It must have been a week after our arrival back from Saba that other friends Paul and Kathryn who had actually been with us at Saba called to say "because it was so bad at both St. Barts and Saba, the weather is near perfect right now, so why not come for a days sailing." Without any delay and consultation with my better half, I accepted immediately. Oh joy!
Sailing again . Their boat is also a catamaran, a big sixty footer I think and one of only three in the world. The best part about it though, is that it's a thoroughbred racer. The catamaran, 'Cool Cat' (what a great name) was moored in Marigot Bay, and after a hasty discussion decided to go to Tintamare for the day. Now this is one of the small islands a short distance off St Maarten, on the way to St Barts. A great choice of place to sail to.

My thoughts took me back in time at least ten years or so, but could be more. To our very first week long sailing trip in the Caribbean. With our kids Carla & Alex. (Shouldn't call them kids really, because they were young adults.) The entire crew were (mad) Captain Frank and his wife Lynne.
Captain Frank was another South African, and as mad and as brilliant as you could get. All he was interested in was making sure we all had an absolutely brilliant time. And no questions asked!
"Today," he said, "we're going to have a mud bath..... on Tintamare!"
We men on board looked at him! That was me, Alex and one other American guest, Doesn't sound too appealing to me ... I thought, looking at the other glum faces. The women though
were ecstatic. I could just hear their thoughts running through my head ...... A day at a Spa..... Being totally pampered..... being covered in whatever the stuff is by a muscular hunk..... While I sip an ice cold Pina Colada..... Oh!.. I'd better stop there! The Captain had made up his mind, and we were definitely going to do this. So what the hell, I thought, it has been brilliant so far. Lets just go with the flow so to speak.So after a short sail, we arrived at what could only be considered, a little bit of heaven dropped into the tranquil azure blue waters of the Caribbean. Tiny waves caressing the white beach. Only one word... WOWEEEE.
"OK," he said picking up a plastic bucket, "those who want to swim to the shore are welcome, I have to take the dinghy."
Odd, I thought? So leaping off the Cat, all our family headed for the beach about forty yards away. Captain Frank, and Captainesse Lynne were already there waiting for all of us to arrive. "Come, follow us," they called .
So like lambs to the slaughter we men followed. Now I've seen enough adverts from health spa's to know what a mud bath looks like. Brown stuff, or if you're at the Dead Sea in Israel, it's black. A new experience for me I thought. And not looking forward to the smell of stinky slimy ooze at all. Well, I could not have been more wrong. Lynne and Frank were digging into what looked like a white sand and mixing it in the bucket with fresh water till it was of a paste's consistency.
"Now for the good part," she said, "schmeer it all over yourself, and lay down on the beach
sand."
So while laying on the beach, baking in the sun had fresh slices of cucumbers placed over our eyes as well. We must have looked like right proper Charlies!
"Right....... enough cooking, into the sea to rinse it all off," she called.
And how wonderful it felt. OH JOY! Our skin was just like that of a newborn baby's bum. All soft and stuff like that.
Meanwhile Captain Frank arrived with noodles, (no, not the Chinese variety, but long round bits of foam that you wrap around yourself and just bob about in water) . Then the red floating cooler appeared with all sorts of drinks for us. So from that moment in time, that beach has become known as the noodle bar. (Just some old pics from then.)

Back to the present. So we arrived at the moored boat early in the morning, Dyana still with some trepidation as to what I was getting her into. Somehow I don't think she always totally trusts my judgment. I have been known to be wrong and get us into all sorts of trouble at times. Well, captain Paul and Captainesse Kathryn who helmed (steered to us mere mortals) as well
as called out all the orders. And as we men know, these have definitely got to be obeyed. And in double quick time as well. This was the second time we'd been in this direction, the first being a few weeks earlier on our way to St Barts for New Years Eve. And that
was just horrendous. Well, I'm pleased to say that everything about the sea was nearly perfect for sailing. And under Kathryn's instructions about which sails she wanted up, the cat was soon just cruising away. Now, in general, the speed of a catamaran is about seven or eight knots, or ten miles per hour. But this was something special! Eight knots? Think again....... probably double that speed we were doing. And with what seemed to be consummate ease....... just
flying through the water. And I'm certain the cat had a lot more in her if you seriously wound her up. We easily caught up and passed a number of other boats; in fact, the only boats that passed us were the high powered engined ones. This was such a joy to be on as she
careered through everything that was thrown at her without even making her blink. And within the hour were at our destination.

Tintamare was just as beautiful as I'd remembered. White beaches,azure water, but unfortunately no mud left now. So after a great lunch, swim, and walk round the island which I discovered was a second world war aircraft base with a few wrecked aircraft still somewhere in the overgrown interior we sailed back to Marigot bay.

And now for the best, Dyana was OK sailing. So I have a huge big thank you to say to Paul and Kathryn, "thank you for getting her back in the saddle," so to speak. Please click on the pictures because some turn into short video clips.

Oh NO! BAD NEWS! Just today in the newspapers I read that the island has been sold to what they called 'A Middle Eastern Consortium'. This consortium wants to totally revamp the island. Into a Principality, much the same as Monaco. And the territorial waters are said to have oil rights as well. According to the consortium, they want to put money into their bank in the new
principality which will not be disclosed to any normal bank or monetary authority at all! In other words, it's going to be the biggest money laundering scam in the world! And I quote from the
newspaper, 'Investors expect to have one oil rig for every umbrella on Orient beach by the year 2020. They are also going to build a palace and are looking for a suitable person to live in it. The only stipulation is that they have to have family ties with St Maarten for over 200 years. Candidates should apply to be the Monarch/Prince of the island'.
The bottom line is, if you want to see Tintamare in its pristine glory...... GO NOW! Before dodgy
politicians and other drug barons get their grubby mitts on it.

And guess which day this was printed on...... Yes..... you guessed right, it was April the 1^st.