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Diane's Diary2/1 Thursday The wind was really blowing again today so we stayed "home" the entire day doing boat repairs. The holding ground seems pretty good here as it doesn't seem to have a lot of problems with boats dragging. Of course, in this same lagoon they lost over 1200 boats in Hurricane Luis in '95. We heard only about 25 boats survived intact. 2/2 Friday Jenny, from Stage Sea, & I go to Marigot via bus to go shopping. We take the bus back to the Food Center, do some shopping there, & they take us back to Island Water World by bus for free. We go to the SMYC for dinner ($7.50 for bar-b-que) & drinks. 2/3 Saturday Larry & I take the bus to Ace Hardware & get a whole bunch of stuff. We also get our film developed, go to the Price Club (yes, they even have it here in St. Marten except it's called Cost U Less. They even have many of the same products as the US) & supermarket. The big problem is how to get back to the boat via bus & dinghy. You just can't take a lot at each trip unless you have a car or want to pay for an expensive taxi. We also go to the intertnet café & Budget Marine. 2/4 Sunday The wind was really howling again so we stayed inside doing boat repairs. 2/5 Monday Our hatch cover blew off with the huge gusts we are having. The church opens once a week so cruisers can take out a book, plug in their laptop if they have a local connection, or use the sewing machine. So, I make another hatch cover using the churche's machine. That takes a few hours. Our 5 HP goes so slow so we price a new 15HP Yamaha engine- $1544!! But our friend in Venezuela says that same engine would be over $1900 there. We decide to keep our 5HP & see how we survive. We also go over to the Princess to check out their casino. They have a buffet dinner for either $10 or $15 night depending on the night. 2/6 Tuesday A lot of spots seem to open up closer up in the lagoon so we move the boat up closer. We move once but the boat behind us has a very noisy wind generator so we move again. We spent the rest of the day doing boat repairs. Stage Sea & Free Radical come over for drinks. 2/7 Wednesday I had a migraine headache the whole day & didn't feel well. So, I stayed on the boat & read & rested the entire day. 2/8 Thursday I took the bus to Marigot from the Princess hotel. I went to the wine warehouse that some cruiser told me about. good french wine for $2 bottle. Actually, it's pretty good. There are no import duties on anything & since the French side is part of France, wine is a great buy. We want to taste the different kinds so we can buy a lot before we leave. The French side also has great cheeses. Larry hated Brie cheese before this trip but I bought the expensive Brie for about $10 for 2 lbs & he likes that one! We also went swimming at a nice hotel. We asked permission and said we would use the bar to buy any drinks we wanted. They have an outdoor shower so we can shower there too. 2/9 Friday We get a delivery of water via the water boat. It's 14 cents/gallon vs 10 cents in the marina but we would have to take the boat over to the marina so the extra cost is worth the convenience. I also go to the supermarket on the Dutch side. We have dinner & drinks at the SMYC. 2/10 Saturday It starts to really blow again with gusts up to 45 knots!! We spend the day swimming at the hotel, & reading on the boat. 2/11 Sunday Still blowing out! We spend the day on the boat. Then we have cocktails on Stage Sea & go to the Princess for the dinner show. It was only $10 for the dinner & the show. The dinner buffet wasn't great but the show was cute. Definitely worth $10. 2/12 Monday Jenny & I take the bus into Phillipsburg. I buy things at the sewing store. We go to Ace Hardware. We had lunch at McDonald's. Jenny had only been to McDonald's once before in her life! We had a really big gust today that blew out a panel on the dodger. It also knocked the dinghy over as it was hauled up by a halyard. I wish it would stop blowing so much! 2/13 Tuesday I learned how to use the dinghy!!!! Freedom!! Now Larry doesn't have to constantly come & pick me up. I wanted to learn but really didn't want to use it with all this wind. But since the wind hasn't calmed down at all, I just had to learn. However, I will only come into protected dinghy docks since I am not a very good driver yet. Larry went with me over to La Palapa Marina since their dinghy dock is too scary for me at this time. I checked the price to ship things home- over $100 US & that goes to the airport. I would have to pick it up from there! I went to Budget Marine, Island Water World & Simpson Bay Marina all by myself in the dinghy. I visited Stage Sea also. We went to Free Radical at 4pm for drinks & came back to the boat at 8pm. |