The trip back to St Martin is a hard beat, dead into the wind, facing a relatively small but sickeningly choppy sea.
We’re all seasick, the children lying down on the deck looking green for much of the passage. After a game of dominoes with Lukie, Matias vomits over the back deck, and returns to lying down. I have to keep my eyes firmly on the horizon not to be sick. Which is not so bad, really, as the clouds are on display, providing ever more crazy imagery. Fluffy animals in toy trains clinging onto each other as they rapidly slide down a hill. Hungry mean looking fish gaping wide. Lots of dragons, and a couple of cosmic warriors fighting evil aliens, as well as several dinner parties, with creatures of various species, sizes and shapes clinking glasses and lifting plates.
After five hours of fruitless tacking, we finally switch on the engines and attempt to motor straight into the wind. A group of dolphins come to check us out, including a mother with two babies, who swim alongside briefly. This lifts Matias’ spirits and he is able to get some exercise on the trampoline, jumping higher and higher until I fear he’ll fall in.
Just before midnight, as we’re approaching St Martin, we have an exciting encounter. I’m on watch while David is trying to get a bit of sleep, as what appears as two large objects on the radar slowly approach us. With my bare eyes I see only one very bright white light and a much smaller red one some distance behind it. When we’re about 3 miles apart, the white-lit thing starts blinking at me, and looking through the binoculars I can see a lot of lights, obscured somewhat by the blindingly bright light that soon starts blinking again. Anxiously I wake David, who at first thinks it is a stationary superyacht, but as we get closer we can make out the night lights for a towing vessel. At this stage we are about half a mile away, and we hear them calling us on the radio, the captain of the tug explaining that he has a 700 foot tow, politely requesting that we stay well clear. We turn to go behind them, and as they come even closer we can clearly see the tiny red light on the enormous ship he is towing.
It is nice to see Marigot again, and the following day on our usual anchorage we are greeted by several turtles swimming around the boat, as well as Big Fish who has brought along his entire family to say ‘welcome back’.
SV Bob The Cat 