Missing Ladder?

 To the deeply frozen tundra of Pennsylvania, we sang a cheery good-bye! 82 more degrees later (Yes, 85 less 3 brrrr is 82 net!) here we are in St. Martin.  Adventuress was waiting for us in Oyster Pond at Captain Oliver’s Marina and we were very happy to see her. Then we noticed that her aft swim-ladder was missing.  And there were a couple of small gouges on her swim platform! What happened?  

Aha! The 62 foot Sunseeker Predator stink pot, tied behind us stern-to- stern, had large gouges on its swim platform.  Apparently the owner took out his boat - named “Raw”- and when he returned he parked it too close to Adventuress. Why? Who knows…he had 15 feet of empty space ahead of him, but clearly left just a foot astern between Raw and Adventuress! Then came a windy, choppy day and his boat was banging into ours, damaging both boats and sheering off our ladder, which of course sank to the bottom.  After several anxious hours, John was able to speak to the owner of “Raw”, who, it turned out, is on business in Martinique. But he immediately called his “man” Sebastian (Basty), a very competent Frenchman, who lives right here on his big fishing boat at the marina, to deal with repairing our boat. 

Here’s a couple of pics of the diver retrieving our ladder and handing it to Basty on the stern of Raw, which had been belatedly moved away from our stern:

 

 

 

And a pic of our poor bent ladder!

 

“Basty” the Frenchman, took the ladder to FKG, a good rigging and stainless shop here in the Lagoon.  We should have it back as good as new, “no later than next Wednesday”.  Tomorrow a fiberglass specialist is supposed to come and repair the minor damage to our swim platform.  And then we should be back to ship-shape and ready to visit Anse Colombier in St Barth’s.

Best,

Nancy and John

Friday, January 10, 2014