After a 7 hour delay, we eventually arrived late into the night at Oyster Pond, St Martin and met Paw Paw. Given our late arrival, the staff at the base had left us a map of the docks. We were wandering around trying to find her, when I spotted a rather large, impressive looking yacht and stopped to admire her for a moment, with a fleeting thought of - "yeez, that a huge yacht" and then moved on, turning my attention back to the matter at hand. Moments later Roy was shouting to me, letting me know he'd found her. I turned around and there he was, pointing to that same rather large, impressive looking yacht I'd just dismissed - That was Paw Paw!!! My first reaction was one of complete disbelieve, which quickly turned to delight. Seeing her for the first time is a moment imprinted in my memory; to be remembered indeed!!!
After a good night sleep, some freshly baked Pain Chocolat and Coffee for breakfast, we attended the debrief session previously planned, did some provisioning at the local French store and spent a great afternoon sailing with the skipper we'd hired to famaliarize ourselves with Paw Paw. After returning to the base, with Paw Paw secured for the night and the sun setting behind the mountains, we cracked open the bottle of champagne to officially christen the newest addition to our family - One we know will keep us safe in all our future travels aboard her.
Our Leopard 46 - hull number 154 has arrived in St Martin to join the fleet of a charter company. Once the US Coast Guard paperwork is complete, the boat will be named Paw Paw hailing from St John - USVI. We have already made arrangements to spend one week in October 2011 and 2 weeks in January 2012 sailing our own boat. Prior to these dates we will be renting a catamaran in San Francisco for some much needed experience.
