Darlene and I were bound for St. Martin for two main reasons. The first was that it was Christmas. Philip du Toit who had grown up in our holiday home in Knysna, South Africa was going to be there, and we were planning on spending time with him.
The second reason was to get services for the boat as St. Martin is set up for the yachting industry. We arrived at dawn taking 21 hours to cover 180 miles. Life has an interesting way of rewarding us with small opportunities that are truly large gifts. At 7:30 am we went ashore to deal with customs and immigration. They opened at 8 am so we killed some time. I had just completed the paper work and we headed back to the boat dock to our dingy. To get into the lagoon, one must wait for certain times when the bridge opens. We were going to take the 9:30 am opening and our plan was to visit Lucky Lady and its young mate, Jim, the seven year old rower that we met in Grenada. Darlene decided that she had to find a bathroom, so I just hung out at the dock. A huge ships tender was tied up and we struck up a conversation. Kevin was the captain of Lone Ranger out in the anchorage.
I asked him if by any chance in his travels he had come across a New Zealand friend of mine, Marc Grease. Kevin’s face lit up and he informed me that I had just missed Marc by three days. Marc was the full time captain of Lone Ranger and he was the relief captain who had just come on duty. Our conversation intensified. Lone Range was an expedition ship 255 ft long. We were extended an invite to come have a drink aboard at 5 pm any evening.
We then dingyed into the lagoon to look for Raasles, the 208 ft Fedship that Philip works on board. What a sight of the worlds wealthiest. Mega yacht after mega yacht lined the docks, and there was Raasles, one of the largest and most stunning ships and Philip was on deck polishing the teak. He knocked off at 5:30 pm and I was going to pick him up. We have been hanging out together every evening and in fact Philip has moved on board into the guest cabin. We are out together in the evenings, then sitting on the stern chatting until the early hours of morning, and off to bed. Darlene is waking him at 6:15 am and we have coffee and tea together and I take him to work , dropping him at Raasles by dingy and off to work we all go.
It had been a good day, and the day was to become even better. I had spent all morning working on the gas problem, having had no luck the previous day when we carried our empty cylinders on a 2 mile hike through the French side of St. Martin looking for a place to get it filled. With no luck, I headed over to Budget Marine to find fittings so that when we are in Celabra I can switch out our Australian tanks to America tank. I needed help and found a gentleman by the name of Vorster, a South African from Durban. He helped find fittings and I explained what I was trying to achieve. He suggested getting the cylinders as there may be a simple solution. Darlene returned with the tanks, but the solution was not simple. They could be filled if we could get to the right end fitting. Voster was tenacious and would not be defeated. After being certain that the solution was not in the store, he told me to return at 1 pm and that his driver was making a delivery and could swing via a place that may have what we needed.
At 1 pm Uroom from Surinam drove me around and we found the end fitting, but not the adaptor. Uroom knew who to ask and where to go. 20 minutes later he helped find all the parts, then took me to the gas place and once more knew the right people to talk to and after struggling and running out of gas across the Caribbean, Darlene was fully in business in the galley. Without the fortitude of Voster and Uroom, Christmas dinner may have been raw and cold.
Last night we took our dingy over to Lone Range. We passed mega yacht after another waiting for the bridge opening at 5 pm. Then on the horizon was Maltese Falcon, one of the world’s largest sailing yachts. We had just read about her in one of the magazines, but seeing her in person was stunning.
Each moment of our lives seem more spectacular than the next. Here we were enjoying the vista of one amazing machine after the next and was about to board one of shipping’s legends. Lone Ranger started her life as Empress, a salvage tug before becoming a private yacht. With a crew in excess of 13, Marc Grease from New Zealand has been captain for 11 years. Marc and I go back to Galway, Ireland and 1992. He was doing deliveries and in between was even being a tree surgeon. We sailed a bit together on Mayhem, one of John Killeen several yachts. Then Marc delivered Waloon for John from the Med back to Ireland, and was hired to take the Pride of Galway, a 110 foot sail training tall ship to Seville, Spain for the world expo.
In 1993 I entered the double handed Round Britain and Ireland Race and John suggested that I ask Marc to crew for me. We thought it a great idea and he helped do the finishing prep and deliver the boat with me to England. We had an intense and exciting race. He was a great crew. I could 100% depend on him when it was his watch. We did well and had a great time. Marc then ended up on a few other deliveries, I rebuilt No-Barriers and entered the BOC Challenge and Marc and my path took us to different oceans and new lives. I heard that Marc had become captain of Lone Ranger and I missed him in Cape Town by a few weeks. Four years later in New Zealand I ran into Marc’s mom and had just missed him. I learnt that he had gotten married.
Now I had missed Marc by 3 days. He had flown back to New Zealand to have Xmas and New Year with his wife and two sons. They had taken his boat and go sailing. Kevin had taken over as relief captain and invited us aboard, and what a ship Lone Ranger is. She has traveled far and wide in her new life since her days as a working vessel. Completed refitted several times, her owner loves the sea. He is an avid diver and hence a tremendous dive set up on board. Lone Ranger has been to many corners from the Antarctic Sea where Marc pushed icebergs around to create the perfect anchorage, through both cannels, up the St. Lawrence Seaway into the Great Lakes, to Europe and Asia. One of her toys on board is a F-27 trimaran. After a few hours onboard we returned ashore, but in a different way. Their tender was going in at 7:30 pm and the wind had picked up. We decided to go back in their tender, a 30 foot inflatable, towing our dingy. It was decided that it may be easier to carry our dingy than tow it, so we hauled her up over the bow and put her aboard. What a sight. We had great laughs about it.
Darlene, Philip and I had the privilege of partying with the crew last night ashore. They are a great group of young people and I look forward to our paths crossing in life, where ever their life takes them.
anyone for a swim?