March was a
busy month here in St. Maarten. Our goal
was to complete two major maintenance projects on the boat – varnish the
exterior teak and paint all the non-skid surfaces on the deck of the boat. Chuck worked very hard on both projects and I
helped when needed. The teak now has 10
coats of varnish and looks great! The
non-skid was a light grey color and was very hot to walk on with the sun beating
on the deck all day. We painted half of
the boat white and when compared to the grey side, we understand now why the
deck was so hot; the grey was darker than we thought. The entire deck and cockpit is now white and
makes the boat look newer and it’s cooler, too.
In our spare
time around all the varnishing and painting, we played and spent time with
friends. St. Patrick’s Day was spent
with our friend, Neil, and started with a traditional dinner at one of our
favorite restaurants, Toppers, followed by bar hopping to Rhythm ‘n Blues,
Lagoonies, and Fat Turtle. We discovered
a unique group, (two brothers and one female) called Synergy from South
Carolina, classical violins fused with modern rock. They played at several venues while here in
St. Maarten including the Pink Iguana and Red Piano. We have friends over for dinner to our boat,
where we play cards and games and then go to their house for more of the same,
having a good time with Dwayne and Neil, Capt. Alan and Capt. Colleen, and
Capt. Neil. We were very lucky to spend
some time with our friends from Vancouver, Errol and Renay, lovely couple we
met here in SXM in 2013. We have met
many tourists while here and spent evenings with them in many of the local
establishments, what fun to hear their stories! We love spending days at the beach and even
go to the local movie theatre for all the latest movies and only $5.75 for a
ticket. We also took a cruise to
Anguilla with a tour of the island.
One of the
rewarding activities we have done is to listen to the local radio station,
Island 92. In the morning they often give away many things for free, just call
in. Well, it appears that people don’t
call in to win, because we have won four times in the past month! We won a $20 ticket to the UB40 concert, $50
at the Dinghy Dock, $20 at Pizza Galley, and a $12 appetizer at the Dinghy
Dock. Wow, it pays to listen to the
radio!
