It was like coming home.
As John and I landed the dinghy on the FKG dock we were greeted by hugs and handshakes from the FKG team. It was lovely to see such genuinely welcoming and friendly faces as we slipped back into our Sint Maarten routine.
I only had a few days to adjust and it was off again across the Atlantic again, this time in one day instead of 18!, to the very wet Lake District, for a family Christmas.
It had been 10 years since the whole family, including the Willis Clan had been able to get together. This time Emma, Luke & Noa travelled from Australia and New Zealand, I came from the Caribbean and Christopher and Rachel travelled up from Bristol. Malcolm and Helen had hired the Chapel Style village hall for Christmas Day.
They built a fabulous fireplace and decorated the whole hall to look like a huge Christmas front room with a roaring fire – complete with Stockings. It also had a Piano and with a family of music lovers, cooks and game lovers we sang, ate and played the day away. It was a brilliant Christmas Day.
After a fun filled week in the Lakes and some rather fun wet walks, it was time to toast in New Year with my sister, family and friends and then head back to Sint Maarten.
Next up; the Sint Maarten Multihull ‘Rally’. For this Johns friends Patricia and Ian came from Burnham- on- Crouch to join us for the week. Anyone who sails will know it never is a ‘Rally’, when two or more boats are involved it’s a ‘RACE’. This time it was 12 multihull boats in a daily rally between anchorages on Sint Maarten and Anguilla.
The start was a pursuit race type start with the largest vessel going last ( that was us!), and with very fresh winds we took great delight in storming through the fleet! Joline was on fire and we had a ball, especially with a similar catamaran called ‘Little Wing’, which caused us to tweak every .o1 kt of speed from Joline.
Despite our rather flabby, stained and old sails we crossed the line first twice out of three ‘rally events’, and even managed to give the poor committee boat a few sharp intakes of breath as Little Wing and Joline battled for the line and tacked within inches of the poor committee vessel. John ignored their call for water on the line! – (the red mist had descended hours earlier).
After all that excitement there was no respite as we had 24 hours to put together a party. It was Johns 60th. Patricia and Ian were ‘stars’ – blowing up balloons, decorating Joline and getting the beer and wine structure. I cobbled together a large birthday cake and nibbles and our friends Wayne and Barbie were our ice maidens filling eskies from 10 am in the morning. Thanks to a real team effort when John came striding down the FKG dock Joline the party boat was ready.
The night was such fun. John had a ball hosting 40+folk on Joline, and dancing the night away in the cockpit with our yachty friends until our legs ached. It was great that the FKG team turned out in force and we were able to welcome them to our home. Ian the DJ was reliving his youth with some excellent party music and we discovered that whenever the dance floor went quiet; – pay abba!, the swedes would spring into action and the spirit of dance would be re-energised.
Maybe the biggest present John has ever received was Joline’s new sails, delivered to his workshop door on his birthday morning.
One week later, with the help of our lovely friends Wayne and Barbie, we had them fitted and off we went to Grand Case for a test sail. We were not disappointed – the biggest facelift Joline could have – expensive but we love them, and now she goes even faster … Watch out Little Wing!
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