Island Time

After a thoroughly cruel winter in Newport, I’m back down in Sint Maarten, almost a year to the day since I joined Georgia for the Bucket and stayed.  It was an interesting year. We stayed in the Islands until June, then went to Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica. After I left Georgia I visited Canada a few times, delivered a Gunboat from Tortola to Newport in the middle of hurricane season, took a Hinckley 49 from Newport to the Bahamas via Atlantic City, spent Thanksgiving day with US Airways, and had the great good fortune to spend a few months teaching plotting to folks taking the USCG 100-ton course at Confident Captain. It was a long, lonely winter, but ultimately satisfying.

The last 8 months or so have been challenging on many levels. Job-wise, family-wise, and money-wise. If it weren’t for the kindness and generosity of a few good friends it would have been a lot worse. I’m blessed to have some of the best friends a man could ask for, and hope to spend the rest of my days paying it forward.

I’m running a Swan 62 FD now, a nice boat, that will be staying here until early May, when we’ll be delivering it back to Newport. The boat will live in Newport and the Vineyard (where the owner lives) for the season. We’re looking for charters now.

Just before I arrived down here a chef on a large yacht was murdered, demonstrating to one and all what a thoroughly dangerous place Sint Maarten/St. Martin can be. The population here has exploded in the past few decades and with that explosion has come all the woes of any urban area. Still, I’m glad to be here. I’ve spent a lot of time here in the past few years and appreciate the services that are available, the weather, and the chance to see people I know in the business.

Internet access is slow and difficult here, which is bad news for someone who is as addicted to online accessibility as I am. I’ll post some images as soon as I’m a little more settled.