Saint Martin

The fun at St. Barts had to end eventually or so I am told. We had a great time hanging out with all of the people we met throughout our visit. What a slice of *expensive* paradise. Our trip was marvelous and the only bad thing we heard about was the day before we left. A boat named Wild Horses reported it's big red dinghy lost or stolen. The worst part was that the last guy that tied and locked it up was not on Wild Horses at all. Anyhow the rumors began flying on such a small island and settled on our ears as a yellow ketch stole it. We had seen the particular yellow boat in question a few days earlier at Fourchue. They had no dinghy and tried to bum rides constantly. With no evidence it meant nothing though. So with nothing more to do we left. Our next stop was to be at Saint Martin.

St. Martin (or St. Maarten) is a Dutch and French island which makes it interesting to observe. The French side seemed rather rundown and bleak looking and the Dutch side looked well taken care of and cleaner. We were to stay the night so we could drop off Dona and Rico at the airport. We arrived midday so we dropped Dona off at an internet cafe and got to touring in the dink. We toured Simpson Bay in the dink and wouldn't you know we saw that yellow boat, but the red dink was nowhere insight. Richard goes on about how Dona shouldn't jump to conclusions based on stupid rumors. After food, beer, buying batteries and relaxing we went over to say hello to Mike Harken of Wanderlust. After a few minutes of chatting we glance over at the yellow ketch. IT HAD THE RED DINK!!! Rico says sayonara and off we go full speed to the thieving boat. Richard starts screaming at the top of his lungs, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT DINGHY?!" One of the scrawny french guys comes out and tried to explain how he found it at Fourchue full of water. Riiiiight. We aren't leaving without the dink so David untied the bow and I got the stern free and off we went. It was an intense situation and thankfully it was over in minutes with no problems. Hours later we would check and see that the yellow boat left in a hurry. Rico owed Dona an apology.

The rest of the night went on rather calmly. The bay filled up with a ridiculous amount of boats that were going to do the Heineken Regatta. There must have been over a hundred boats anchored out and that doesn't include the 50 others that were waiting for the bridge to go up. The bridge goes up twice a day unless you want to spend $5,000 to have it opened just for you. It was a neat spectacle to see, but a big traffic jam for all the car commuters.