3/29/08

February and March 2008

We spent all of February and the first week of March finishing the boat repairs. Marty and Stephan were life savers. The boat was hauled out at Bobby’s Marina by crane operated by Uncle Harry, a man never seen without a lit cigar in his mouth, even while riding his Harley. We were out of the water for over a week. This means no generator, toilets, or refrigerator, as all need water to operate. I surprised a weary, Petra with a week at a hotel. Real showers, television and cable. I was lucky in that they had a nurse on call to help me with my finger.


Marty and Stephan worked all day and became drinking buddies at night. That’s when Marty met Rebecca. She was the head Stewardess on one of the top five rated yachts in the world. She decided that rather than continue to run a staff of people, she would enjoy putting some of her chef’s training to good use, take a cut in pay and responsibility, and free up some more time. She and Marty used some of this time to hang out with us.


The runway approach in St. Maarten is thrilling. Pictures and video speak louder than words. See for yourself.



Video - 747 landing in St.Maarten
(click on the picture to play the video)





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We installed a new depth sounder and underwater lights while FreeBirds was out of the water. When Uncle Harry lowered her back into the water, the hole where the depth sounder was placed, leaked. So, we pulled the boat out of the water, and left it suspended overnight as the redone repairs dried. So, for about 24 hours, FreeBirds, with us aboard, was literally in the air, flying.
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This was also a very sad time for me. Having attended 6 high schools, and six separate Universities or Junior Colleges, I have never developed long-term friends. My oldest friend relationship was with, Bob Giles, my accountant. We met through business back in the late 80’s. We’ve stayed in touch over the years, and he and his wife, Susan, even visited me when I lived in Costa Rica. I’ve told Petra that I wanted us to have a relationship just as wonderful as Bob and Susan. They always had a smile on their faces and I’ve never seen a happier couple in my life. Bob was preparing his last year of tax returns before retiring to a home just purchased in Mexico when he died. The reason we are sailing is because we want to live every moment as if it were our last, because one day, it will be. I will carry Bob’s happiness in my heart throughout our travels. And we will strive to remain as happy throughout our marriage as did Bob and Susan. So long good friend.


St. Maarten is an island that is two countries. For 300 years, half has been owned by the French and the other half is owned by the Dutch. Rather than fight about ownership, they decided to have a race. Two runners set out from opposite sides of the island. The territory each covered would belong to his country. The French guy covered more terrain, but the Dutch got a valuable salt mine. They have shared the island in peace ever since.

Now St. Maarten has a local population base, Dutch, French, and Caribbean, and a large gathering of tourists. Especially the final week we were there. It was the annual Heineken Cup Yacht Race. This was big time yacht racing. Hundreds of boats from all over the world come here to participate. Some of the fastest boats on the water compete for a week in all different categories. Even though I’m on a fast catamaran, I still don’t understand “racing” a boat. If you want to go fast, get a car, or a plane. But a sailing vessel? The really fast ones go, hold onto your seat, 20 knots. A little faster than a human being can sprint. And those are the fast ones. We met a guy that “raced” around the world and averaged 5 knots. Walking speed.
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We managed to get the new autopilot working for the first time hours before we started our 525 mile crossing from St. Maarten to Aruba. We pulled up our anchor, making sure not to hit Rupert Murdock’s yacht which was anchored next to us for the yacht races. We had a beautiful sendoff of hundreds of beautiful racing boats as we started our journey. It took us three days of beautiful sailing . We caught some great tuna which was immediately prepared by our two on-board chef’s, Petra and Marty. The sailing was all downwind, which is slower than if the wind is coming from a Beam Reach (the side). We were trying to arrive in Aruba in time to pick up my best Friend, Joe, who was coming to celebrate our birthdays.
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Joe and I met six years ago in Sacramento. I was just ending the first relationship I had been in after my divorce. He came over for a drink and started decorating one of my bathrooms. (He can’t help himself.) When he was done an hour later, it was gorgeous. The only thing it needed was different paint. So, off to Home Depot at 8 p.m. We finished painting it about 1 a.m. Later that week we started on the family room. Nine months later I was the proud father of a new house. When it sold, a realtor called and thanked me for raising the home values for my entire neighborhood. This was my Ph.D. program which gave me the training to design, decorate and build my Costa Rican house. It’s also where Joe informed me that I was a Metro sexual. And I always thought I was just half bi-sexual. (I only like girls.)


We made it to Aruba on March 11th, my birthday and checked into the country at 1:30 p.m. We made it to the airport 4 minutes before Joes plane arrived. Great planning, not. We anchored in front of the Marriott and celebrated my birthday, and then Joe’s two days later. It was great to see Joe enjoy his time on FreeBirds so much. He is always worrying and doing things to help other people, from his church to various charities. He is a remarkable event planner who raises money for many charities and sits on several boards. We had a little fun with a picture of him and Bill Clinton taken a month before his visit.
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We stayed across from the large hotels, but it was Spring Break. The swell began to build dangerously, so we moved to a protected bay near the airport.Joe used the internet to look up every Cruise Ship’s schedule (about 3 per day) that arrived in Aruba. He knew where they came from and where they were going. And since we re-anchored for a time at the end of the airport, he also looked up the arrival times of every plane coming in. He would sit and watch these planes for hours seeming to get immense pleasure out of the experience.
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Video - Aruba-Cruise ship departure with Joe's commentary


(click on the picture to play the video)




When I went to school at Berkeley, I became aware of a cult called The Moonies. They were men and women with shaved heads on every street corner asking for money with one hand out while handing you a daisy with the other. I thought those days were over. But they have Moonies everywhere. Since we’re being naughty here, I’ll share two other funny times with you. .
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It’s obvious that we have a lot of free time. One evening we came back from dancing and started taking pictures. There’s a line from the movie “Forty Year Old Virgin” that says, “You know how I know your gay?” Example given. Then the other character replies, “You know how I know you’re gay?” Another example given. Our friend, Elena had some shirts made for each of us.



Also, a picture of Marty and Joe in the water struck me as funny. I had seen a “pussy snorkel” on the internet years ago. So, I’ve reprinted it for you here. Look at these pictures and I needn’t say any more.



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Petra did her second dive, the first with Marty while Joe snorkeled on. We have decided to order a better underwater camera as some of the diving here is so fascinating. Hopefully we’ll have it soon. We dove a wreck and it was more amazing than anything I’ve seen on television. Thousands of fish inside the wreck as we swam through them. Petra flopped back onto the hull of FreeBirds as a mermaid covered only in starfish.

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Joe’s two week stay ended much too quickly. But he’s back in Sacramento and in a few days we will be sailing on to Curacao and Bonaire. Bonaire is one of the best dive sites in the world along with being a windsurfing Mecca. I want to learn to Kite Board there.




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Thank you again for taking the time to share our adventures. We really appreciate all the wonderful feedback and all the people that have emailed us to be added to our monthly newsletter-notification list.

Warmest wishes, Brad, Petra, Marty and FreeBirds.







See more pictures from St. Maarten
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See more pictures from Aruba




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