Today was spent sailing – the long leg from St. Barths around the southern tip of St. Martin into the bay at Philipsburg then from there around the coast to the Dutch bridge for a quick drop of the hook and lunch and from there to Grand Case. The last part sounds simple, but in actuality we sailed way past the top of St. Martin to the coastline of Anguilla and then back due to the wind direction.
As we sailed by the airport we got to see the effects of the KLM Boeing 747 taking off and blowing sand (and people) off the beach. Some people must be gluttons for punishment as I can imagine that getting sandblasted by hot exhaust gases is no fun at all and potentially pretty dangerous.
After anchoring in Grand Case we had a visit from a gentleman from one of the British boats anchored in the bay. He was rather irate and his little dog, complete with life vest, was yipping and yapping away so that he was hard to understand as he was gesturing and calling out from the dinghy. It turns out that I was inappropriately flying the Union Jack instead of the proper ensign and he took great affront at that. After he left I went about getting my ensign (which was much too small for the boat) reattached to the flagpole and just as I finished that he returned with his old and somewhat tattered ensign that he gave to me – redeeming his rather unseemly remonstrations from earlier.
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