During the course of the slow morning, after I’d spoken to my friends who wanted to postpone our tour until the early afternoon, I had a visit from Jeffrey aboard the “S/Y Mad Romance” anchored upwind to my starboard side who was the first to inform of the events that had transpired the day before while I was playing tourist with my friends. It seems that a Moorings charter catamaran by the name of Mille Eaux had anchored, or attempted to anchor, upwind and their windlass breaker had popped at a most inopportune time with the anchor still out but no longer set. They had dragged past “S/Y Mad Romance” on a collision course with poor Zanshin, who was empty and anchored and unable to flee (n.b. I had a black-ball day shape hoisted so there could be no confusion). They then managed to entangle the painter and stall an engine, then pick up my anchor chain with theirs before making contact with Zanshin. Jeffrey had interposed his dinghy and ameliorated most of the damage, but my pulpit is now a bit bent (although still operable) and some chunks are taken out of my rub rail. That catamaran was still there last night and departed this morning without coming by or otherwise contacting me.
I’ve prepared my written police report already, in English and in my somewhat stilted French, to submit to the Brigade Nautique as a maritime “hit-and-run” tomorrow should the culprits not come by to explain their actions in departing like that and I’ve already been in touch with the Moorings base manager to tell him of my intentions. They not only damaged my boat but seem to have sustained some of their own while bending my big, thick stainless steel pulpit so they can probably kiss their deposit goodbye. I’m not certain what the French maritime law is regarding the seriousness of their offence, but considering they seem to think that they could get away with slinking out of the anchorage I certainly hope that it is more than a misdemeanor and I don’t mind spending more time here as long as they get what they deserve.
We departed on our rental steed in a great hurry in order to catch Air France landing but didn’t quite make it in time, seeing the approach on long final while still approaching the terminal building. Nonetheless we hit the beach and watched several large flights arrive right over us. Sascha got to hang on to the fence while a Delta airlines Boeing took off and I didn’t get much of that on video because I was being sandblasted by kerosene-laden gases.
After the airport experience we were fortunate enough to be the first car in line at the Causeway Bridge for an opening and subsequently we took the very long drive uphill to Pic Paradis, St. Martin’s highest peak at 424m for the view, which was a bit hazy due to low cloud and subsequently rain (which only started after we’d returned to the car). Once again our attempts at catching Air France in action were thwarted by my bad timing, we missed the departure by 30 minutes. After experiencing an island traffic jam we headed to Buccaneer’s for some pizza dinner while looking at the sunset, but a rain shower prompted us to move to cover for the day’s finale.
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