S/V L'ORIENT

So last night we were enjoying "octopasta", Kirstin's famous pasta with octopus in vodka sauce.....yum. As we are getting into our second glass of a discount Bordeaux a small boat with a big spotlight emerges from the gloom. He buzzes around the mooring field searching the wooded cliff behind us with his spotlight. Then the fun begins........he decides it is L'ORIENT he is looking for. The boat edges closer, this time with the spotlight on us. His boat appears to be a French Customs Patrol. Tom- "Can we help you ?" French dude- "What is the name of your boat ?" Tom- using my annoying fake french accent - "L'ORIENT" French dude- "What is the name of your other boat ?" Confusion now reigns........what other boat ? Is this guy really Customs ? At this point we decide he might not be who he says he is. Tom- "Can you show me some identification ?" At this point, the customs boat does a 180 and quickly le...

"Can I have my chateaubriande without the reduction sauce ?" People equate sailing with "roughing it"..........eating hardtack, rotten vegetables, and warm beer. But whether on the boat or anchored off an island, we eat like kings, or at least the Foodies we aspire to be. On the boat, we have 3 refrigerators, a microwave, an oven, a gas grill, rice cookers, etc.......every gadget imaginable. And Kirstin has a photographic memory for grocery stores on islands so if there is a shop somewhere selling tandoori sauce or mango pickle, she will find it. But living (and getting) large also involves being in the right place. The island of Redondo ? Not much except a plague of 5000 large black rats......who can swim short distances. Yuck. Grande Case on the French side of St. Martin ? Great indoor restaurants as well as outdoor barbecue places called "lo-los"............local folk making amazing barbecued everything. My daily ration of  pomme tarte ...

Occasionally, living on our boat forces you into "stretch roles". Kirstin has become a canvas virtuoso out of necessity........fix the sail/canvas herself, or pay thousands to have someone else do it. Next project Even more complicated than it looks Unlike many people who are roughing it, we have 3-zone A/C, 3 refgerators, a watermaker, radar, sonar, microwave....basically everthing a condo has and more. When something breaks, we must fix it ourselves. Since we are self-taught, this generally involves learning on the job and hoping that there are no extra parts after reassembly. Our generator's brain Lately, our evening cocktails in the airconditioned saloon was rudely interrupted by a failure of the A/C unit......not OK. So, after fixing a bunch of things that werent broken, we stumbled upon the solution.....a $4 capacitor. Actually, its not that bad......we love boat projects and working with our hands.

Georgetown and S.E Washington, DC.........the upper West Side and Harlem.....all across the world, the "haves" and the "have nots" uneasily share geography, sometimes in very close proximity. When Kirstin and I lived in downtown DC, we had the distinction of paying $4,000 per month in rent for a place I was afraid to walk outside of after 10:00 pm. In the Caribbean, not much has changed. St. Martin is both rich and poor; affluent and sketchy. Marigot (on our beloved French side) is shabby chic.....great food, fantastic people watching, and some really rough boats. Lots of people you would describe as "dead-enders". If uncle Randy disappears and he's both a sailor and an Oxycodone addict, we know where to find him.   The Dutch side is megayachts, traffic, and American food. If uncle Randy puts down the bong and writes the killer app, there are lots of ways to spend big money there. Not our cup of tea, but we take the best of what we find...