Lemonaide from Lemons

I was excited Saturday night when I went to bed, as I had been invited to join Bernard and his friend Claire, who were taking Alain to a small island's beach for swimming and lunch Sunday, IF Saturday's rains ceased. But through the night, with a hard roll, howling winds, and drops of rain blowin in the barely cracked open hatches, I didn't think that we would get to go. I did not sleep well, and was up frequently, to look around to see if any other boats were drifting my way. Bernard called me about 8am to say that the trip had been cancelled for sure, due to the continuing showers, but that a new plan had been developed. We were going to have a glass of Champagne with Claire, and then go out to lunch. Be there by 11 am.

When I arrived at Bernard's, it occurred to me that I had never taken any pictures of his picnic table, where so many wonderful meals have been eaten, and so many good hours of conversation and more than a couple beers and glasses of wine had been consumed. So while waiting for Claire to arrive, I snapped this, with Alain's back turned. The table is right on the water's edge inside the Lagoon.

When Claire arrived, I took another to give perspective of how simple a life Bernard lives, with this table tucked almost beneath the bow of his boat, Narvalo.

Claire and Alain posed for a quick shot. I have met her twice, and she always is wearing beautiful blouses, that look so "island" to me.And I had to act the fool, and have mine taken as well. Oh, I miss a woman's skin! From the look on Claire's face, perhaps I am squeezing a bit too hard - definitely past her comfort zone! But by the end of the day, we had become friends. Claire came here on a sailboat, too, and has sailed to Tahiti and back. Now, she is a pharmacist on the French side.
New haircut (Paul cut both Alain's and Bernard's hair the day before) combed and nice clean shirt on, Bernard says he is ready to go! While enjoying a bottle of champagne at the picnic table, they discussed Claire's new project. She is hoping that a deal made on Ebay falls through, so that she can step in and buy a sailboat, which is on the hard at Bernard's boat yard. The seller failed to set a reserve, and is now obligated to sell it to the 3 lowest bidders, or have his Ebay reputation ruined for backing out of a contract.

When the bottle was dry, (in France, the person who drinks the last of a bottle of champagne, is predicted to be married or dead by the end of the year. I won't tell you who had the last drop poured into their glass.) we departed in Claire's car and headed out to a nice restaurant on the beach. It looks out onto Marigot Bay and somewhere in this photo is Annah Foster, at anchor.

Claire and Alain ate steak tartar and Bernard and I ordered a rib of pork, smothered in delicious mushrooms. It has been a long time since I had potatoes au gratin, which came with the dish and were delicious.Several weeks ago, I rode the dink around the perimeter of the bay, and saw this place, but did not recognize it as a restaurant. There is a long stretch of beach to the north which leads to an abandoned resort, damaged in a hurricane, and I have often thought it would be nice to beach the dink there and swim and lay out on the empty beach.

At lunch, it was decided that Claire would give Alain a tour of the island, so we hopped back into her car and headed out to circumnavigate all of St Martin.

St Martin is very famous for its airport. The runway terminates within feet of the road which is right up on the beach. So, when an airplane lands, it is actually just a few feet above the heads of anyone on the beach, or driving along the one lane road. The road is pinched there and squeezed between an eroding beach, and the airport fence. Signs on both sides warn of the blast you will receive when a plane departs. There is the obligatory bar/restaurant on either end of the road, as the tourists have made it a great place to hangout. It happens that Sundays are the best day, as the Air France and KLM 747's land and depart, exchanging big loads of tourists for their week's vacation, so parking was hard to find, as was a table at the restaurant.

If you Google St Martin airport (SXM), there are a lot of great photos and videos posted on the internet of planes landing just feet above the heads of people frolicking on the beach. Also, when a departure occurs, some brave, or foolish folks, stand directly behind the plane, clinging to the chain link fence, getting sandblasted by the jet exhaust, and apparently, often are lifted off the ground by it. If their grip fails, they are then sent tumbling across the sand, and must end up with some great road rash.

Here was an approaching 737, we think. I did not zoom or change the camera settings at all here.
And it passes right over the folks on the beach.

A private helicopter waits for clearance to land, hovering just over the water, whipping up a great mist of seawater. I wonder if that is Britney Spears in there? Wave hi, Britney!
We had timed the stop almost perfectly, as here comes the 2nd 747 that lands each Sunday. We missed the Air France landing. I was lucky to get this shot, as they come past so fast, it is hard to choose when to push the camera's button. Then, a big KLM 747 taxied out to the end of the runway. Can you make out the blue and white nose under the Heineken umbrella?
She turned and lined up for departure, and eventually ran up the engines, and departed, blasting the folks on the fence and beach with tons of thrust.
You can barely make out the sand blasting across the beach in this one.

We continued our tour, driving all the way to Phillipsburg. Then on, making several stops, including Orient Bay, and a marina which is home to all the big Caribbean boat charter companies. Bernard and I walked the docks admiring some of the beautiful boats.

At dusk, we stopped and picked up a pizza and shared it long into the evening, back again, at the picnic table. Late last night I received an email from her, thanking ME for making the 'journey' so nice. As I see it, she turned the rainy day into a fun one - making lemonaide out of life's lemons.

I have another new friend here. Life is good.