St Martin

Christmas morning

We were weathered in for about 3 weeks in St Martin, but we found lots to do!  We spent a great Christmas with our cruising friends.  We kept up with the Schuneman tradition of having mimosas in the morning with some fun gift exchanges.  Later in the afternoon, we had a potluck with friends on 6 other boats and had a great dinner, complete with ham, turkey and too many side dishes to mention!

Christmas morning with friends and mimosas

For a Christmas present to ourselves, we bought a new washing machine!  It is an LG model, completely plastic so we are able to stow it outside under a tarp and has a big bin that washes your clothes and a smaller bin that spins the water out of them so they will dry faster once you hang them up.  The water doesn't automatically drain out of the washing bin, so you can get about 2 loads done with the same water before it gets really gross!  Then you spin them to get the soapy water off, refill the bin with clean water to do a rinse.  All in all, about 4- 5 loads of laundry takes about 15 gallons of water - not too bad considering we have a water maker or use rain water.  It saves a ton of money and time doing it ourselves rather than bringing into to town to get it done.

Christmas morning on Joana

Christmas dinner

Beach by the airport

The next few days we spent exploring St Martin.  We went out to the beach by the airport where the planes come right overhead and you can stand right next to the runway when planes take off and literally get blown away by the thrust of the engines!  Maria was brave and managed to stand firm against the pelting sand but I wimped out and ran down the beach after a few seconds!

We spent New Years Eve in St Martin dancing the night away and a late night run to McDonalds!

Transporting our new washing machine

Maria hugging the new washing machine

Our first load

Dancing in the street St Martin style

Late night Mickey D run