Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

First Full Day on the Boat
Odd bed. Moving bed. Strange noises and clankings. We all of us spent an exhausted but restless sleep for our first night on the boat. I awoke with a start to the loud sucking noise of the head as Erika flushed it after she had awoken.

It was a two-cup-of-coffee morning (substitute tea for me). The crew (Marie-Sol and Eric) kindly fetched us all a breakfast of croissants (chocolate-filled!) from a local bakery -- Vanessa loved chomping down on unexpected pastry treat.

It would prove to be a slow day, which was appropriate since none of us was in any real hurry to do anything. Except Vanessa, who asked Josef a couple of times when he was going to move the boat. ;-) She and Erika got into the warm azure waters just off the boat and went for a short adventuresome swim.

The boat needed re-supplying, and Erika decided to come along to aid in getting provisions for the ship -- lots of "adult" food on board, but not a lot that would appeal to a 5 year old girl. Erika said that Vanessa would stay here with me on the boat, but I knew better -- there was no keeping her away from doing some "exploring" on shore, even if it was just a shopping trip.

I spent some time reading my book ("Samurai William") and looked at one of the lavish tourist brochures I picked up at the airport. I soon dropped it when I realized I'd be learning far more about Swiss-made watches than about the island by reading it. Here's one thing the brochure told me about that I certainly already knew -- this is a playground for the rich. The quick stroll from last night reminded me very much of St. Tropez, along with insanely expensive luxury goods stores. We are mere visitors to these parts. A book on board the ship [the "Cruising Guide to the Leeward Islands”] told me much more about St. Barts: its history, customs, best snorkeling places, etc. It's a 12-hour sail to the Virgin Islands from here, so I suspect that we may end up being here for a while.

We made our way to a bay in the north-west of the island, called Colombier. Dropped anchor and determined to stay the night here. The crew cooked us a wonderful New Year's Eve special dinner -- we savored every last morsel of the desert, a kind of crepe with apple and chocolate. Yum!

Vanessa crashed out at about 8pm. But we managed to stay up until midnight. Over the low mountains surrounding the bay we saw the fireworks from Gustavia cresting and bursting colourfully. In the distance to the north across the waters we could see a similar fireworks display taking place in St. Martin. After supping some champagne, Josef got up and blasted the ship’s foghorn a few times. This of course woke up Vanessa, who was then able to see the finale of the fireworks show.

So began 2003 for us.