Marigot, Saint Martin, April 2021

On board of Elli Di

In the morning on Tuesday, the 27^th of April, Anna and I went to see Fort Louis in Marigot.

It’s a short but steep climb up to what’s left of this once mighty fort, completed in 1789 under St-Martin’s then-governor Jean Sebastian de Durat to protect the settlement of Marigot and its harbor warehouses storing rum, salt, coffee and sugarcane from British and Dutch pirates.

We shopped in the city; Anna bought gifts for her relatives in Russia; then we stopped at a French café for lunch. Konstantin picked us up at 2 p.m. and took back to the catamaran.

While Anna and I were away, apparently, there had been some developments that we missed. Alyona, a crew member of the other yacht Grace refused to sail farther after two more men joined their team the day before. She found their yacht too crowded to her liking and moved to Marina’s boat. You may remember me mentioning this Marina who lives permanently on her yacht in Marigot Bay in the earlier post.

The Grace also had four cabins like the catamaran. With four people on board, each crew member had their own space. However, the two new guys were not welcome there. Alyona did not want anyone else on their boat where she and Valentin could be cozy with each other.

Everyone except Alyona gathered on the catamaran including Pavel. He had a mechanical issue with the motor of his dinghy. So to visit us, he simply swam from his yacht.

The 30-year old Valentin looked like a teenager just dumped by his first love. He found a spot on the bow to be alone and wrapped his hands around the head. At first, we did not disturb Valentin and let him grieve by himself. Then seeing that he was not coming back, Vladimir sat down next to him and put his arm around Valentin’s shoulder. He spoke to Valentin in a low soothing voice. Somehow, he managed to talk sense into Valentin and they joined us in the cockpit.

Dmitry who arrived the day before could not stop talking about Florida as if he had been the only one who was there. When asked his opinion about Alyona whom Anna and I had not yet met, he made a face and said: ‘She’s not my type.’ That was an interesting way to describe a crew mate. Later, we asked the other Dmitry this question. Remarkably, he replied in exactly the same way and even using the same words: ‘She’s not my type.’ Then he added that Alyona had a strong personality and he respected her. Such comments made me think that she must have been quite a female if two men referred to her like that.

Pavel also entertained us with his stories. One of them was about Saint Barthelemy or St Barts for short, the island of billionaires, which is mere 17 nautical miles from Saint Martin. Nobody was interested in St Barts until in the 60’s, the Rockefellers and Rothschilds built their estates. Since then, luminaries from all over the world came to St. Barts. It is one of the most expensive islands in the world. Roman Abramovich bought a 70-acre property there for $90 million. His superyacht Eclipse was seen docked in St. Barts.

Pavel’s daughter, Angelina attended an excellent free school in St. Barts until the 8^th year. She got acquainted with Abramovich’s French cook and they became good friends.

In the evening, Valentin with his crew returned to their yacht taking Pavel to his. The following day would be my last day on the catamaran. I decided that I liked the boat life despite seasickness. Perhaps, it is worth trying it again, under different circumstances.

On board of Elli Di (continued)