive back over to the Dutch side to pickup the spinnaker and swim ladder fittings. After sitting in a traffic jam for over 30 minutes I realize the 10 minute dinghy trip is actually the quickest way to get around this side of the island.
The spinnaker is ready. They have done an OK job. Not great but it will do. A least we will be able to sell the spinnaker and sock in a working condition. What is not great is how they have re-packed it. It must be double the size that Oana and I had managed to squeeze it down to previously. We will have to work on that before it gets stowed back on board. When I put it in the car, the car is absolutely crammed, back seats down and passenger seat pushed all the way forward. I remind myself why we call this sail “monster!”

I have a quiet evening on board, nursing my aching back and legs. Need to be super fit for tomorrow! I have a determination to learn this new kiting skill. So early to bed in this gentle rocking.

Oh… damn. I don’t have any bed sheets! Maybe I should have done the laundry myself!